Blogger bares Rumsfeld's post 9/11 orders (The Guardian)

[Up2Late]

(Law Student and blogger, Thad Anderson got Stephen Cambone's notes through FOIA! Maybe their is hope!)

Blogger bares Rumsfeld's post 9/11 orders

Julian Borger in Washington
Friday February 24, 2006
The Guardian

Hours after a commercial plane struck the Pentagon on September 11 2001 the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by one of them. "Hard to get good case. Need to move swiftly," the notes say. "Near term target needs - go massive - sweep it all up, things related and not."

The handwritten notes, with some parts blanked out, were declassified this month in response to a request by a law student and blogger, Thad Anderson, under the US Freedom of Information Act. Anderson has posted them on his blog at outragedmoderates.org .

The Pentagon confirmed the notes had been taken by Stephen Cambone, now undersecretary of defence for intelligence and then a senior policy official. "His notes were fulfilling his role as a plans guy," said a spokesman, Greg Hicks. "He was responsible for crisis planning, and he was with the secretary in that role that afternoon."

The report said: "On the afternoon of 9/11, according to contemporaneous notes, Secretary Rumsfeld instructed General Myers to obtain quickly as much information as possible. The notes indicate that he also told Myers that he was not simply interested in striking empty training sites. He thought the US response should consider a wide range of options.

(more at links below)

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1716840,00.html?gusrc=rss>

[Old and In the Way]

1. Lucky for us Rummy didn't have a obsession with Russia or China

I wonder if his (and Cheney's) warped thinking was a subconscious desire to erase his (their) history of friendship with Saddam in the 80s?

[Up2Late]

5. And don't forget, Saddam tried to kill his (GWB) Daddy!

I'm sure it all was part of it, that and all the money they thought they would make from all that cheap Oil.

[physioex]

7. PNAC

Wolfie, Rummy, Cheney, and Perlie already cooked this up long before 911. This was just the perfect opportunity...

[father_of_hope]

28. they cooked 911 as well

and did a terrible job at it. Only very stupid people still believe those towers came down because of plane crashes.

And the 'crash' at the Pentagon, no plane wreckage! hhahahaha

[Up2Late]

2. Here's the link to the blogger's website!

We should all leave him a "way to go" type message, he'll freak! :evilgrin:
<http://outragedmoderates.org/>

<http://www.outragedmoderates.org/2006/02/dod-staffers-notes-from-911-obtained.html>

[Realityhack]

35. oh good...

now we can 'slashdot' him DU style ;-)

[jbnow]

3. With the odd way they named

the hijackers so quickly, I'm surprised they didn't have a few of them being from Iraq. All the better for bombing them in response.

[Up2Late]

4. It must not have made sense politically.

They had to do Afghanistan first to keep up appearances.

[Fridays Child]

6. He sure was excited to get the ball rolling, wasn't he?

K & R

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. Yeah, almost like he had it all planned beforehand...

:sarcasm: (I'm a believer in MIHOP and have been increasingly convinced over time.)

[MetaTrope]

21. I'm a believer in MIHOP myself...

but this would seem to imply that the junta didn't have their "evidence" ready beforehand, the way they should have.

[mdmc]

44. kick

:dem:

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Too bad he didn't feel any urgency when the attack started

Wolfowitz: We were having a meeting in my office. Someone said a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Then we turned on the television and we started seeing the shots of the second plane hitting, and this is the way I remember it. It's a little fuzzy.

Q: Right.

Wolfowitz: There didn't seem to be much to do about it immediately and we went on with whatever the meeting was. Then the whole building shook. I have to confess my first reaction was an earthquake. I didn't put the two things together in my mind. Rumsfeld did instantly.

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030509-depsecdef0223.html


Rummie didn't lift a finger to respond to the attack until after the Pentagon was hit, then he couldn't be found until after 10:00AM because he supposedly was pulling bodies out of the rubble. Odd, since Rummie had changed the rules of engagement in June, 2001 so that he was the only one who could order fighters up to go after hijacked planes, but when hijacked planes were apparently flying around the US, he felt there was nothing he could do about it.

[bagrman]

40. WE all know that something hit the Pentagon but it wasn't a plane.

It's to bad that the same story is repeated time and time again about the attack on the Pentagon, and no one wants to face. There is no photographic evidence that a plane hit the Pentagon, none. Of all the claims not a single photo of 757 parts is available. The film showing somthing hit the building when mathmatically scrutinized shows that the object was moving at over Mach 4, that weren't no jet. The entire jet was consumed by the fire but the dead were ID'd by finger prints, I don't think so.

