Keith Olbermann isn't going to be intimidated by conservative terrorists threatening him.
In this segment, he carefully lays out a devastating indictment of the Bush Administration's handling -- or lack of handling -- of the Al Qaeda threat. Go watch it. From Ari Fleischer being asked by a reporter on 2/27/01 to Sen. Carl Levin's statement of concern on 6/21/01 that the Administration's focus on missile defense was trivializing the threat from terrorists such as those who bombed the U.S.S. Cole, to former National Commission on Terrorism Chairman Paul Bremer saying in February 2001, "What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, 'Oh my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this?'", Olbermann lays out his case methodically, relying on the facts to prove his damning point -- that is is George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, who looked the other way. It is George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, who had incidents like the Cole and Khobar Towers bombing behind him as a point of reference in formulating terrorism policy. It is George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, who ignored documented warnings by Richard Clarke and Sandy Berger, of the immediate threat caused by terrorism. It is George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, who responded to a Presidential Daily Briefing headlined "Bin Laden Determined to Strike In U.S." was met with the dismissive response, "OK, you've covered your ass now." It is on George W. Bush's watch, not Bill Clinton's, that an NSA intercept on September 10, 2001, following that August 6 PDB and numerous reports from FBI agents that Middle Eastern men were learning to fly commercial jetliners, but not take off or land, at flight schools across the country. And it is George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, who, in the face of all of this history, STILL chose to continue with a photo-op in an elementary school even after hearing that the first plane had hit the World Trade Center, and who continued to sit in a classroom full of children for seven minutes after hearing that the second plane had hit.
To the wingnuts who for unexplained reason feel compelled to visit this blog: Watch this segment. Note the dates well. You may still want Bill Clinton to bear some of the blame for not doing enough to stop Osama Bin Laden, and he has shown that he is willing to shoulder the responsibility for that. But your guy, this appallingly ineffective president that you worship with a fervor even Jesus Christ himself would envy, is the one who had enough information to take action, and he STILL dropped the ball. And that's the charitable view. All the willful delusion in the world and all the white powder sent to a journalist who dares to speak the truth in an attempt to get him to shut up don't change that inescapable fact. Maybe the White House thinks that we're an empire and as a result we can create our own reality. But here outside the White House, this so-called empire is resembling the Fall of Rome every day, and cold, hard, facts form the true reality.