Coleen Rowley Makes Some Sense

In this interview at Antiwar.com. I've slammed her a few times for failing to articulate clearly that she doesn't believe that the government allowed the 9-11 attacks to happen, but here at least it is clear that what she is talking about is how some incompetence (particularly at the CIA) resulted in the attacks not being stopped.

And there I find it hard to disagree with her. She points out that the Moussaoui case was brought to DCI George Tenet's attention in August of 2001, in a Power Point presentation entitled "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly". She makes the interesting point that it was not Moussaoui's laptop computer that contained the information that would have linked him back to KSM and Ramzi Bin-al-Shibh; rather items in his personal possession.

I suspect her case on the preventable nature of 9-11 is weaker than she claims; even if they had traced Moussaoui back to KSM, would that have revealed the hijacking teams? I don't know, but certainly it would have resulted in a lot of attention being given to Muslims learning to fly in the US.

We spend a lot of time here debunking the 9-11 Truthers for their fantasies of controlled demolition and the missile at the Pentagon. So I was disappointed that Coleen showed up at a 9-11 Truth conference to lend them some of her credibility. But after listening to this interview, my sense is that Rowley's no kook. She's clearly very much anti-war, but that's not a kook position, even if it's not my position.

A New Cause for the Troofers!

Free Zacharias Moussauoui! The Moose is trying to undo his guilty plea:

The attorneys told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that Moussaoui's guilty plea was invalid because he was confused about the charges and didn't know that other al-Qaeda members had given information to interrogators that could have cleared him. Moussaoui pleaded guilty in 2005 to an al-Qaeda conspiracy to crash planes into U.S. buildings that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. After a two-month sentencing trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, he was sentenced to life in prison.

They might even get some significant support from the Left on this one. Talk Left, a major liberal law blog writes:

One thing the Government never established was his participation in 9/11, and that's the crime for which he's serving a life sentence. (The jury rejected the death penalty. Here's an account of the defense closing argument.)

It's unlikely Moussaoui will prevail. However, it should be noted he is a bumbling holy warrior serving life not for being a part of the 9/11 attacks, but for being a member of al Qaida, belligerent, stubborn, foolish and wanting to be a martyr.

I agree that Moussaoui was not intended as a pilot for the 9-11 attacks; rather I suspect he was intended to be part of the second wave of attacks that never came. Here's the statement of facts that Moussaoui agreed to:

9. Moussaoui knew of al Qaeda’s plan to fly airplanes into prominent buildings in the United States and he agreed to travel to the United States to participate in the plan. Bin Laden personally selected Moussaoui to participate in the operation to fly planes into American buildings and approved Moussaoui attacking the White House. Bin Laden told Moussaoui: “Sahrawi, remember your dream.”

As you can see, there is nothing there indicating that Moussaoui was part of the 9-11 team, but he was guilty of 9-11 foreknowledge--maybe not specifics but certainly in general. I'm not sure why Jeralyn Merritt, who's a pretty savvy blogger, is siding with him, but this earlier post gives us some indication:

Moussaoui stated today that Osama bin Laden had personally selected him to fly a plane into the White House. Is he telling the truth? Or is he on a death mission and exaggerating his participation in al Qaeda and his role in it to ensure he gets it? Have the oppressive conditions of his incarceration won out?

Help, help, he's being oppressed!