Les mystères de Rumsfeld, dans la matinée de 9/11

Nos réflexions autour des thèses de complot concernant l’attaque du 11 septembre 2001 nous ont plutôt conduits à envisager des situations de “semi-complot”, où quelques-uns savaient ou pouvaient savoir, étaient complices ou pouvaient l’être, et les autres sans doute pas. Dans ces vaticinations, Donald Rumsfeld a toujours tenu une place importante, en raison autant du calibre du personnage, des mystères du personnage et, parfois, du comportement du personnage.

Un long article, publié le 30 mai sur OnLine Journal, par Matthew Everett, s’attache à la description critique du secrétaire à la défense, au Pentagone, le 11 septembre 2001, particulièrement au moment de l’attaque. L’article emprunte notamment des éléments importants au livre récemment publié de Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy. Cockburn, excellent journaliste et auteur, fait partie de la prolifique tribu des Cockburn (les frères Alexander, Andrew et David, Leslie, femme de Andrew), qu’on retrouve souvent sur CounterPunch, dont Alexander assure la co-édition avec Jeffrey St-Clair. Andrew Cockburn est sans aucun doute une source sérieuse et confirmée.

«On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered its worst attack since Pearl Harbor. Yet, as evidence shows, the country was in many ways undefended for the entire duration of the assault. The Air Force was nowhere to be seen until it was too late. The commander in chief of the armed forces, President George W. Bush, continued with a pre-planned photo op at a school in Florida, only leaving the place at 9:35, just before the time the Pentagon was struck. The acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers was on Capitol Hill. Despite seeing the television reports of the World Trade Center after it was first hit, he continued with a scheduled meeting there, and supposedly was not notified when the second plane hit at 9:03. He therefore did not head back to the Pentagon until around the time it too was hit, and only joined the critical air threat conference call shortly before 10 a.m. By that time, the attacks were nearly over.

»Furthermore, new evidence shows that for the critical two hours in which the attacks occurred, the country was effectively without a secretary of defense. An analysis of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s actions on 9/11 reveals several occasions when he was alerted to the attacks that were taking place. Each time, if he were not already doing so, he should have leapt into action and assumed his responsibilities in coordinating a crisis response, and helping to protect the people of America. Yet, instead, his responses were consistent: He did nothing.

(…)

»Andrew Cockburn concludes that Donald Rumsfeld’s actions on 9/11, in particular his desertion of his post in order to be seen helping at the Pentagon crash site, “changed him from a half-forgotten twentieth-century political figure to America’s twenty-first-century warlord. On a day when the president was intermittently visible, only Rumsfeld, along with New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, gave the country an image of decisive, courageous leadership.” [25] Yet, as a closer analysis shows, Rumsfeld’s behavior that morning was sinister and highly suspicious. The fact that an individual in such a position of responsibility should have acted as Rumsfeld did at such a critical moment should be of concern to us all.»

Mis en ligne le 2 juin 2007 à 10H18