WARNINGS UNHEEDED

I wonder where the biased liberal media folks left their courage.

A panel appointed by Bill Clinton delivered its final report on terrorism
shortly after George W. Bush took office. Rather than take recommended
actions, Bush created a new panel to study the matter some more.

Attorney General John Ashcroft abandoned Clinton's domestic anti- terrorist
efforts in favor of his crusade against medical marijuana. When warned by
FBI Director Louis Freeh about the terrorist threat, Ashcroft brushed him off.

Outgoing Clinton advisor Sandy Berger's warning to Bush's national security
adviser, Condoleezza Rice, of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden went
unheeded.

Bush assures us that the 9/11 attacks couldn't have been prevented, and the
FBI director says otherwise. Bush says the government possessed
"unconnected dots" before 9/11, yet on June 6, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter,
R-Pa., told CBS, "I don't believe any longer that it's a matter of
connecting the dots. I think (the government) had a veritable blueprint."

After the Aug. 6, 2001, briefing with the "vague" warnings about bin Laden,
an alert president would have ordered a review of all data on al-Qaida. But
Bush concluded nothing and continued his month-long siesta at the ranch.

Yet our ever-alert watchdog media which had devoted years to rooting around
in the ruins of one of the smallest failed savings-and-loans in the country
like pigs seeking truffles, and followed Monica Lewinsky around in search
of scandal give a sleepwalking president and his incompetent henchmen a pass.

F.C. Kuechmann

Vancouver