Do you think 9/11 would have happened under Gore?

[ck4829]

I've been hearing talk from various people: "Imagine, what the country would be like if 9/11 happened under Gore."

Well, let's take a look at that: "if 9/11 happened under Gore."

If Al Gore were President, John Ashcroft wasn't Attorney General, Condoleezza Rice wasn't National Security Advisor, Dick Cheney wasn't Vice President, and who-else and what-not in their positions; would 9/11 have happened at all if the Democrats were in the White House?

[kentuck]

1. I'm not sure but...

I tend to think it may have been prevented...

[Padraig18]

2. Probably so.

I think we're deluding ourselves about the nature and extent of the problem, if we think it wouldn't have happened under Gore.

:shrug:

[Ducks In A Row]

3. It wouldn't have happened

He would have continued the work he and Clinton had been doing for 8 years.

[Hoping4Change]

4. No. I really don't think so because he would have had people

one top of the threats that were present in the summer of 2001.


He would have been "shaking the trees" to use Richard Clarke's metaphor. Bushco poo-poo'd the threats and paid no heed to all people running around with their hair on fire. That sheer wilful blindness would not have been tolerated by Gore.

[Th1onein]

5. No, I don't.

eom

[emulatorloo]

6. Probably Not - Gore respected Richard Clarke, and they would have

"shaken the trees" rather than vacationing. Gore would have understood the Aug PDB, and not thought it was "historical." Etc Etc Etc

Who can say for sure, but they would have tried harder to stop it.

[indepat]

12. I suspect they would have taken every possible step to thwart the

attacks, followed every lead, and likely would have been successful in thwarting most, if not all, the attacks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. No.

Gore isn't a stupid arrogant idiot with an Iraqi fixation and neocon agenda. He would have looked at the intelligence reports and thwarted the hijackers. And if one plane had somehow crashed into one of the towers, no other planes would have. Gore would have been in control immediately and dealt decisively with the crisis.

[warrior1]

8. No

he would have been paying attention.

[CaTeacher]

10. No--it wouldn't have happened.

Once President Gore started sitting down and TALKING to world leaders---things would have been a lot different. When the US listens and communicates with activist groups--then they have no need to take extreme action.

[blm]

9. The Hart-Rudman Report would have been ACTED UPON in Jan.2001...

and therein lies the difference.

[WildClarySage]

34. My thoughts exactly

[concord]

11. Nope (eom)

[Mikimouse]

13. No, would not have happened...but then...

no one in the Gore administration would have threatened the Taliban with a 'carpet of bombs' either (pipeline related threat).

[eaprez]

14. Gore would have read the intelligence briefs

.....and probably taken the same action Clinton did in callig his cabinet together and telling them to make something happen!!!!

[Mikimouse]

18. I agree completely, I have argued this point many times with others

not on this board, and been soundly reamed for my thoughts that it would not have happened under a Gore administration. I am fairly well convinced that * in the White House was something of a trigger, as the rest of the world (and especially parts of the Arab world) had a very good idea what the POS was going to do long before he stole the offcie.

[TexasBushwhacker]

15. August PDB - "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. "

I don't think that title would have been disregarded by Gore and his staff.

[unblock]

16. gore would have given the shootdown order

and we would have known the truth. i believe that that last flight was shot down just as the passengers were struggling to regain control. the idea that they were shot down when they still had a chance was a story the reich didn't want, so they suppressed it. but with gore as president, the truth would have come out.

gore would have gone straight to white house, and given a national address that same evening from manhattan.

and everything from 9/12 forward would have been different.

one thing for sure, there would never have been a war in iraq.
afghanistan, yes, but not iraq.

nor would we have the deficit that we have now. iraq and the tax cut have killed the budget.

can you imagine how the economy would be doing if there had been a balanced budget or surplus for 6 consecutive years? or maybe if we used the surplus for a CONSTRUCTIVE domestic spending package?

[WildClarySage]

35. The lack of social services cuts

might have meant that I still had a job, too. And the other potentials lost are sobering. CHIPS, funds for law enforcement, housing, and so forth. * fucked this country royally.

[thistle]

17. The '93 World trade Ctr and the Cole incident were both under Clinton,

and he was a Democrat. Also, the planning for 9/11 probably started even before Mr. Bush stole the 2000 election.

