The following are scenes from previously unseen footage from the ABC's miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which was recently obtained by the Fox News Channel and is expected to be aired on Fox's "Hannity's America" show.
This scene in which Sandy Berger (played by Kevin Dunn), the national security adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1997-2001, refuses to give the CIA the authority to attack Osama bin Laden while American's were right there with boots on the ground and in imminent danger. It really shows how bad the liberals are when it comes to American security. All talk... No action.
"Are there any men left in Washington... or are they all cowards"?
ABC's Politically Censored version of Path to 911
Sandy Berger / Osama bin Laden Scene
ABC's Original Uncensored version of Path to 911
Sandy Berger / Osama bin Laden Scene
The former National-Security adviser Sandy (Burglar) Berger pleaded guilty to stealing highly classified documents from the National Archives building in Washington D.C., in which many are now believed to have vanished.
While the United States works to get approval from the Czech government to build a U.S. anti-missile system in the Czech Republic, Russian leaders are all up in arms, calling it a "a mistake which will bring about negative consequences for international security."
The U.S. system proposed to be built near the Russian border with the Czech Republic is intended to protect European countries from the threat of Russian made, long-range missiles currently being supplied by Russia to the Iranian government. Iran continues building it's arsenal of WMD.
The U.S. base would be manned by approximately 200 U.S. military personnel, and could be operational by 2011.
Russia said on Friday a U.S. plan to deploy an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic was a "mistake" which would have negative consequences for international security.
The State Department announced on Sunday the two countries had agreed to start detailed talks on allowing their territory to be used for the system, designed to shoot down missiles with rockets.
U.S. officials say the system is intended to counter a long-range Iranian missile threat, not Russia.
"This issue will be a subject of our detailed analysis and dialogue with the United States and their partners."
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov rejected Washington's reassurances on Wednesday, saying Iranian missiles could not reach Europe.
The Russian military say they have modern missiles which can neutralize the planned U.S. missile defense system. But political leaders insist any NATO activity near Russian borders carries broader geopolitical threats for Moscow.
Russia, whose reviving self-confidence is backed by a windfall of oil and gas revenues, suspects Washington and NATO of trying to surround it and replace Moscow as a patron of ex-Soviet states.
"The creation of a U.S. anti-missile base in Europe can only be viewed as a considerable change in the configuration of the American military presence in Europe," the Foreign Ministry statement said.
"The presence of such a base near our borders will be a factor we will have to take into account when planning the next military and political steps, building national defense," it added.
We can't just sit back while Russia continues to supply our enemies with WMD.
With the successful testing of a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy an aging weather satellite in space, the Chinese government may have started a space arms race that could force many countries like the United States to develop anti-missile systems to protect their satellites in space.
The United States and other countries have expressed their concerns to Beijing. US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the US "believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area".
According to the Associated Press (AP), Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, Director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said in his annual address to Congress last week that China and Russia are the "primary states of concern’’ regarding the U.S. military space program.
So far, China has not confirmed or commented on the shooting down of the weather satellite. (Updates below)
A senior State Department official says the United States wants China to explain why it developed an anti-satellite weapon, calling the move "inconsistent with the constructive relationship" on the use of space agreed to by the two countries' presidents.
The official, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity, said the ability to use space is vital to U.S. national security, economic and foreign policy interests. And he said the hundreds of pieces of debris that resulted from the Chinese test endanger other vehicles in space, including manned vehicles, and may endanger people on the ground when they eventually fall to earth.
The official said the Chinese test did not violate any international treaties, but did violate what he called the "the intent and the spirit" of the international Space Treaty, which guarantees free access to space for all peaceful purposes. He said the United States "reserves the right to defend and protect its space systems with a wide range of options from diplomatic to military."
In a VOA interview before the Chinese test was conducted, the head of strategic planning and analysis at the U.S. Air Force Space Command said U.S. policy calls for the protection of the country's access to space. Brigadier General Robert Worley would not discuss any potential threat from any specific countries, but he said the need for free access to space requires his command to consider how to preserve that access. "We all know that there are some actors out there, whether they be nations or non-state actors, that might wish to do us harm in this area. And so we, like any other nation, preserve and reserve the right to take action to prevent people from doing bad things to us," he said.
General Worley says the United States is not interested in developing any space weapons, and may not have to in order to deter attacks on its space assets. The general says the U.S. ability to track everything that happens in space may be enough. "I think there's a significant deterrent effect of everyone knowing that we could attribute a hostile act in space to a particular state or non-state actor," he said.
