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Tue. Dec 07, 2004

A Day of Infamy and Reform

Sixty years ago today, the United States was shocked by a vicious surprise attack that killed thousands. About three years and three months ago, it happened again. So perhaps it is a proper fate that an agreement on the intelligence reform bill might have been reached on Dec. 7, 2004.

Shortly after 9/11, we all knew there were serious questions that had to be answered, beyond the plaintive “why do they hate us?” They were serious questions about our national security apparatus, and how it had failed in its most basic role, domestic defense. We all knew that some kind of major investigation would be required, and changes would be needed.

In September of 2001, did we have a clue the process would take over three years? It was Nov. 27, 2002, before the 9/11 Commission was created (section 601) ... 14.5 months after the attack. They wasted nearly another month shuffling members (Kissinger and Mitchell out, Kean and Hamilton in), despite having created an 18 month mandate on releasing the final report (yes, the delay creating the commission was nearly as great as the time it was given to exist). The 9/11 Commission “interviewed over 1,200 people in 10 countries and reviewed over two and a half million pages of documents” before releasing its report on July 22, 2004.

The President didn’t want a 9/11 Commission at all, at first. In May, 2002, he was opposed “to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11. Mr. Bush said the matter should be dealt with by congressional intelligence committees.” (given the recent Congressional stalemates, how do you think that would have worked out?)

The Commission’s public hearings during their investigation were injected with media sensationalism and external partisanship, and the punditry dissected each hearing as if that “dot” was a whole. Many seemed to have reached their judgement on the commission long before the commission came near releasing theirs. And now, a third of a year after its release, how many of those critics do you think have read the report, in its 428 pages of small print? How many of our 535 elected representatives do you think have read it in its entirety?

When the 9/11 Commission Report finally came out at the end of July, Congress didn’t think it was a priority. It was nearly time for their August recess, and they had campaigns to run. At one point, Speaker Hastert said he didn’t expect the House would take it up until next year. But when pressure was quickly placed on them, as soon-to-be voters started asking “what do you have to do that is more important than our safety,” suddenly they found time. There were hearings in August and September, and by November everything had moved forward to the point they only lacked a vote on the measure in the House.

But when it came down to brass tacks, two Republican members of the House were able to convince their Speaker not to even bring it up for a vote. More bickering ensued, and it appeared we might not need Democrats at all to create gridlock in the Capitol. Donald Rumsfeld played cutesy, saying he wasn’t trying to obstruct the measure at all, why, goodness, no. Yet those two Republican House members were specifically fronting for the Pentagon, which, goodness me, I think Rumsfeld leads. When he wants to.

Over the weekend, Senator Pat Roberts apparently made an impression during a talk with the President, offering his firm opinion that Bush will be politically damaged by this, and may not be able to move forward with the other parts of his second term agenda if he fails to push this reform through. Whether it was that appeal to preserve his alleged “mandate,” or actual concern over intelligence reform, I don’t know, but Bush and Cheney did seem to publicly and privately lay on more heat in the past 48 hours.

And now, several years after the initial intelligence failures that brought about the commission, years which evidenced further intelligence failures, we now appear to be moving towards reform. Or, at least, the legal authorization for reform. There’s a lot of people patting themselves on the back today, and I suppose some of it is warranted. But not all of it.

How lucky have we been to make it three years and three months without a further failure that cost thousands of lives, while Washington quibbled? Damn lucky is my guess.

So excuse my cynicism on a day that truly has been a long time coming.