By Brian Carnell

Monday, June 10, 2002

David Corn and Michael Albert have both written excellent articles in recent weeks seeking to debunk the "Bush knew" conspiracy theory which seems to be all the rage these days over at IndyMedia and other places.

Albert eloquently captures the hypocrisy of civil libertarians who are now shocked that the FBI didn't racially profile Arab flight school students or that the CIA did not more closely share information with the FBI. Albert writes,

Of course these agencies lack competence. Moreover, what good does demonstrating the incompetence of U.S. intelligence agencies do peace and justice? Should bolstering surveillance budget allotments be a new progressive program plank?

. . .

So why is any leftist caught up in the hypocritical democratic party and media maven hoopla? When TV news allots massive time to a story vaguely correlated to progressive concerns, must we immediately hop on board?

The irony is that the question "what did Bush know before 9/11?" may be the only "what did he know" question that Bush can answer without revealing a grotesque value system.

Bush can say, for example, "I knew that our intelligence services reported numerous threats, just as they have reported at all other times. I did not, in response, shut down transportation and communication because if I did, the next day I would have heard ten times as many threats, and thereafter I would have had to permanently shut down all communications and transportation, if I accepted that approach."

This is also the answer Democrats would give, were Democrats in the White House for the event. And it is the answer the media mavens would give, were the media not concerned to put some brakes on the Bush juggernaut.

Okay, if the government knew that planes might soon be flown into the sides of skyscrapers, then instructions to pilots and even to passengers should have been different, sure. And maybe some politicians are sincerely concerned to correct these failings--it's possible. But none of that makes expanding CIA spending a leftist agenda.

It has been especially odd watching allegedly liberal newspaper columnists twist and turn to chastise law enforcement. Recently, for example, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd complained that the 9/11 terrorist attacks might have been prevented if the FBI had only not been so "timid about racial profiling." Yeah, because historically the Times and Dowd have been big supporters of racial profiling.

Recent complaints what law enforcement agencies did or did not know before 9/11 have also focused on the failure of the FBI and the CIA to regularly exchange information. It is as if the 1973 Church Committee hearings never took place.

Sources:

The September 11 X-Files. David Corn, The Nation, May 30, 2002.

When 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Go Bad. David Corn, AlterNet, March 1, 2002.

What Did Bush Know, When? Michael Albert, ZNet, May 22, 2002.

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