ABC's Tapper: Gore Implies In Book He Would Have Prevented 9/11

Photo of Tim Graham.
By Tim Graham (Bio | Archive)
May 26, 2007 - 06:17 ET

At his blog Political Punch, ABC reporter Jake Tapper has been reading Al Gore's new book The Assault on Reason. He has an online analysis going through the "liberal red meat," and perhaps the knee-slapping funniest line -- coming from a man who stood silently in support of  Bill Clinton every day of his scandalous presidency, except when he was honoring him as "one of our greatest presidents" minutes after he was impeached for lying in a sexual harassment lawsuit -- is his claim about the Bush administration: "I cannot remember any administration adopting this kind of persistent, systematic abuse of the truth and the institutionalization of dishonesty as a routine part of the policy process."

This could be the funny Who Are You To Talk? runner-up: "It is love of power for its own sake that is the original sin of this presidency."

But Tapper finds "For me the most surprising part of the book was Gore's implication that if a more competent person had been president during 9/11 -- like, say, him -- 9/11 might not have happened." He underlined:

Gore argues that the president does not need enhanced domestic surveillance powers he has sought and received, often in secret, just competent use of the information already available. He points out, for instance, the fact that 9/11 terrorists Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almidhar were already on a State Department/INS watch list.

He does not flatly state that 9/11 would not have occurred during a Gore administration. But, he writes, "whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable, it almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes."

Then, using a study from the Markle Foundation, Gore shows how "better and more timely analysis" -- not the increased data sought by the Bush administration -- would have led to other hijackers Salem Alhazmi, Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and so on. Bush received that dire warning in August 2001, Gore notes at two different points in the book -- "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." -- which he refers to as "a headline more alarming and more pointed than any I saw in eight years of six-days-a-week CIA briefings."

Gore notes that he took pre-9/11 warnings seriously, even if Bush did not. After all, "unilateral action to protect the nation from a sudden an immediate threat" is "inherent power that is conferred by the Constitution to the president," Gore says, noting that as vice president he "made that very point to President Clinton when he had the opportunity to seize an al Qaeda operative who was planning an attack against us. And the president took my advice, though the individual we attempted to capture escaped."

But instead, Gore writes, incompetence rules the day and Bush has "taken us much further down the road toward an intrusive 'Big Brother'-style government -- towards the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book 1984 -- than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America."

It's a strong charge, laid out carefully, with tidbits dropped here and there throughout the book. I've covered Al Gore for years. He rarely misspeaks, never miswrites. He is smart and deliberate.

Let's hope Tapper doesn't mean that Gore is never inaccurate, but I'm guessing he means that Gore really believes this stuff, and isn't unintentionally claiming he was smart enough to stop Osama where Bush wasn't. But it's always amusing when liberals -- who never saw a trivial thing the government should NOT be involved in improving -- decry Republican presidents for "intrusive Big Brother-style government."

Reading through Tapper's material, you can't help but wonder: why was Diane Sawyer so busy apologizing for the media's lack of substance and how the media hypnotize people like chickens in 15 minutes of interviews with Gore, even as she found him enthralling -- and why was she not pressing Gore on all this "liberal red meat"?

PS: The Washington Examiner's gossip column Yeas & Nays notes not only that Al Gore's cover-flap picture shows a "svelte" Gore, but that in the index, there's a listing for "Reason, Bush's lack of, 55-56, 58, 60, 62, 66, 71, 177."

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center


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"But, he writes, "whenever po

May 26, 2007 - 06:59 ET by Nortonalec

"But, he writes, "whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable, it almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes."
LOL! Hey Al-when you and Sheryl Crow have raised the price of everything beyond the reach of most people through higher taxes and gasoline cost in an effort to save us, please go back to this quote. Also, was Prez Bush abusing anything pre 911? Just go on and say whatever you think sounds good. Mr. Tapper won't get in your way.

Nortonalec

Who does he think he's kidding?

May 26, 2007 - 09:17 ET by Darendaren

Can you even believe this guy? 