On the other hand, if the conspiracy theories are true, and Mr Bush really did "let it happen on purpose," then maybe Gore would not have done that, so the terrorists would have tried to attack but it would have been prevented.

What I mean is, Mr. Gore would NEVER have let this awful thing happen on purpose!

[CaTeacher]

23. weren't there also attacks in Africa

(on our embassys?). Terrorism really was getting a lot worse--and it was like we really weren't even aware of it.

[Mikimouse]

26. And, there were successful prosecutions of the

people who were involved in the '93 WTC attacks, and action taken against the perpetrators of the Cole attack, as soon as it was determined who those perpetrators were. Neither Clinton nor Gore would have been sending out scattershots of revenge; Moreover, they would have taken actions that were consistent with International Law.

[unblock]

19. more to the point, would republicans have forgiven gore?

if gore were president and terrorists hit the economic center and military headquarters of the united states,

would they have excused gore, saying that no one could have imagined it; and, supported gore, saying that they would be traitors to do otherwise?

[thistle]

20. (Never Mind!)

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. No I don't

They shudder at the thought of what the Country would be like if 9/11 happened under Gore? Well we don't have to imagine what the Country would be like if 9/11 happened under *. Because it did and we are living through his incompetency, both before and after. I've heard this comment before, it always pisses me off. And what is the point of it anyway? Are they admitting that Gore really won the election? Sounds like it.

[scarletwoman]

22. No, because Gore wasn't part of the PNAC who needed a "new Pearl Harbor"

The neo-con theft of the election is what made the 9/11 attacks inevitable, they aided and abetted the plot in order for their agenda to reach fruition.

sw

[DenverDem]

25. Thank you.

We have a winner.

[scarletwoman]

27. Thank YOU!

I've long ago realized that the glare from my :tinfoilhat: tends to put people off, so it's very nice to hear from someone who understands where I'm coming from. :hi:

sw

[VOX]

30. Yes. The sad truth is yes.

The very fact that Pearl Harbor was invoked in that document is mind-boggling, and, IMO, quite damning.

[scarletwoman]

36. Someone else who "gets it"

Thank you also!

sw

[kaitykaity]

24. No.

No way.

No way Gore threatens the Taliban with a carpet of gold or
a carpet of bombs.

No way John P. O'Neill gets "fired" from his obsessive hunt
for Osama bin Laden.

No way anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke gets demoted from the
inner circle to Chief of Cyber-Security.

And even if the first plane hits Tower 1, no way Gore's FAA
wouldn't have had fighters in the air shooting down those other
three planes.

And on and on and on and on and on.

[VOX]

28. No. In 1996, Gore identified many of the avation security threats...

So he was acutely aware of many of the underlying causes.

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/212fin~1.html
White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security
FINAL REPORT
VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE, CHAIRMAN
FEBRUARY 12, 1997
<snip>
To improve and promote passenger profiling, the Commission recommends three steps. First, FBI, CIA, and BATF should evaluate and expand the research into known terrorists, hijackers, and bombers needed to develop the best possible profiling system. They should keep in mind that such a profile would be most useful to the airlines if it could be matched against automated passenger information which the airlines maintain.
<snip>
- - - - - - - -
But if there had been a large-scale terrorist attack during President Gore's watch, it's for damn sure he wouldn't have sat in a schoolroom, staring into space dumbfoundedly for SEVEN minutes.

Gore is a man of decisive action, and many, many lives would probably have been saved.

[flordehinojos]

29. The response to 9-11 might have been, WOULD have been a very different one

First of all "The president and other top officials in charge of defending the country from attack" would not have been missing in action on the morning of 9-11.

They would not have waited until all four of the hijacked planes had crashed into their targets to be in communication with one another to launch a response to the hijacked planes.

Maybe the red flags of the PDB of August 6th might have been picked up by alert ears and seriously taken by a President committed to doing his job, (as opposed to a Resident more committed to clearing brush in Crawford) and the CRIMINAL ASSAULT on all four targets on the morning of 9-11 might have been STOPPED OR PREVENTED.

AND FOR SURE ... there would not be a PATRIOT ACT today. DEMOCRACY WOULD NOT BE UNDER SIEGE BY OUR OWN GOVERNMENT. GORE WOULD NOT BE IMPLEMENTING THE WORKINGS OF THE DICTATORSHIP NOW IN PLACE IMPLEMENTED BY THE BUSH FAMILY EVIL EMPIRE.

