The 51-minute gap is significant

* Glenn:

"It is widely accepted, even by journalists, that the media failed to subject government pre-war claims about Iraq to sufficient scrutiny. The fact that even six months after the American invasion of Iraq, 70% of Americans were allowed to believe that Saddam personally planned the 9/11 attacks is, by itself, a rather conclusive testament to the profound failure of the media to inform citizens of the facts behind the government's claims.

That must not be allowed to happen again. If Americans want to initiate a military attack against Iran due in part or in full to Iran's support of Hezbollah's attacks against Israel, that is something they can decide. Plenty of other countries have gone to war before in defense of their allies. But the debate has to be honest and clear. Americans should not decide to attack Iran because the Bush administration is allowed to mislead them -- as they are clearly trying to do -- into believing that Iran (or Syria) is behind the terrorist threats against the United States. Iran has as much involvement in terrorist threats against the U.S. as Iraq had -- which is to say none at all -- and the administration cannot be allowed to get away with implying otherwise."

* glenn:

"(The AEI's) featured publication currently is this war cry from Resident Fellow (and NRO Cornerite) Michael Rubin, which argues that diplomacy with Iran is pointless. It is devoted to this conclusion: "Tehran may still conduct diplomacy to fish for incentive and reward . . . but, at its core, Iranian diplomacy is insincere. The Iranian leadership will say anything and do anything to buy the time necessary to acquire nuclear capability." Another featured article is by Richard Perle, lambasting the President for "dithering," "blinking" and "beat[ing] an ignominious retreat" in the face of the mortal Iranian threat. Still another, by Reuel Marc Gerecht, urges the Bush administration to stop being so "overwhelmed and deflated" by the war in Iraq and get on with bombing Iranian facilities in "Natanz, Isfahan, Arak, Tehran, and Bushehr."

* nyt:

"The Transportation Department’s inspector general urged the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday to consider disciplinary action against two executives who failed to correct false information provided to the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
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The acting inspector general, Todd J. Zinser, whose office acts as the department’s internal watchdog, found in a new report that the F.A.A. executives, as well as a third official who is now retired, learned after the fact that false information was given to the commission in May 2003 about the F.A.A.’s contacts with the Air Force on the morning of Sept. 11.
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The 51-minute gap is significant because it helps undermine an initial claim by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which is responsible for domestic air defense, that it scrambled quickly on Sept. 11 and had a chance to shoot down the last of the hijacked planes still in the air, United Airlines Flight 93.
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Richard Ben Veniste, a commission member, said in an interview on Friday that he was troubled that it had taken the inspector general two years to complete his investigation — “more time than it took the 9/11 commission to complete all of its work’’ — and that he released the report “on the Friday afternoon before the Labor Day weekend.”

Mr. Ben Veniste said he was convinced that the failure of the aviation agency and the North American Aerospace Defense Command to provide early, accurate information about their performance had “contributed to a growing industry of conspiratorialists who question the fundamental facts relating to 9/11.’’"