"your government failed you," begins richard clarke in his opening statements for the 9/11 commission.

ouch. damn. what a way to begin. former white house aide clarke trashes the bush administration on its mishandling of 9/11 and the war on terrorism. the bush administration aren't denying the accusations, just ignoring them, and trying to character assasinatinate clarke, calling a disgruntled employee playing partisan politics (don't forget that clarke is a warhawk republican who served in every administration since reagon.)

some of the things clarke goes over in his testimony:

+ Clarke repeatedly warned the Bush Administration about attacks from al Qaeda, starting in the first days of Bush's term.
+ On September 12, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld pushed to bomb Iraq even though they knew that al Qaeda was in Afghanistan.
+ Also on September 12, 2001, President Bush personally pushed Clarke to find evidence that Iraq was behind the attacks.
+ The Bush Administration knew from the beginning that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11, but created the misperception in order to push their policy goals. "
+ The war on Iraq has increased the danger of terrorism.
(from moveon.org)

families and friends of victims waiting for answers, and accountability.

a huge amount of discussion going on kos about all this ("richard clarke, patriot", "your government failed you","9/11 commission open thread" and many more...)

this is only the beginning, let's see how all this pans out...