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View Full Version : One FOR the conspiracy theorists (sorta)



SmokinLowriderSS
08-12-2005, 05:04 PM
OK, so Howard Dean actually got one right (well, not as right as he would like to have).
"An interesting theory that the President knew about 9/11/01 before it happened!"
Well, turns out he did ... sorta.
US Army Special Forces Inteligence unit (classified) code named "Able Danger" was tasked for 3 years to concentrate on Al-Queda. They located 2 domestic cells, one of which was Mohammad Atta's cell, knew Atta's name, had his picture, and those of 3 others of his cell. They took this info to the pentagon and desired to go to the FBI (and to the administration). They were stopped at the pentagon by administration attorneys who told them 2 things:
1- he is here legally so you cannot touch him, regardless of what he has done
2- We do not want any more political fallout like that taken from the Waco seige of the Branch Davidians.
So, the administration knew of Atta, knew the Army classified him as dangerous and in need if either surveilance , questioning, or both, had his cell named and photo ID'd, and all this was done with public information by computers running some very good data-crunching software. The administration did NOTHING, and we have history as we know it, 3,000 corpses later.
When did this occur? 1999
Which administration? William Jefferson Clinton (1992-2000)
The same guy who refused to take Osama Bin Laden off the market a couple years earlier when offered by the Sudanese.
The 911 commission was not told of this, many people on the comissioner's staffs knew of it as they were briefed, twice, but did not tell them of it.
The staffs stories are changing as rapidly as questions are asked now. Looks suspicious to me. Not briefed, briefed once, briefed twice but dicounted the data, wonder what story is ready for tomorow?

Seadog
08-13-2005, 04:50 AM
The foremost book on the Pearl Harbor attack, At Dawn We Slept, went into depth about the conspiracies theories about what FDR did and did not know. Even after the best studies of documents from both sides, it was shown that we had lapses in intelligence that in hindsight should have been caught, but that it was strictly incompetence or poor interpretation. Nothing nefarious on any of the leaders.
The same situation has occurred here. Too many people worried about the liberal courts and their jobs to do a good job. Too many times of seeing similar situations turn into false alarms. Too many resources going after the wrong intel. Too few on the ground human intel personnel and too much reliance on tech intel. No conspiracy, just stupidity, incompetence and bad luck. Conspiracy is what China got away with during the Clinton legacy.

Freak
08-13-2005, 05:06 AM
The foremost book on the Pearl Harbor attack, At Dawn We Slept, went into depth about the conspiracies theories about what FDR did and did not know. Even after the best studies of documents from both sides, it was shown that we had lapses in intelligence that in hindsight should have been caught, but that it was strictly incompetence or poor interpretation. Nothing nefarious on any of the leaders.
The same situation has occurred here. Too many people worried about the liberal courts and their jobs to do a good job. Too many times of seeing similar situations turn into false alarms. Too many resources going after the wrong intel. Too few on the ground human intel personnel and too much reliance on tech intel. No conspiracy, just stupidity, incompetence and bad luck. Conspiracy is what China got away with during the Clinton legacy.
I agree. Conspiracies = The New Religion. My current idea is that widespread belief in often absurd "conspiracy theories" has sopped up people's religious impulses. I'm not talking about rational inquiry into alternative causes, but uncritical belief. Nobody is actually an athiest. We have a new religion - but it is based on the behavior of powerful humans rather than unseen gods. These mysterious "evil" humans have corrupted an initially perfect world of the past for their own ends. Everything bad is caused by them.
Who is "god" in her religion? People. Instead of a big thunder-being up in the sky making the rain come, sneaky people are in a vast conspiracy. Like the unseen the god, "they" cannot be touched, uncovered, or even seen by lowly mortals. Yet the believer knows that they are there - no mater what the physical evidence is. In their faith, the believer triumphs over those who have not been enlightened.
I believe that the religious impulse is partly innate. Rather than moving beyond religion, as Marx, Skinner, and others hoped we would do, we have simply directed our prayers to a different object. Instead of classical gods, our new gods are people - people with vast, mysterious godlike power.

canuck1
08-13-2005, 08:47 AM
My power is really not that mysterious. :) :cool:
been bitch slapped lately?

SmokinLowriderSS
08-13-2005, 03:44 PM
My wife was just proclaiming my godhood last night. In fact, she was proclaiming her "posession" of me as her own personal god. "Oh, my god!!"
:D :D :D