Wino,
I share your interest in the conspicuous lack of demotions and outright firings over this extraordinary series of systemic "lapses"...
Looks like they've chosen FBI Director Meuller to take it on the chin for the lot of them--in spite of the fact that he'd been on the job for less than two weeks before the tragedy occured.
This administration has repeatedly stonewalled and rejected the value of any investigation into the events that preceeded 9/11--which I find phenomenally suspect.
I think the reason nobody's been canned is because they had, indeed, advised the Vice President and the President that the possibility for something like this to happen was getting more and more real--with every passing day. I think their collosal arrogance got the better of them and they blew it off, in favor of granting "wishes" and operating effectively like a governmental arm of the oil and gas industry to keep the pockets of friends and family well lined---
that's what I think.
Now, think back--to that look on Cheney's face when he was talking about the directive to shoot down flt93--remember that look of tough resolution... See if that doesn't make your stomache turn, in the wake of the possibility that they
had been forewarned--but opted, instead, to dedicate their energy elsewhere.
I don't know why this was suddenly rescinded--I were going to pull meaningless regulations off of the FAA's books, I wouldn't have started there... But, whatever.
What troubles me, is that we're already seeing signs of people becoming too confident:
American Airlines CEO Urges Some Airport Security Measures Be Dropped
Excerpt:
"It will be a hollow victory indeed if the system we end up with is so onerous and so difficult that air travel, while obviously more secure, becomes more trouble for the average person than it is worth," Carty said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo.
Carty, who was in Japan to meet with business officials, said the airlines and the U.S. government improved airport security swiftly after the Sept. 11 attacks. In hindsight, as with many hastily made decisions, some aspects need changing, he said.
He said screening passengers at the gate after doing so at the security checkpoint merely added to costs and customer hassles.
"With the amount of security that we have in the aviation system today, the likelihood of a terrorist choosing aviation as the venue for future attack is very low," Carty said. "When you compare security across various potential venues, the airline industry is enormously well secured."
And then, he contradicts himself:
Carty said he was not opposed to pilots' having handguns in cockpits, but that priority should be given to other security measures such as screening passengers. Earlier this week, the U.S. government decided against allowing firearms in cockpits.
Carty didn't mention other specific measures he felt should be dropped.