Still, General Worley acknowledges that Space Command has the responsibility to look at additional ways to prevent attacks on U.S. satellites, ground stations and communications links. He would not provide details. The United States ended its anti-satellite weapon program more than 20 years ago after one successful test. It currently has no space-based weapons or weapons designed to attack targets in space. But experts say a powerful U.S. laser weapon could be used to blind satellites, although it was not developed for that purpose.
British officials have also raised their concerns with China on Wednesday saying that Britain did not believe China had broken international law, but thought the test was "inconsistent" with Beijing's earlier assurances to the United Nations on the military use of space.
Update: The Times Online is reporting that China is claiming that it's missile strike against an orbiting satellite two weeks ago was not an act of provocation but was instead intended to try and bring the United States into talks aimed at abolishing weapons in space.
It sounds like the Iraqi people are more concerned about the U.S. "Cut and Run" plan than anything else. Like many Republicans in the U.S., they fear the Democrats in Washington because they know the liberal lawmakers in Congress are gutless and clueless when it comes to security issues and the military.
Some like Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa. and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, aim to prove this point with their continued threats to cut the legs out from under the Presidents new plan to help the Iraqis win their country back, by trying to restrict the flow of money, currently funding the war.
So one resident of Haifa Street, in the heart of Baghdad's badlands, reacted to the new plan to secure the Iraqi capital with the help of thousands of additional American troops.
"Maybe the Americans aren't running away after all," said the resident, a Sunni Arab, over the phone moments after President Bush unveiled his new plan. "The message seems to be that the United States will remain committed as long as Bush is in the White House."
Some 70 percent of Baghdad's violence is concentrated in five neighborhoods, where both Shiites and Sunnis have been the targets of rival death squads for months. Other Baghdadis say the population of those areas will greet the American troops with sweets and flowers.
The fear that the United States, bedeviled by internecine feuds, might cut and run has been at the root of the violence since Iraq's liberation in 2003.
Jihadists have fought not because they hope to win on the battlefield, but to strengthen the antiwar lobbies in the United States and Britain. Some in the new political elite have become fence sitters because they regard the United States as a fickle power that could suddenly change course. Others have created or expanded militias, in case the United States abandons Iraq before it can defend itself against internal foes and predatory neighbors.
The new Bush plan has raised Iraqi morale to levels not known for a year. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had been dropping hints he might resign because of sheer fatigue, now says he is committed to restoring Baghdad's sobriquet of Dar al-Salaam (The Abode of Peace) by clearing it of al Qaeda and Saddamite terrorists, militias and death squads.
"The plan that President Bush has announced is based on our plan," says Ali al-Dabbagh, al-Maliki's spokesman. "We presented it to him during the summit in Amman last month, and he promised to study it. The result is a joint Iraqi-American plan to defeat the terrorists."
As if to underline that claim, the Iraqi army, backed by a U.S. helicopter gunship, launched a major operation in Baghdad two days before Bush's announcement of the new plan. Over 50 jihadists were killed, and an unknown number captured.
The operation signaled that the Iraqi army, backed by American firepower, was on the offensive. Which brings us to one of the paradoxes of Iraq during the last two years: There has been a great deal of killing, but little fighting. The terrorists, who mainly operate in less than 5 percent of Iraqi territory, have been allowed to strike whenever they wish without being chased by the Iraqi army or the multinational force. The multinational force has been mostly in "self-defense" mode. In 2006, the U.S. forces initiated only 11 operations against the jihadists; the British and the Danes, another three.
The new plan will see more fighting - and so force the jihadists to spend more resources on protecting themselves, and fewer on attacking soft civilian targets.
Iraqis that I've talked to are especially pleased that Bush did not take up the Iraq Study Group's idea of involving Iran in the future of Iraq. The idea of a secret U.S. plan to hand over Iraq to the Iranians (in the context of a grand bargain with the mullahs) has been one of the themes of Sunni jihadist propaganda. The claim has been echoed by some of Washington's allies, including Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Instead, Bush promised to "seek and destroy" networks of support for terrorists, set up by Iran and Syria. That is a sign he understands the broader regional aspects of this struggle. It is impossible to eradicate terrorism in Iraq without eliminating sources of support that lie beyond Iraqi frontiers.
Iraqis also welcome Bush's reasserted commitment to Iraq's integrity and see it as a rejection of ideas to carve the country into three mini-states.
"To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible," President Bush said to some members of congress who are determined to stop his new plan.
In a pitch to lawmakers and the American people, Bush said the United States will keep the onus on the Iraqi government to take charge of security and reach a political reconciliation. He countered Democrats and his fellow Republicans who argue that Bush is sending 21,500 more U.S. troops into Iraq on the same mission.
"We have a new strategy with a new mission: Helping secure the population, especially in Baghdad," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Our plan puts Iraqis in the lead."
