Given the evident failure of American intelligence agencies to prevent the kamikaze attacks of Sept. 11, I was surprised that the chiefs of the FBI and CIA didn’t submit their resignations the following day and even more surprised that President Bush soon afterwards expressed his support for the current administrations of those agencies.
Now I’m alarmed that the only Arab to be indicted.so far was arrested before Sept. 11, implicitly discrediting the cases against the hundreds of purported terrorists and friends of terrorists arrested and held, exempt from legal niceties, after the attacks. Putting only him on trial makes me skeptical about the others.
I’m also alarmed at all the attention given the young man from Marin County who was captured fighting with the Taliban. How was a Hot Tub Prince able to join an organization that apparently resisted infiltration by intelligent, well- paid, and well-educated American intelligence operatives?
