Well. That was indeed an eye-opening day of testimonial. I think Rice's failure to represent herself during the televised portion of the interviews will hurt her popularity as a member of Cabinet. Frankly, I find myself more apt to agree with Clarke in most his statements. His dialogue with the committee seemed very believable, in that he wasnt stuttering, or pondering to himself before answering every question. This lead me to believe that he was being honest in his analysis of the situation. It seemed the information was coming straight from his own mind, rather then a prepared set of statements from a group helping him.

The fact is, I personally believe that the Bush Adminstration wasn't PROACTIVE in their dealing with the threats received in early 2001 that there would be a terrorist strike against New York. 2 members of the 2001 Trade Center bombings were known illegals living in the USA. Unfortunately, because they didnt have daily updates, or larger-scale investigation into the threats, the FBI never pieced this information together.

I think its pretty telling of the naive stance the Bush Camp took when they took office from the Clinton Administration, who according to Clarke were very much involved in daily talks about potential terrorist strikes against the US. Including a prevented strike intended to wipe out the LAX Airport in Los Angeles. With that said, you cant actually blame them for not preventing 9-11, but you sure as hell can blame them for not being more PROACTIVE. Which in the game of Counter-terrorism, is your only hope of defense.

I was wondering what some of you feel about the situation. Whether you think its even worth discussing, or whether you feel its a complete failure on the part of Bush's camp, or perhaps you feel they did everything possible, given the situation.

I would like to also point out, that family members of people killed in the 9-11 attacks, left the room in disgust after being told the Bush Admin was much less dilligent in their attempts to prevent this then the Clinton Admin was.
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We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.