Ohiocore

Reuters has the rehash from a heretofore undisclosed 9/11 Commission report that found its way to the NYTimes:

The FAA seemed more concerned about airport congestion, delays and safety issues than about security...

The commission report said federal aviation officials reviewed 52 intelligence reports between April and Sept. 10 that warned about Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda.... Officials had amassed so much information about the terrorist threat that they held classified briefings in mid-2001 for security officials at 19 of the busiest U.S. airports to warn of the danger posed in particular by bin Laden.

But how many reports do they get? Is 52 a large amount? The Olympian clarifies: "Nearly half" (52 of 105, i.e. daily briefings really are 1 per day).

Then why now? Didn't the Commission wrap up a long time ago? Yeah, well: "The report was withheld from the public for five months before it was declassified." And it gets worse:

Blacked-out information: The report, completed Aug. 26, was intended as an addendum to the commission's full report. But the Bush administration spent months blacking out material it considered secret. The report was sent to the Archives on Jan. 28 with large chunks deleted. Several commissioners and lawmakers charged that the deletions were unnecessary. "There's nothing affecting national security that I can see in the redactions," says Tom Kean, who chaired the commission.

To be clear, that is the guy the President himself hand-picked for the job, well, after his first choice, Henry Motherhumping Kissinger.

So what is more screwed up about this: the content of the report, or the muzzling of the 9/11 Commission by the same Administration that obviously and repeatedly lied to us on the topic. The Seattle Post Intelligencer shoots straight:

It's difficult to decide which is more outrageous -- federal aviation officials' failure to follow through on intelligence reports before Sept. 11, 2001, that warned of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden using airliner hijackings and suicide operations, or the Bush administration's refusal to let the American public know about it before the November election.

In April last year, President Bush said, "Had I any inkling whatsoever that the people were going to fly airplanes into buildings, we would have moved heaven and earth to save the country. ..." The 9/11 commission report apparently found that there were indeed such inklings, which should have "raised alarms about the growing terrorist threat to civil aviation throughout the 1990s and into the new century."

We're left with a pretty good inkling as to why the president moved heaven and earth to keep it quiet before the election.

A well inked inkling indeed. How should the piece be headlined?

• Unheeded Warnings, Ineptitude and Deceit Confirmed
• It's Official: But How Long Before The Public Forgets Again?
• Nowadays We All Feel Psychic. We Fight Battles of the Mind Against What Is Already Known. Deja Fu.

SPI does us one better: "Truth Held Hostage".

Reuters' Top News Article:

"Actually it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling," said [James] Mattis.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said... "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if Mattis wasn't speaking at a conference as a senior General who led U.S. Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, and commander of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico, VA.

For their part, the Management acted in its traditionally swift and responsible manner:

Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the general as having set a stellar example for troops in his service abroad.

No discipline is expected. After all, where's the problem?

Friends, Nobodies, Countrymen: It is time to get worried.

The BBC reportEd US teens 'reject' key freedoms: "A significant number of US high-school students regard their constitutional right to freedom of speech as excessive, according to a new survey."

If you can't get teenagers to care about free speech, who can you get?