He would like to believe in his deluded mind that he could have prevented 9/11.  The truth is he caused it.  Think about it.  If he had acted like a real man, sucked it up and admitted that he lost, instead of dragging things out for months, the Bush transition team could have been in there and working.  But no, they had to wait for how many weeks?

And when they got there, what did they find?  The "w" keys missing from all the White House computers, and things super-glued to desks.  The list goes on and on. 

Al will go to his grave knowing in his heart that he is the real cause of 9/11.  He will spend the rest of his days trying to assuage the guilt, never knowing how to act like a man, admit he is wrong, or be on the right side of any argument.

Ooops!

May 26, 2007 - 09:19 ET by Darendaren

I meant to post the previous comment as a new thread.  Sorry about that...

lol Daren

May 26, 2007 - 13:37 ET by SportPolitics

Yes, you know, just like Richard Clarke who "apologized for the whole government" - when it was HE who was anti-terrorism czar and said the attack would be overseas in Saudi Arabia or in Israel pre 911 and did NOT have the FBI check for AQ in the USA " Because frankly, and I know this is going to sound bad, but I didn't think they had any idea about Al Qaeda in the USA. " and " We were looking overseas, the chatter indicated the attack would be overseas."

 Yeah, but you NEVER HAD THEM CHECK in the USA, you ADMITTED it Richard Clarke you fool.

Man, it makes me MAD what they've gotten away with, so I really appreciate your comment there. You're more correct than most have heard or is said often enough. That transition took all but the last week before 911, because SoreLoserman was having a hissy fit and destroying USA cohesion, instead of being a man about it like President Richard Nixon was.

Good call Daren.

One more question

May 26, 2007 - 07:25 ET by goldenthroat

Yeah, right - and where would the universe be had AlGore not invented the internet?

More undisputable proof that this environmentalist wacko has become a legend in his own mind.

Never dance on an empty stomach unless it's a liberal.

He is a joke. Isn't he. Was i

May 26, 2007 - 07:43 ET by danbo

He is a joke. Isn't he. Was it under his and Bubba's administration that prevented one agency from reporting to another a problem.

Maybe if Al had been dealing with this, rather than taking illegal contributions for Chinese nuns, he could have fixed the problem.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”   H.L. Mencken

goldenthroat - al gore invented the internet....

May 26, 2007 - 07:59 ET by SportPolitics

Goldenthroat, Al Gore invented the internet - and it has been the largest new consumption of energy and therefore the biggest cause of the uptick in greenhouse gases for about a decade now.

 So really, Al Gore has sent the world hightailing it on the path to the tipping point and has unwittingly made it inevitable that mankind will begin it's descent into extinction in Al Gore's predicted 9 years now to the point of no return.

 Al Gore, mass murderer and major dippo cause of the coming extinction of the human race he has declared.

( At least the hardcore greenies can be happy when the global population goes into massive reduction from flooding pestilence and extreme weather events and biodiversity destruction, and is pinched down to a mere nub of it's former numbers )

Cripes, the libs have elevated the killer of mankind to the top of the highest ivory soap tower. It's no wonder Al's guilt is eating him alive and he has to try to stop what he sped along. Now, since his internet is everywhere, news of death will precede it for all people's of the earth, multiplying their horror. Al Gore is evil. dr evil.

How could someone so dedicate

May 26, 2007 - 08:10 ET by benrand

How could someone so dedicated to understanding, knowledge, rigourous pursuits of truth and identity fail out of grad school?

Mr. Reason didn't seem to stop the first WTC attack, not a host of other terrorist attacks.

What a tool.

Yeah, it's amazing how all

May 26, 2007 - 08:17 ET by dervish

Yeah, it's amazing how all the evil in the world started in January, 2001.

With the possible exception of al Qaeda, every sentient human being in the world (using the term loosely to include Al himself), for one reason or another, is glad that Al Gore wasn't president on 9/11.