So are you ready for the next one, cause everyone is buying the 9/11 story thats out there. Repubs are going to be in big trouble by the time the next election comes around so to keep control there'll be another attack , worse than the last one, and guess what we'll have to suspend elections for the sake of saving the Republic. And look at the crock of crap that we're stuck with.

Start with www.reopen911.org and investigate 9/11 yourself, if you don't believe me, prove me wrong,please.\\

Latr
bagrman

[xchrom]

9. k & r

[lanlady]

11. tied to anthrax

The Adminstration put out word after 9/11 that Saddam was behind the anthrax scare. A lot of people in DC believed that, even though it didn't make a bit of sense. (Why the hell would Saddam send anthrax to Patrick Leahy?) But it was probably part of a scheme to whip up support for bombing Iraq at the same time as Afghanistan.

[rodeodance]

12. "notes confirm that Baghdad was in the Pentagon's sights" immediately.

"The secretary said his instinct was to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time, not only Bin Laden. Secretary Rumsfeld later explained that at the time he had been considering either one of them, or perhaps someone else, as the responsible party."

The actual notes suggest a focus on Saddam. "Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit SH at same time - not only UBL ," the notes say. "Tasks. Jim Haynes to talk with PW for additional support ... connection with UBL."

Mr Wolfowitz, now the head of the World Bank, advocated regime change in Iraq before 2001. But, according to an account of the days after September 11 in Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack, a decision was taken to put off consideration of an attack on Iraq until after the Taliban had been toppled in Afghanistan.

But these notes confirm that Baghdad was in the Pentagon's sights almost as soon as the hijackers struck........

[myrna minx]

13. Methinks Richard Clarke is owed an apology.

*crickets*

[Up2Late]

27. Good point! We should all write our favorite news outlet & point this out.

[sattahipdeep]

14. Fran Townsend -- Impressions? --Anyone--

White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend

"Though there will be tragedies we cannot prevent, we can improve our preparedness
and response to reduce future loss and preserve life," Townsend wrote in a letter
to President Bush included in the report.

She said the transformation envisioned by the report "will require a sustained
commitment over time by the federal government as well as by state and local
governments that have essential duties in responding to disasters."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/23/ap/politics/mainD8FUSI808.shtml

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/townsend-bio.html



Fran Townsend
She served as deputy to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno from 1995 to 1998
and headed the Justice Department's office of intelligence policy and review
from 1998 to 2002. In this interview she describes the FBI infighting over the
1998 embassy bombings investigation and the conflict between O'Neill and the
U.S. ambassador to Yemen during the probe of the USS Cole attack.
Townsend also recounts how high the fear was of a potential terrorist attack
at the millennium after the arrest of Ahmed Ressam at the Canadian border.
This interview was conducted on May 30, 2002.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/interviews/townsend.html

"Lessons learned"? John O'Neill :patriot:

[NJCher]

15. site has all the notes

Even though they have scans of pages of the notes, I still took it into Photoshop to blow it up and read it. It wasn't big enough at the site to really examine it well, I didn't think. Quite interesting to see how the notetaker wrote so quickly to get it all down. In places he made mistakes and interestingly enough, they are Freudian-like. For example, he mispells "judge" originally and then rewrites it correctly below.

Kudos to this blogger.




Cher

[stop the bleeding]

16. Too bad no news outlets here in the US have picked this up yet

K&R!

[Tracer]

17. This isn't new.

I've read that "go massive - sweep it all up" quote many times.

I believe that it was even in Richard Clarke's book.

[Up2Late]

29. Yes, but if you remember, the Fox/Rove spin machine called...

...the claim ludicrous, and basically call Richard Clark a LW Wacko.

This is physical proof that Clark was telling the truth and Rummy and all those who called him a liar ARE the actual liars!.

[welshTerrier2]

39. here's a link to a DU post about this from last August

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2034387&mesg_id=2034542

i think there were others that go back way before that ...

[seafan]

18. Here is the image of the notes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66726692@N00/100545349/

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. How did we know so soon that Bin Laden was behind 9-11???

I have thought about this and have never heard the answer. Was there a specific event that made everyone know that it was him? It just always struck me that they found out so soon, and I don't recall ever hearing about anyone saying they were responsible until much later on. Forgive my ignorance if I am the only one who doesn't know this.

[babylonsister]

20. I have grave doubts whether he was 'the mastermind' or not.

Wasn't he getting medical treatment? And, has he ever really admitted to being 'the mastermind'?

