Busted. WaPo: "On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address 'the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday' -- but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals. The speech provides telling insight into the administration's thinking on the very day that the United States suffered the most devastating attack since the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials who have seen the text." (emphasis by me)

Rice will go before the 9/11 Commission next Thursday, April 8, and testify under oath for about 2.5 hours.

AP: "The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks isn't getting a full picture of former President Clinton's terrorism policies because the Bush administration won't forward all of Clinton's records to the panel, a lawyer said." Only about one-quarter of nearly 11,000 pages have been turned over. ... Okay, they just finished getting hammered on Rice's testimony and now they are covering up more documents? Could these documents show that, as Richard Clarke has claimed, the Clinton administration was more focused on al-Qaeda than the Bush Gang? What the hell are they hiding?

If the Bush administration had actually done in 2001 what they claim to have done, Bush would have gone before the American people a long time ago and said something like:

"My administration did everything we could to stop those horrific attacks. But we are human and we are not perfect. We did not protect America -- as we were entrusted by you to do -- and for that, for the wound inflicted upon this country, I am deeply, deeply sorry. ... There can be no greater task before us that making sure something like this never happens again. Therefore, every single piece of paper relating to my administration's fight against terror -- as well as the papers of President Clinton -- will be made available to the 9/11 Commission.

"In addition, each and every member of my administration -- as well as every FBI, INS and CIA agent -- will be available to answer any questions the Commission has for as long as is necessary. And in the spirit of America's open democracy, we will conduct as many of these investigative hearings as possible in public. We will do this together. Now, we are grieving together. Soon, we will investigate together how this happened and we will move forward as a nation, stronger and more united, together."

Wouldn't that have been nice?