9/11: Remembering what DID happen, not the spin.

What’s left to be said about September 11th that hasn’t already been said?
How about what WASN’T said?

I just finished watching Part One of ABC’s pseudo-documentary “The Path to 9/11″. I’m sure you are already familiar with the firestorm of controversy regarding this film, so I will not rehash it here. Needless to say, a quick “patchwork” of new scenes quickly inserted to replace a number of proven factually wrong scenes were quickly reshot and inserted at the last minute, so in at least one instance, an “unchanged” scene contridicts a changed one (specifically, their best chance to kill OBL in 1999 was called off due to “innocents” in the way… specified as “women and children” in the film, but was actually the Saudi Royal Family in real life… then later said to have been thwarted because they couldn’t get “authorization”).

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

If you weren’t paying attention… and even if you were… you might not have noticed that IRAQ was not mentioned anywhere in the film (so far). Nada. Zip. Zero. Starting with the first WTC bombing in 1993, several thwarted terrorists plots, and only one mention of the embassy bombings in 1998, the movie has made absolutely no mention of any kind of terrorist activity connected to Saddam Hussein or Iraq. Why? Might it be an oversight? I mean, haven’t members of the Bush Administration, time and again, try to tell us Saddam was a sponsor of terrorism and a such a threat to the United States that taking him out of power was worthy of pulling troops out of Afghanistan before the capture of Osama bin Laden? Huh, must have been an oversight that I’m certain they’ll correct in Part Two.

Anyways, I’m not here to defend Saddam Hussain. The man was a mass murderer who ruled over the Iraqi people without mercy. He deserves everything he has gotten. I believe he was contained, that invading Iraq has distracted us from getting bin Laden and eliminating the Taliban, and the bungled occupation of Iraq has inflamed the Muslim world and made us less safe, but Saddam deserves punishment for his crimes.

No, on this fifth anniversary of 9/11, I just want everyone to remember what DID happen. Because the Bush Administration is on a PR blitz this week, rewritting history and trying to make themselves appear as brave warriors waging a difficult war that only THEY can protect us from.

In August 2004, just before the election, on the pleas of Air America Radio’s “Randi Rhodes“, I created a “split screen video” of President Bush sitting in a Florida classroom for seven minutes. while all hell was breaking loose in New York, entitled (apporiately enough) “Seven Minutes“:

(in Quicktime format. 15MB download)

(In case the above link stops working, I have uploaded the video to Google Video. The resolution was degraded slightly, but still viewable.)

It was a rush job, not as polished as I would have liked, trying to get it out there well before Election Day 2004. I used the raw classroom video of President Bush reading “The Pet Goat” with a class full of third graders, next to footage taken from the CBS documentary “9/11″.

The video starts with President Bush’s motorcade arriving at the school. It is in the motorcade on the ride over that President Bush is informed that a jumbo jet, potentially filled with hundreds of passengers, has just struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, which is potentially filled with TENS OF THOUSANDS of employees. Still, he continues on with his scheduled photo-op.

As the classroom footage begins, former Chief of Staff Andrew Card rushes up to whisper in the Presidents’ ear regarding a second plane hitting Tower Two of the World Trade Center. While most accounts now say Card told the President, “A second plane hit the second tower. We’re under attack.“, I remember specifically in an interview within days afterwards in response to the question, “What did you say?”, Card told the interviewer, “I knew I had to be as succinct as possible. I said, “A second plane hit the second tower. We’re AT WAR“. It would seem a little more damning had the President of sat motionless after just being told the country he had just been elected to take care of was suddenly “at war” and he failed to react, but “under attack” is more subtle and open to interpretation, don’tcha think?

While everyone on the Right is trying to rewrite history and paint themselves as heros, let’s not forget what REALLY DID happen as only video can prove.

Reply with memories of where you were when you heard the news and how YOU reacted.

Post Script: Check out this nice video promo for the new book: “Lies, Damed Lies, And the Mess in Iraq“.

This entry was posted on September 11, 2006 at 12:02 am and is filed under Political News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.