[yostsghost]

22. Al Franken goes over this

in his book Truth..with jokes. The war on terror was never about Bin Laden. We invaded Afganistan just to make it seem to John Q tax payer that we were actualy going after him. The NeoCons have been planning this invasion(Iraq) since before the 1st Gulf War.Wolfowitz has been having wet dreams about this for decades. Rummy and the rest of the foot soldiers saw 9/11 as a door opening.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

24. but this transcript from 9-11 afternoon already says UBL. How did

they know about UBL that quickly?

[goforit]

43. Yes, agreed, and is further evidenced by the 911 mihop fiasco!

And to think....cheney just saw blood for the first time
when he shot his hunting buddy.

His first real shock and Awe.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. I think he pretty much did during that video of him sitting around

at a visit with other Talibans.

But just from a citizen's perspective, do you remember exactly when you heard that it was UBL? I really don't. But it did seem like it was very, very soon after 9-11. And this transcipt shows Rumsfeld knew that afternoon of 9-11.

Now, unless UBL called someone, like some bombers do, and claimed resposibility early that afternoon, how the hell did they know it was him? Unless they knew it was going to happen?

I have wondered about this since 9-11.

[davekriss]

47. O you mean the fat "Osama", that video

Have you never seen an analysis of the facial features of the fat, short nosed, false Osama in the "mea culpa" video vs. all other pictures and the lean, aquiline features of the real Osama?

I don't know if Al Qaeda was responsible or not, whether it was Incredible Incompetence (on the part of the Bush administration), LIHOP, or MIHOP (note that there's nothing remotely positive for Bush on that continuum), but I am certain that the video where OBL is sitting with an Afghani friend, boasting how none of the hijackers knew the full extent of the mission until the morning of, and how he knew there would be massive destruction but he didn't expect the buildings to collapse -- that video is false, PSYOP disinformation released by an unidentified source.

[davsand]

25. 9/11 was planned by some guy over his cell phone...

While he was hooked up to a portable dialysis machine in a CAVE someplace.

Remember, not only did he plan that coordinated and time specific attack over his cell phone, while he was sick and hiding in a cave, but he also managed to take time to play the stock markets so as to benefit financially from it...

:think:

If you are buying THAT one, I have a bridge to sell you.

--Turning sarcasm off now--

There was stuff in the media on the day of the attacks that said they found flight manuals in a rental car at one of the airports along with some stuff written in Arabic, I think. I don't remember the exact details, but I DO remember saying at the time, "They are gonna try and spin this that it was connected to Middle Eastern terrorists."

Does anyone ELSE remember that?


Laura

[seafan]

26. I'm vague about manuals found at the airports, but some were found in FL.

From September, 2001 issue of TIME:

In Florida, the FBI picked up a discarded tote bag at the Panther Motel, where Al-Shehhi stayed during the past two weeks. Its contents: maps, flight manuals and martial-arts books.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wplot.html

[davekriss]

48. Yes, manuals found at either Logan or Bangor

(Was it Bangor? the 5am originating flight in Maine.) They found a Koran and a flight manual and personal belongings in a rental car parked in long-term parking. It's late or I'd find a link for you; instead I ask you google it up.

[seafan]

30. Because Clinton, Richard Clarke and others forewarned * in January, 2001.

Yes, I was amazed too, that by the evening of Sept, 11, and certainly by the next day, *Co were acting like they already were sure it was OBL and were making rapid plans to invade Afghanistan. People were impressed with the *decisiveness* and *quick action* by Fearless Leader. (Ya gotta act FAST on that revenge thing...:eyes: )



So, it all makes sense now, Afghanistan was just * "swatting at flies" until he could redeploy troops secretly out of Afghanistan and into Iraq, beginning just 2-3 months after the Sept 11 attacks, in preparation for his contrived invasion. That was the REAL action * WANTED.

Remember that Senator Bob Graham (Chairman of Senate Intel Comm'tee at the time) said that on February 19, 2002, General Tommy Franks called him to come to his office at Centcom in Tampa, to take him behind closed doors to tell Graham that * was pulling troops out of fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and was sending them massively and quietly to Iraq. (pp. 122-127 in Graham's book, Intelligence Matters.)

Yes, Afghanistan was just *'s cover, to make what he really intended to do in Iraq, *seem* legitimate. So, * mucked around in Afghanistan, got some photos plastered all over tv of our troops riding horses across the desert with Northern Alliance soldiers.... and even managed to allow OBL to escape out of the mountains of Tora Bora, while our troops never were ordered to capture him....