I agree.  Despite their 911

May 26, 2007 - 10:51 ET by jondelwiche

I agree.  Despite their 911 success, I wish those heinous 911 terrrorists can see (from hell) the fallout from the US reaction:
Taliban toppled.  Bin Laden reduced to hidden caves.
Saddam and his sons dead.    The AQ network decimated: reduced to a war
of attrition in Iraq as their major front.
Meanwhile, a  spectacular US and world economy post 911 made possible by our heroic soldiers taking the fight to their backyards.

None of that would have occurred with Al:  we simply would have made concessions so they wouldn't attack us again. 

Hear, hear!!!! " 'Fred'

May 26, 2007 - 13:00 ET by kathleenirish

Hear, hear!!!!

" 'Fred's Slacks'  is a winner!!"

Al Gore and Diane Sawyer

May 26, 2007 - 08:45 ET by SportPolitics

Al Gore and Diane Sawyer.

I watched the 9 minutes and some they had in the first clip... and Al Gore says democracy is broken and we continuously make bad mistakes because we don't have the facts. But, he doesn't give a current example. He of course spews the same old "six" year old example he has now for us going into Iraq. SIX years ago.

 Thanks Al, you even count correctly.

 I guess the Elemental Environmental Global Human Race Extinction Phrophet is exempt from his own analysis because he got ahead of the curve and is now saving the human race from extinction...

LOL - Man alive -- I cannot even imagine the ego.

The "Great Fall" of the left engineered by Al Gore and his "World is Ending" psychophatholigical fans is soon to be here, and I can hardly wait.

 In fact, for the first time ever yesterday, I heard the softening core of the babbling morons bleeding out a bit, as one of them stated concerning AGW " If we just do a little bit we can easily divert this coming disaster. "

LOL - The husk of stupidity is slowly coming to the realization that they've blown it entirely, and one of the best things about this is the USA hasn't caved to the KKKyoto World KKKontrol FreaKKK KKKookballs.

There are some very good years ahead, as they ALL WILL BE EATING CROW.

 

As I wrote before this is the

May 26, 2007 - 09:33 ET by Dave D

As I wrote before this is the guy that should have been pres because he won the popular vote.(In other words Professor Genius didn't get that he needed to campaign to win the electoral vote and not the popular vote.) So of course a guy that makes such a basic mistake about the most important event in his life

Sarcasm on

Why that's natural a guy who could get things done and stop it.

Sarcasm off

Oh wait, some lefties think Bush did 911 so I guess in their mind Professor Genius being president would have stopped it.

No-no-no. Gore assisted in 9/11

May 26, 2007 - 12:34 ET by Gary Hall

No-no-no. Gore assisted in 9/11.

Let the evidence be weighed (something that the MSM has little interest in). Perhaps it was V.P. Al Gore who found himself in the position of preventing  9/11, and then found that he lacked personal and ethical commitment to do the job. 

July 1996

PRESIDENT CLINTON: I have asked Vice President Gore to take charge of a commission to review aviation safety, security, and the pace of modernization of the air traffic control system.

 “The Gore Commission's final report which will examine the entire government role in aviation is expected in mid 1997.” PBS. Online News Hour SEPTEMBER 3, 1996

White House Commission onAviation Safety and SecurityFinal Report to President Clinton Vice President Al Gore, ChairmanFebruary 12, 1997 

Interesting to note that the very first entry in the appendices is:

 A.     Civil Liberties Advisory Board Recommendations

 And what occurred? What did Gore (and the Clinton administration) do to implement the security recommendations?

 Keep in mind that 1996 was an election year

‘On Sept. 20, 2001, the Boston Globe broke the story of how the so-called Gore Commission had failed in its mission to address airline safety. The Globe claimed this failure "represents the clearest recent public example of the success that airlines have long had in defeating calls for more oversight." The Globe traced that failure to a series of campaign donations from the airlines to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 in the wake of the crash of TWA Flight 800.” Why did Al Gore really drop out?

 A bit more, perhaps…

But within days, according to an insider on the commission, the airline industry jumped all over Gore. As a result, 10 days later, Gore sent a letter to airline lobbyist Carol Hallett promising that the commission's findings would not result in any loss of revenue.

