They have confessed that bin Laden was intimately involved at all stages in the planning of the attacks.
Their original idea was to organise two waves of attacks, the first using planes taking off from the US and the second in Southeast Asia.
Another early plan involved hijacking five planes on the US east coast and five on the west coast. It was abandoned because of the difficulty of co-ordinating such complex events in two time zones.

friedman: Saudi Arabia actually cares more about nurturing democracy in Iraq than Germany and France.

The single most striking impression from watching Bush in his session with White House reporters was the president's defensiveness.

chomsky
Death and genitals are things that frighten people, and when people are frightened, they develop means of concealment and aggression. It is common sense.

I do not think psychoanalysis has a scientific basis. If we can't explain why a cockroach decides to turn left, how can we explain why a human being decides to do something?

It is a shame that critics of Israeli policies are seen as either anti-Semites or self-hating Jews. It's grotesque.


"Bush's outfit gave him a very vivid basket," the Village Voice asserted, adding, "This was the first a time a president literally showed his balls." Saying that the "manly exhibition was no accident," the Voice surmised that the bulge was part of a PR stunt. "I can't prove they gave him a sock job," Richard Goldstein wrote, "but clearly they thought long and hard about the crotch shot." Goldstein went on to argue that Bush’s fly boy garb framed his groin to make his "bulge seem natural," which played upon the imaginations of men and women alike.

George W. was a hottie in his flight suit. He was the victorious commander, and most of all he looked at home with himself. He glowed with the pride born of authenticity, declaring the war over and thanking all those appreciative sailors on the decks of the Lincoln."

"I turned on the news," Lisa Schiffren wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "And there was the president, landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, stepping out of a fighter jet in that amazing uniform, looking--how to put it?--really hot. Also presidential, of course. Not to mention credible as commander in chief. But mostly "hot," as in virile, sexy and powerful." Schiffren also praised Bush for using "overwhelming military force to vanquish a truly evil foe," and for "facing down balking former 'allies,'" and implied that it was ridiculous that "he is not taken seriously as a foreign-policy president."

"One of the more cringe-inducing TV moments in recent memory was Matthews and G. Gordon Liddy sprouting rhetorical woodies over the spectacle of Bush on the carrier deck in his flight suit, his parachute harness showcasing the presidential bulge -- or, to use Liddy’s inimitable phrase, "his manly characteristic." One guy to another, Liddy put Matthews wise. "You know, all those women who say size doesn’t count, they’re all liars. Check that out."

Of course, the media’s role in manufacturing Bush's macho mystique began well before that aircraft carrier landing -- and extended to Donald Rumsfeld, as well. The National Review featured the cover story, "The Stud: Donald Rumsfeld, America's New Pinup," CNN described him as a "virtual rock star" and Fox News' deemed Rummy "a babe magnet for the 70-year old set."

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz wrote that "The secretary of defense is hotter than the exhaust fumes on a B-52. Everyone's genuflecting before the Pentagon powerhouse," while the National Review’s Andrew Stuttaford reported that "with every appearance, some say, [Rumsfeld] is making additional conquests, not of Herat this time, but of hearts, the hearts of women all over America, each beating a little harder at the thought of a man who, these ladies like to believe, doesn't need the help of a B-52 to make the earth move."

As Newsweek’s Christopher Dickey explained, "Every day we look weaker. And the worst news of all it that it’s not because of what was done to us by our enemies but because of what we’ve done to ourselves."

I can't prove they gave him a sock job, but clearly they thought long and hard about the crotch shot.
Clearly Bush's handlers want to leave the impression that he's not just courageous and competent but hung. Why is this message important to send? That's a very salient question, if only because it's unlikely to be addressed.

His public affect—the narrowed eyes, the locked-and-loaded look—is calculated to annul his liabilities, present and past. Imagine what the Republicans would make of a Democrat who was a cheerleader in prep school, who wrangled his way into Yale on family connections, and who weaseled out of active duty. Clinton was butch-baited for less.

barb BUSH: But the same would be true if something happened that was difficult for Jeb or for Doro or Neil or Marvin. And you can criticize me, but don't criticize my children and don't criticize my daughters-in-law and don't criticize my husband, or you're dead.

And incredibly, George Bush Sr. was in a business meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington on the morning of September 11th with one of Osama Bin Laden's brothers.
mr ed - this mite be bush protocol - cf hinkley.