I heard Senator John McCain’s interview on the Glenn Beck show this morning. He was being asked if he saw a problem with the publicizing of Mr. Sterling’s racist remarks since it was recorded in Mr. Sterling’s own home. The legal question is did Mr. Sterling have any expectation of privacy. McCain incredulously says no one should have any expectation of privacy because he doesn’t. That in itself exhibits a stunning ignorance of the Constitution by someone who gets paid a lot of money (and makes millions more from “campaign contributors” to support, defend and make laws in accordance with our country’s most sacred document. My issue here is with Sen. McCain misquoting the results of the 9/11 Commission Report. I doubt McCain read the report. I did. I read it twice. The first time I read it I was looking for a smoking gun that showed someone in government did or should have known of the 9/11 attack. I didn’t find a smoking gun. I found several. The second time I read it I dog-eared pages, highlighted passages and made notes in margins where people in authority should have acted and where logical questions should have been asked by the committee but were not. There are more than a few politicians and bureaucrats who should have known or did know of the impending attack and failed to take appropriate action to prevent it. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is a legal analysis by a former counterintelligence officer with more criminal law training than most general practice attorneys. This is an analysis by a trained interrogator who has been trained by the best in the world and has over 8,000 criminal interviews under his belt. Those who knew of the impending attack and refused to act appropriately are guilty of a crime. It’s called depraved indifference [title of my upcoming book] and it’s a federal and state felony.
Senator McCain and other highly placed beltway bull shitters repeatedly place the blame on failed signals intelligence. That’s not what the 9/11 Commission found – at least it was not what legal experts call the “proximate cause” of the attacks on 9/11. The 9/11 Commission found it was a failure to act by those in authority on credible information that could have undoubtedly prevented the attacks. The Commission was not chartered to place blame for the attacks. They assiduously avoided doing so – being a bi-partisan committee and all. But there is plenty to go around for two presidents and those who served in their administrations. Those identified in the Commission Report who acted with depraved indifference should be indicted and prosecuted. Particularly the woman who created the “wall” of silence between the CIA and the FBI out of her own politically ambitious imagination.
