ReillyT
Senior Member
Did you miss this part?
On Tuesday, Ellison told me that he invoked the Reichstag fire to make the point that "in the aftermath of a tragedy, space is opened up for governments to take action that they could not have achieved before that." Which of the Bush administration's post-9/11 actions did he place in that category? The Iraq war, Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence and certain provisions of the Patriot Act, he said.
Those seem a tad short of unleashing storm troopers, torturing political opponents and demolishing the rule of law.
During his speech, Ellison went on to tell the atheists that "I'm not saying [Sept. 11] was a [U.S.] plan, or anything like that, because, you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball box -- dismiss you."
Granted, such statements might get you dismissed as a nutball. But are they true?
Ellison now says they are not. When we spoke, he agreed that Osama bin Laden -- not the Bush administration -- was responsible for the attacks on 9/11.
But why didn't he do the responsible thing and say that when asked about it at the atheists' meeting?
I don't understand. Nothing in what you just quoted had him ever saying that it was an inside job. In both of the sections which actually quote Ellison, he is making it clear that a) it was not an inside job, and b) it opened an arena for the expansion of executive power. Okay... cool. I got no problem with either of those statements.
The only other instance of him speaking (and it is not quoted) is where the columnist says that "he agreed that Osama bin Laden -- not the Bush administration -- was responsible for the attacks on 9/11."
Cool once again. I don't get. Please refer back to my introductory comparison lesson, and review the portions A & B.
[On a related point, I think pretty much (I don't know them all) all the liberals on this board would say that 9/11 was not an inside job. We would also disagree with someone who did say that. The only 9/11 question left with respect to Ellison is what did he mean. He says he never meant it was an inside job, so.... we're cool.]