I heard an interview on WNYC this morning with Joe Conason, the writer of the much-celebrated new book Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth and it was completely disarming. Conason, not for the first time, contends that it was the Clinton administration that foresaw future terrorism coming to the U.S., that they had started to prepare the country for a 9/11-type event, and that its staff briefed Condoleeza Rice and friends about the inevitability of an attack. Bush ignored their advice and Cheny set up a terrorism task-force that never met until after 9/11.
Most interestingly, he talked about how Bush et. al. pulled together the resources, while almost all planes were grounded, to evacuate Bin Laden relatives (about 140 of them!) out of the country to Saudi Arabia on the request of Bush’s old pals in the oil-based government. This is a little featured report, but it did make the New York Times’ page 11 yesterday. The FBI, our eternal watchdog, never questioned the family members about their involvement in 9/11. Excuse me now while I throw up.