This administration will be remembered, hands down, the single most destructive to our nation and to our world, in history.

[RedSock]

32. notes also mention 3 hijackers had been followed

Notes also mention that 3 of the hijackers on Flight 77 had been watched since the Cole bombing.


AA77 - 3 indiv have been followed
since Millenium & Cole
1 guy is ascoc of Cole bomber
2 entered US in early July
(2 of 3 pulled aside & interrogated?)

*********

Does he mean pulled aside in the airport on 9/11 -- because we know that happened.

Very interesting admission here.

[Up2Late]

31. He was the key suspect because of his past attacks in Africa in 1998

which he did take responsibility for, which is when most of the U.S. "intelligence" agencies started tracking him heavily.

They all knew who he was, from all the times they publicly criticized President Clinton for not getting him, which they claim, would have stopped the U.S.S. Cole attack in Yemen.

No matter what you hear, 9/11 was caused by Bush and all his buddies "taking their eye off the ball" as they say in sports. If they had gotten to work on DAY 1 (January 20,2001), and listened to the transitional briefings the out-going Clinton officials were trying to give them, instead of taking a 9 month long "victory lap" (because of their victory in Bush v.Gore) and selling their Tax Cuts for their Rich friends, 9/11 would, most likely, not have happened, or would not have been as bad.

You should check out any of the pre and post 9/11 documentaries at the FRONTLINE website, especially the one about FBI Agent John O'Neill <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/> The video is still on-line.

No matter how they try to spin it, 9/11 was cause by the Bush Cabal's failure to take the threat of International Terrorism seriously. Now the talk like they do, but they still don't.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/>

This one ("Hunting Bin Laden") first aired September 13, 2001, I haven't seen the video (it's not on-line anymore) but I can tell you for sure, FRONTLINE does NOT throw together a documentary in 2 days, and if Frontline had enough info to put together an hour long documentary on Osama bin Laden, the info was out there. I'm not going to take a side on LIHOP or MIHOP, but they should have kept better track of this guy.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/>

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/2001.html>

Truth, War, and Consequences (Oct. 09, 2003)
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/truth/>

The War Behind Closed Doors (Feb. 20, 2003)
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/>

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/2003.html>

Plus many more, FRONTLINE is great!

[kayice]

34. B*shCo.'s narcissisms doesn't allow themselves to listen to anyone.

[Ignacio Upton]

38. I came to the conclusion myself because I hadread about Bin Laden

ever since the 1998 East African Embassy Bombings. I remember on 9/11 people I knew were randomly saying that Saddam was involved, and I would shake my head because I had read from time to time about who Osama was. Although before 9/11 I didn't know nearly as much about him as now, I did know that Al Qaida was probably the only group with the capacity of doing something like this, while if Saddam had personally orchestrated it he would be booted out of power in days or weeks, which gave him an incentive NOT to try something.

[Kali]

33. I will never forget seeing those criminals onTV

that day. Rummy and boosh and ashcroft - they looked like three used car salesmen at a whore house - they KNEW they were gonna be able to do whatever the hell they wanted now. They had freaking HARD-ONS!!!

[Realityhack]

36. Can we extredite the entire admin to the hague

for crimes against humanities yet???

[DoYouEverWonder]

37. Someday

n/t

[Trevelyan]

41. Congressman Curt Weldon even recently has been trying to get the Able

Danger intelligence group to testify before Congress about the year-long warnings they did about 911 to Bushco. He needs our support.

[goforit]

42. All to fill their pockets full of cash and power.

[IndianaGreen]

45. Rumsfeld's Number 3 wanted a Pearl Harbor incident prior to 9/11

And this is from a rightwing website:

Dov Zakheim, called for a 'Pearl Harbor' type of incident

In a document called "Rebuilding America's Defenses" published by The American Enterprise's "Project for a New American Century"(1), SPC International executive, Dov Zakheim, called for a 'Pearl Harbor' type of incident being necessary to foster the frame of mind needed for the American public to support a war in the Middle East that would politically and culturally reshape the region. A respected and established voice in the intelligence community, his views were eagerly accepted, and Dov went from his position at Systems Planning Corporation to become the Comptroller of the Pentagon in May 2001. (2) Tridata, a subsidiary of Systems Planning Corporation, was in charge of the investigation after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.

http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=consp_911&Number=293364205

[lovuian]

46. They had Iraq's oil in their sites all along!!!

Poppy Bush never finished the job he started!!!

[mdmc]

49. lihop