Jimmy Carter is obviously having memory problems and can't distinguish between fact and fiction. His new book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is so-o-o-o fictitious that his own cronies at the Jimmy Carter center can't stand behind him.
Fourteen members of an advisory board at the Carter Center resigned today, concluding they could “no longer in good conscience continue to serve” following publication of former President Jimmy Carter’s controversial book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”
“It seems that you have turned to a world of advocacy, including even malicious advocacy,” the board members wrote in a letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “We can no longer endorse your strident and uncompromising position. This is not the Carter Center or Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support. Therefore it is with sadness and regret that we hereby tender our resignation from the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center effective immediately.”
Open Season by the Band "Stuck Mojo"
From their new album, "Southern Born Killers,"
Music: Rich Ward
Lyrics: Aborn, Nelson
String Arrangement: Eric Frampton
I speak peace when peace is spoken, But I speak war when your hate is provoking, The season is open 24-7-365, Man up yo time to ride, No need to hide behind slogans of deceit, Claiming that you're a religion of peace, We just don't believe you, We can clearly see through, The madness that you're feeding your people, Jihad the cry of your unholy war, Using the willing, the weak and poor, From birth drowning in propaganda, rhetoric and slander, All we can say is damn ya
My forefathers fought and died for this here
I'm stronger than your war of fear
Are we clear?
If you step in my hood
It's understood
It's open season
I don't need a faith that's blind, Where death and hate bring me peace of mind, With views that are stuck deep in the seventh century, So much sand in your eyes to blind to see, The venom that you leaders preach, Is the path to your own destruction, Your own demise, You might say that I don't understand but your disgust for me is what I realize, Surprise!
Your homicidal ways has got the whole world watching, Whole world scoping, So if you bring it to my home base, Best believe it, The season's open
My forefathers fought and died for this here
I'm stronger than your war of fear
Are we clear?
If you step in my hood
It's understood
It's open season
I see you, Hell yeah I see you, Motherfucker naw, I don't wanna be you, If you come to my place, I'll drop more than just some bass, Yo you'll get a taste of a, Sick motherfucker from the Dirty, I ain't worrying not a fucking bit, I'm telescoping like Hubble, Yo you in trouble, Yo on the double, I'm wild with mine, Bring that style with mine, Fuck with my family I'll end your life, Just the way it is, Just the way it be, Do you understand? No matter if you're woman or man, or child, My profile is crazy, That shit you do doesn't amaze me, I'm ready to blaze thee
I don't give a damn what god you claim, I've seen the innocent that you've slain, On my streets you're just fair game, Like a pig walk to your slaughter, The heat here is so much hotter, And my views won't teeter totter or fluctuate, Step to me you just met your fate, And I'll annihilate, With the skill of a Shogun assassin, Slicing and dicing precise with a passion, In any shape form or fashion, Bring it to my home, Welcome to the danger zone, Cause your attitude's the reason, The triggers keep squeezing, The hunt is on and it's open season
It's Open Season
My forefathers fought and died for this here
I'm stronger than your war of fear
Are we clear?
If you step in my hood
It's understood
In talks with Chinese officials about the UN sanctions recently placed on Iran, Iran's nuclear chief said, with regard to obtaining nuclear capabilities for peaceful means, "if we are threatened, the situation may change."
Threaten us and we will nuke your ass! That's what I hear.
Anyone who doesn't believe Iran's mission is to build several large nukes to threaten others, including the U.S., is being naive to say the least. (Hat tip: LGF)
Iran's chief nuclear envoy Ali Larijani said on Friday that Iran is committed to the peaceful use of nuclear technology but warned the situation could change if his country is threatened.
"We oppose obtaining nuclear weapons and we will peacefully use nuclear technology under the framework of the Nonproliferation Treaty, but if we are threatened, the situation may change," He told a news conference after two days of talks in Beijing.
Iran's nuclear chief said his country has produced and stored 250 tons of the gas used as the feedstock for uranium enrichment, state-run television reported Friday.
Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said Iran has kept the uranium hexaflouride gas, or UF-6, in underground tunnels at a nuclear facility in Isfahan to protect it from any possible attack.
"Today, we have produced more than 250 tons of UF-6. Should you visit Isfahan, you will see we have constructed tunnels that are almost unique in the world," State-run television quoted Aghazadeh as saying.
On the heels of the Iranian nuke statement, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, if Iran attains nukes, Egypt will also have to in order to defend itself.
Is Egypt declaring its intentions to develop nuclear weapons? Thus it appeared in a speech delivered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Thursday on the occasion of meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Sharm e-Sheikh.
“We don’t want nuclear weapons,” Mubarak stated, “But since they appear highly present in the area, we must defend ourselves."