 In what can only be seen as a pure political payoff, the Democratic National Committee received $40,000 from TWA the next day. Within two weeks, Northwest, United and American Airlines ponied up another $55,000 for the 1996 campaign.

 But the money trail didn't stop there. In the next two months leading up to the November elections, American Airlines donated $250,000 to the Democrats. United donated $100,000 to the DNC. Northwestern put $53,000 more into the kitty.

Following the election, in January, Gore floated a draft final report that eliminated all security measures from the commission's findings, according to the insider. Two commission members balked, as did CIA Director John Deutch. How Gore aborted air safety

Gary,Al Gore is the Heidi Fle

May 26, 2007 - 12:51 ET by Blonde

Gary,

Al Gore is the Heidi Fleiss of political fundraising.  He'd sell his mother for a dime.

Oh come now, he's got SOME

May 26, 2007 - 13:25 ET by dervish

Oh come now, he's got SOME integrity.

She'd cost you at least ten bucks.

He has NONE. Zero. He has

May 26, 2007 - 13:34 ET by MilesD

He has NONE. Zero.

He has never admitted an error in his life. He has repeatedly blamed every mistake he made on somebody else

Back to work and paint this damn house - no I'm not goofing off - ok now

It should also be noted that

May 26, 2007 - 15:23 ET by Del Dolemonte

It should also be noted that around the same time, Massachusetts Senator Jean-Claude Kerry used his influence to put a pox on security improvements at Boston's Logan Airport, where both planes that hit the WTC Towers on 9/11 took off from.

Of course, since Gore and Kerry's deeds happened before recorded history began in January 2001, they're not important.

Del - BGWBE

May 26, 2007 - 15:27 ET by Gary Hall

Del - BGWBE

before George W Bush era....  (;~>

I've found the most effective

May 26, 2007 - 21:11 ET by Del Dolemonte

I've found the most effective way to shut up the stock characters from Central Casting is to ask them who was President in 1998, and why did said President say in their Federal indictment of Osama bin Laden that year that Ozzie had a working relationship with Iraq?

This question produces the sound of crickets every time! To add insult to injury, I direct them to the anti-Bush Federation of American Scientists website, which has the complete text of the Clinton Justice Department indictment claiming such a connection.

It might not be so crazy to w

May 26, 2007 - 12:44 ET by kathleenirish

It might not be so crazy to wonder if this guy is going to declare himself the second coming of Christ some time soon! 

Maybe he should build that time machine he's capable of creating and make sure 9/11 doesn't happen.  While he's at it, he can make sure the years '93 to '2000 don't happen, either.

How do the Red Chinese like you now, Al?  Just wondering.

" 'Fred's Slacks'  is a winner!!"

1998

May 26, 2007 - 12:48 ET by usinkorea

Can somebody do an interview with Gore and get his opinion of then-Pres. Clinton's limited bombing campaign in 1998?

In another instance, Gore says that “many feel that one of the hidden
reasons for launching the war in Iraq in early 2003 was the oft-stated
and long-held opinion of Vice President Dick Cheney and others that
ensuring continued U.S. access to the easily recoverable oil reserves
of the Persian Gulf is so important as to justify even the
extraordinary cost and reckless risk to America’s reputation of
invading another country on false pretenses.”

I kinda remember the pretenses for Clinton bombing Iraq in 1998 made it seem like Bush was echoing him in the run up to the invasion --- something about WMDs and a threat to global security and terrorism.....

I guess since those were false pretenses in 2003, they were false in 1998 too...

Or, maybe it was the fact that only a few Iraqis were killed in the limited bombing - you know - the kind of limited bombing that acts as a punitive measure in a hope to get more cooperation - which shut Libya up - sorta - in the 1980s but didn't solve squat when it came to Iraq under Clinton.

I mean, if Gore still believes that Clinton was correct in his pretenses for the limited bombing, we are arguing about means to a solution rather than lies about the nature of the problem, correct?

