Letters to the Editor
JulieAnna
Published Letters: 31
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@OligarchyNot
[Read the article: 9/11 Commission: Our investigation was "obstructed"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In answer to one blogger’s comments about the Patriot Act being written in 43 days after 9/11 -- John Ashcroft had been working on drafting the Patriot Act from the time he took office, and probably even before he took office. The attacks on 9/11 jumpstarted the passage of that Act. The document was in the rough draft stage when 9/11 occurred and would have been debated and edited for months in normal circumstances. But, due to 9/11, it was passed with only one person (Dennis Kucinich) voting against it after no discussion of its contents and no one having even read it before passing it.
Let's not forgot the matter of the anthrax attacks that helped a great deal to keep everybody frightened and push the passage of the Patriot Act.
Glenn has touched on this topic in the past, when he mentioned ABC News reporting that the anthrax had been traced to Iraq and then protecting their sources when the story was proven to have been completely fabricated.
The investigation of the anthrax attacks actually led directly to a U.S. military laboratory in Maryland. After John Ashcroft named a man who worked at the facility a "person of interest," the investigation seemingly dead-ended and no charges were ever even brought against the man. This "person of interest" then turned around and filed defamation lawsuits against several people and publications (including The New York Times) and also sued the FBI, the Justice Dept., John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales (among others) for violating his constitutional rights.
We've never learned WHO sent the anthrax from this facility, but the fact that it came directly from our very own military lab should be enough to raise eyebrows and cause everybody to wonder who was behind it and what their intentions were -- and how the planning of the anthrax attacks were linked to the planning of the attacks of 9/11 (since the former followed directly on its heels.)