WTF Is It Now?!?

Max Cleland speaks out on the 9/11 report
"... the 9/11 Commission was deliberately slow-walked, because the Administration's policy was, and its priority was, we're gonna take Saddam Hussein out."

"The joint intelligence inquiry, the executive summary, was available December 10th. Why did it take nine months to go over what ought to be held out of that? Now, I'm saying that that was slow-walked. I am also saying why did it take eight months to get this 9/11 Commission really cranked up and going, and the first step was to use the Intelligence Committee report as a jumping off point? Why did all of this take so long?

"Because the real priority of the White House was not the 9/11 Commission — they fought it. And it was just, and it really was their interest was to delay the revelation of this report. One of the reasons they didn't want it is they didn't want all this stuff out there."

"Who declared war on the country? It was Osama bin Laden, and his terrorist cadre. And Islamic fanatics. That's what 9/11 was all about. It was not about Saddam Hussein. Who has the worst or, the greatest… who is the greatest threat in the world today to us, in terms of weapons of mass destruction? It's not Saddam Hussein. It's North Korea. So, why are we making this big deal? We should've found Osama bin Laden. We should've destroyed his network around the world. That was gonna take time.

"It wasn't gonna make headlines. You can't do that war in three weeks, and say 'Major combat's over.'"

"But look at what's happening. The Administration, the White House, has put several blocks in the road. One, they run all the information to the 9/11 Commission through a political coordinator in Ashcroft's Justice Department. Duh. Why's that?

"Secondly, they want to put minders — that's people who sit in the room when we have an interview with people in NSA, FBI, CIA, Department of… in DIA — in the Pentagon, and Immigration and Naturalization Services. They want to put minders in there. That to shut down information. That's not to reveal information." - Max Cleland, member of the 9/11 Commission, on PBS's NOW, 7/25/03.