I'd say Clinton probably had oil supply in mind too - what idiot of a president wouldn't understand how the global economy would come crashing down - resulting in untold deaths - if the supply of Gulf oil was severly hampered...

But, maybe Gore was just throwing out ear candy for the brain dead masses?

And

May 26, 2007 - 12:51 ET by usinkorea

“We are less safe because of his policy,” Gore writes. “He has created
more anger and righteous indignation against us than any leader of our
country in all the years of our existence as a nation. He has exposed
Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater
danger of attack because of his arrogance and willfulness,”
particularly but not entirely with the war in Iraq.

Uh, did Gore forget about the string of attacks in the 1990s?

How about the terrorist strikes by people from that part of the world in Europe (sometimes targeted at Americans) in the 1980s?

Maybe he should go back and look at some news footage from the 1970s and 60s from that part of the world.

When was George W. Bush born? Can we somehow tie how he crawled out of the craddle to all that highly demonstrated hatred of the US (and West) back then?

The enemy has "righteous

May 26, 2007 - 12:58 ET by kathleenirish

The enemy has "righteous indignation", Mr. Gore?

If ever an enemy was unrigh

May 26, 2007 - 13:06 ET by Jack Bauer

If ever an enemy was unrighteous and perverted it is the islamo-terrorist swine who are without honor or shame.

Only a truly unhinged dimwit like Forrest Gore could think otherwise.

The debate is over: so-called "manmade global warming" is a crock.

Jack

May 26, 2007 - 13:42 ET by Dave R

Forrest Gore?

I love it!

This republic will not survive the continued neglect of its people.-Neal Boortz

Dave... thanks buddy. It ju

May 26, 2007 - 13:52 ET by Jack Bauer

Dave... thanks buddy. It just came to me... a perfect fit...

RUN FORREST GORE, RUN

Or maybe Al Gump..

The debate is over: so-called "manmade global warming" is a crock.

who is the n m e

May 26, 2007 - 14:23 ET by acumen

Hasn't the left lectured the world that Bush is the "enemy"?  So is doctor dorkacle admitting Bush has "righteous indignation"?  It all gets so confusing in bizzaro world.....

USYou should know by now that

May 26, 2007 - 12:59 ET by

US

You should know by now that if it's bad for the Dems it's forgotten by the MSM.

Two years from now they'll be reporting on the hoax of AGW that occured during the Bush Administration. (with never a mention to the Goracle)

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.   

Voices from the past. I know

May 26, 2007 - 13:49 ET by danbo

Voices from the past. I know it's long. Sorry.

"although the press have scrambled to portray Mr. Gore as an environmental 'moderate,' a close look shows he is quite radical."

...The memo said Gore is potentially vulnerable because, looking at two sections of the book, one could argue: "He has no sense of proportion: He equates the failure to recycle aluminum cans with the Holocaust - an equation that parodies the former and dishonors the latter."

...the world's worst oil spill, which occurred in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. Gore wrote, "If the oil had not been spilled, it would have been joined with other oil used for fuel and converted into carbon dioxide. And that would contribute to climate change."

Said John Baden, chairman of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, "That seems to be a remarkably insensitive and uninformed reaction. It trivializes this act of wanton economic barbarism."

...Gore's book calls global warming "the most dangerous of all" threats to the environment. Gore cites as his original inspiration for that belief the work of the late Roger Revelle, who had been the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

But Gore doesn't point out that before his death lost year, Revelle published a paper that concluded: "The scientific base for a greenhouse warming is too uncertain to justify drastic action at his time. There is little risk in delaying policy responses."

...Wrote Easterbrook, "Lately, Gore and the distinguished biologist Paul Ehrlich have ventured into dangerous territory by suggesting that journalists quietly self-censor environmental evidence that is not alarming, because such reports, in Gore's words, 'undermine the effort to build a solid base of public support for the difficult actions we must soon take.'"

A hint of this may be found in Gore's book, when he writes of scientists whose "views (on global warming) sometimes carry far too much weight," and that, "The news media must take some responsibility for this quandary."

