Getting Away With Murder. Steve Gillard on Richard Clarke's charges (watch 60 Minutes):

"Rumsfeld wanted to bomb Iraq for 9/11, despite ample evidence Al Qaeda was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Americans. ... Perle and Wolfowitz, despite all available evidence, would have let Osama sit in Afghanistan untouched just to get Saddam. ... Let's keep this in mind, and it's really simple: the Bush response to 9/11 would have let Osama get away with murder, killing thousands of innocent people. ... Americans are burning alive, falling from the Twin Towers, and Bush is more concerned about his vendetta with Iraq than hunting down the people who murdered them in cold blood."

The Junta's first response -- on the very afternoon of September 11 -- was to allow Al Qaeda off cost-free for killing thousands of innocent people in the US and instead kill thousands of innocent people in Iraq. Why? Why would they want to do that? ... It should be crystal clear at this point that the Junta had specific plans when they assumed office and nothing -- not even 9/11 -- was going to interfere with those plans. Indeed, their gut reaction was to use the attacks solely as a reason for bombing (and taking control of) an innocent country. Read the books from Clarke, Paul O'Neill, Paul Waldman and David Corn, and one fact is inescapable: it was all part of the plan.

"[T]he Bush response to 9/11 would have let Osama get away with murder, killing thousands of innocent people."

And if recent polls are any gauge, approximately 150,000,000 Americans don't give a damn.

Update: The Family Steering Committee is demanding the resignation of 9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow. Its letter to the Commission:

"Very disturbing information has surfaced regarding Philip Zelikow's participation in the failure to heed warnings about al Qaeda and imminent attacks on America in the months prior to September 11th.

"It is clear that Dr. Zelikow should never have been permitted to be a member of the Commission, since it is the mandate of the Commission to identify the source of 9/11 failures. Dr. Zelikow has a conflict of interest that extends beyond just the transition. It is now apparent why there has been so little effort to assign individual culpability. We now can see that trail would lead directly to the staff director himself.

"What little time the Commission has left must be spent without the taint of Dr. Zelikow's influence. We demand his immediate resignation."