From the Washington Post.

Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the commission headed by Kean, noted..., as others have previously, that some terrorists had expired visas, that all eluded aviation security and that there was miscommunication between intelligence agencies that may have kept authorities from following clues to the attacks. "If any of these things hadn't happened, it might have been a different story," he said.

Kean is not the first public official to suggest that the attacks might have been prevented. After a lengthy investigation by a joint panel of the House and Senate intelligence committees concluded last summer, Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) co-chairman of the panel, said that the attacks of Sept. 11 "could have been prevented if the right combination of skill, cooperation, creativity and some good luck had been brought to task."

Give me a F**king break. A tree falling on your car is also preventable.

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From theSeventh public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States

PASSPORTS
Before 9/11, the FBI and CIA did know of some of the practices employed by al Qaeda. They knew this from training manuals recovered in the mid-1990s and from tracking and interrogations of al Qaeda operatives. Some of this knowledge was revealed in individual criminal cases prosecuted in the United States in the 1990s. And yet, between 1992 and September 11, 2001, we have not found any signs that intelligence, law enforcement, or border inspection services sought to acquire, develop, or disseminate systematic information about al Qaeda’s or other terrorist groups’ travel and passport practices. Thus, such information was not available to consular, immigration, or customs officials who examined the hijackers’ passports before 9/11.

VISAS
Beginning in 1997, the 19 hijackers submitted 24 applications and received 23 visas. The pilots acquired most of theirs in the year 2000. The other hijackers, with two exceptions, obtained their s between the fall of 2000 and June 2001. Two of the visas were issued in Berlin, and two were issued in the United Arab Emirates. The rest were issued in Saudi Arabia. One of the pilots, Hani Hanjour, had an application denied in September 2000 for lack of adequate documentation. He then produced more evidence in support of his student visa application, and it was approved. Except for Hanjour, all the hijackers sought tourist visas.
Of these 24 visa applications, four were destroyed routinely along with other documents

STUDENT VISAS

By the late 1980s the INS had established a Student/School System to track students, but the system did not work. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, when it was discovered that a participant in the plot had been a student who had overstayed his visa, the Department of Justice asked INS to devise a better way to track students. INS officials recommended a new student
tracking system and a student ID card that used biometric identifiers.
In 1996, Congress mandated a new system to be installed by 1998, without appropriating program funds. The INS scraped together $10 million and piloted a successful student tracking program in the Atlanta area in June 1997, which included a flight school. However, advocates of education interests argued that the program would be burdensome and costly. Upon the order of senior INS management, the project manager was replaced. In 1998, INS indefinitely deferred testing of the biometric student ID card. The program stalled. Senators declared an interest in repealing the 1996 law and soughtto obstruct further INS funding for it. Thus, when Atta and al Shehhi lied when questioned about their student status on their reentries in January 2001, and whenHanjour failed to show up for the school for which he was issued a visa in December 2000, a student tracking system was far from available to immigration inspectors or agents.

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The more you read, the more it looks like when Clinton handed the keys to bush – the oil light was on.

Well, if Clinton knew, Bush would have known. Is that correct? I believe you accused Clinton of knowing, and doing nothing.

If Clinton knew of plans for 9-11, as you imply, he would have learned through diplomatic channels or intelligence. Assume Clinton did have specific information. Somewhere in the transition BUSH WOULD HAVE ALSO HAVE BEEN TOLD. And had 8 or so months to do something about it.

I asked you before, what you thought bush “knew” and you didn’t answer. Let me answer for you, they were both aware of a danger. If there were specific threats then- either man would have dealt with them directly.

From the time Clinton took office, to the events of 9/11, Clinton was behind the wheel for 96 months and Bush for 8 months. If our whole system was flawed like the commission is suggesting then which leader had the greatest opportunity to correct it?

If GWB was so all fired interested in counter-terrorism, Ashcroft would not have proposed a cut in the spending the Clinton Administration proposed, would he?

Why should Bush be “so all fire interested in counter-terrorism”? Obviously his predecessor wasn’t. (not a Clinton dig, refers to the prevailing attitude)

Bush won't tell Rice to take an oath, to testify publicly.
I think it would be much more informative to require Clinton and Gore’s testimony to be made public,
don’t you?