He goes on to assert that, "In this case, when 98% of the scientists in a given field share one view and 2% disagree, both viewpoints are sometimes presented in a format in which each appears equally credible."

But Easterbrook notes that a recent survey of climatologists by the environmentalist group Greenpeace found that 47% do not believe that there will be a point "in the future, at which continued business-as-usual policies run a serious risk of instigating a runaway greenhouse effect."

Instead, Gore repeatedly states that drastic action, though expensive

...Easterbrook commented: "Skeptical debate is supposed to be one of the strengths of liberalism. It's eerie to hear liberal environmentalists asserting that views they disagree with ought not to be heard."

Gore, in fact, put such practices into effect when he refused to appear last January on Cable News Network's Larry King Live interview show opposite atmospheric scientist and global warming critic S. Fred Singer. Gore's publicist said he "could not appear under those circumstances." A week later Gore did the show, sans Singer.

...Said Smith, "Gore sees taxation as a valuable tool in reshaping the world to fit his green vision."

The DNC memo to the Clinton campaign mentioned above said this is a weak spot of the book, saying Gore opponents could use his book to argue: "All he wants to do is raise a lot of taxes, including carbon taxes (taxes on fossil fuels), pollution charges, a 'Virgin Materials Fee,' and a gasoline tax."

Source

This was written in 1992.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”   H.L. Mencken

Gore wrote, "If the oil

May 26, 2007 - 14:26 ET by

Gore wrote, "If the oil had not been spilled, it would have been joined with other oil used for fuel and converted into carbon dioxide. And that would contribute to climate change

i see oil spills are good

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.   

usinkorea

May 26, 2007 - 13:51 ET by SportPolitics

Yeah it works like this: We were all united after 911, the world was with us, behind us... ( somehow they have instantly forgotten their 30 years of hate America crap - Vietnam whines, cia cointelpro, whining about overthrowing dictators and installing the Shah and every other lie they could tell ).

 Then, 2 weeks after 911 they started getting all pissy again.

 But, gosh we were all united...the world was behind us... everyone had forgotten SoreLoserman and the destruction of your vote counting and the stealing of an election and the end of democracy... and the calls for the UN to make it a "do over".

LOL

Sport

May 26, 2007 - 15:30 ET by Gary Hall
  • Sport .  The Ugly American - first published in 1958. (;~> gary

Limited bombing - usinkorea

May 26, 2007 - 14:06 ET by Gary Hall

On limited bombing in Clinton's 1998 Desert Fox operations., you might be interested in finding out that limited inluded the use of 420 cruise missiles - that's more than the 323 used in the Gulf War in 1991. I dont' belive I ever heard anyone refer to the Gulf War as "limited."

Many leftists around the globe refered to Bill Clinton as, "The Cruise Missile President."

And for the record, in case you did not know, both Bill Clinton and Al Gore are strongly on record long after they left the white house clearly still believing that Saddam still had the WMD's.

I've seen several accounts th

May 26, 2007 - 15:19 ET by Del Dolemonte

I've seen several accounts that state that bin Laden in fact wanted to pull off the 9/11 attacks sooner-as in when Bubba was President-but Atta told him that he needed more time to train.

How would the press have reported this had it happened on Clinton and Gore's watch?

"Gore notes at two dif

May 26, 2007 - 17:43 ET by ckc1227

"Gore notes at two different points in the book -- "Bin Laden Determined
to Strike in U.S." -- which he refers to as "a headline more alarming
and more pointed than any I saw in eight years of six-days-a-week CIA
briefings."'

That's interesting, considering the info contained within the pdb carrying that headline was mostly historical data from previous pdb's issued during those 8 years. So, is he saying that he didn't actually read those previous pdb's, or is he saying he was unable to interpret their meaning without the help of a new headline spelling it out for him?

Oh my God, we are SOOO freakin' lucky this clown isn't our president. If you haven't in the past, I recommend everyone thank the deity of their choice for this wonderful gift as often as possible.

Illegal Immigrants cause global warming. Build the wall to save the Earth. Don't we owe it to the children?