…and when did they know it?

Tristero at Digby’s, Susie Madrak, and Charlie Pierce all weigh in on the Jordan Michael Smith article at Salon: New NSA docs contradict 9/11 claims

Over 120 CIA documents concerning 9/11, Osama bin Laden and counterterrorism were published today for the first time, having been newly declassified and released to the National Security Archive. The documents were released after the NSA pored through the footnotes of the 9/11 Commission and sent Freedom of Information Act requests.

Based on the documents it would appear that the Hedgemony and Shrubbery were less than forthcoming about the lead up to the attack on the World Trade Center. The primary lack of intelligence was apparently in the White House, and the Shrubbery’s National Security Council, not the CIA et al.

It looks like John Ashcroft wasn’t the only person in the Hedgemony who cut funding for counter-terrorism and/or monitoring the al Qaeda threat. Actually, it is part of the Republican pattern – if a Democratic President thinks something is important, Republicans ignore it when they win control.

Position: 38.9N 46.4W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [075°] near 22 mph [35 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 70 mph [110 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 90 miles [150 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb ↓.

Currently about 635 miles [1025 km] Southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

It is picking up speed as it edges North and getting slightly stronger, but it is running out of warm water and will probably transition to Post-Tropical. It still isn’t considered a threat to coastlines.

Today at 6:09PM [CDT] is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe.

Many Wiccans celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who build the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.

The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.

The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain ] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.

Archæoastronomy tracks all of the important solar events, another of the many things I learned from Andante.