9-11 was a tragedy indeed but the tragedy goes beyond the falling of the twin towers and the dying of the people in it... the deeper tragedy in it all is that the Bush administration, a compliant congress, and a bought media have all conspired to turn us into a Big Brother is Watching You, Dictatorship!

With Gore at the helm there would not have been the state of paranoia which permeates our country today. With Gore at the helm the flowers in the field would still be flowers in the field, the coffee brewing in the morning would still smell like coffee brewing in the morning.
The country would have taken a turn towards healing its wound rather than a turn towards pouring salt on the wounds, making them greater and the country more divided.

Gore would not have been looking forward to billing himself as THE WAR PRESIDENT...and preventive wars may not even be part of our vocabulary.

I doubt that with Gore at the helm God could be bought or sold, or that communion in the Catholic Church would be reserved only for those who signed on to the right wing agendas of misguided bishops who lack understanding of the love of God for His people.

With Gore at the helm the sense of COMMUNITY BETWEEN PEOPLE would be the prevailing one rather than the sense which prevails in our country today that, HE WHO HOLDS THE MOST COINS IN HIS POCKET, OR IN HIS BANK ACCOUNT is superior in human quality to those whose pockets or bank accounts hold less coins.

9-11 would probably not have happened at all under Al Gore ... but if it had, the response to it and the world we are living in as a result of it would be so different from that of what the Bush response to 9-11 has been, or the world that the Bush response to 9-11 has created.





:hippie:

[LiberalCat]

31. No.

for all of the reasons already mentioned.

[gulliver]

32. Nope, but they would be impeaching him right now.

It would have been reported as a minor achievement when the FBI under Gore connected the dots and broke up the hijacker ring.

Something like this:

Al Qaeda Plan Foiled (headline)
The FBI today arrested 19 Al Qaeda sympathizers said to have been in the late stages of planning a coordinated hijacking of multiple airplanes. Reportedly, the would-be hijackers intended to attempt to crash jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Republican leaders suggested that the Gore Administration was exaggerating the threat of the Al Qaeda cell in an attempt to shift attention from the impeachment proceedings taking shape in the Republican House of Representatives.

"Mr. Gore lied when he said that the Buddhist Temple event was not a fundraiser," said Congressman Tom DeLay (R, Sugarland TX). "It's funny that we didn't hear anything about 'Al Qaeda hijackers' before we began impeachment proceedings. The timing of this announcement is certainly suspect, but then, that's how Clinton ... er Gore ... operates. There's no way 19 guys are going to crash planes into American buildings. This is all a smokescreen by Gore to save his presidency."

[2Design]

33. no

[Ms. Clio]

37. No n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

38. I don't think so.

Gore would NOT have disbanded an effective counterterrorism effort. Gore would have retained it, funded it and staffed it.

Gore would NOT have allowed the State Dept. to prevent John O'Neill from resuming his investigation in Yemen, nor would a Gore State Dept have wanted to.

Gore would NOT have allowed the Dept of Justice to squelch FISA requests, in fact I dare say that a Gore D of J would have continued issuing them as they saw fit just like Reno under Clinton.

A Gore admin would NEVER had blown off the Phoenix memo.

Agent Rowley would have gotten the FISA warrant she requested.

The links from the Moussaoui investigation to Atta would have been discovered, the links to the Phoenix memo subjects would have been discovered, a frantic phone poll of flight schools undertaken, a roundup would ensue and it is likely 9/11 would not only be greatly curtailed if not outright prevented, but the prinicple members would be under arrest and under interrogation.

The response would have been focused and extremely effective. OBL would not have been allowed to slip away at Tora Bora.

Gee, what a better world it might have been.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

39. No.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

40. Yes. But, we wouldn't be occupying Iraq looking for WMD.

The "terrorists" are looking to overthrow American power. It wouldn't have mattered who was in the White House. But, it's very hard to imagine a President Gore invading Iraq and searching for non-existant WMD and phantom terrorists.

Bush wanted to get reelected. Nothing like some flag waving and strutting and sending the troops in somewhere to get a rise in the polls.

The sad thing is that the Democratic "leaders" lined up to sign on and sing a few bars of "America the Beautiful" right along with him.