Bush The Decider and The Lackawanna Six
The New York Times reports that back in 2002, Bush Administration officials debated whether to send American troops to Lackawanna to arrest the terror suspects who would be known as the Lackawanna Six.
Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants.
Mr. Bush ultimately decided against the proposal to use military force.
According to the story, there was quite a bit of discussion on the matter and while the New York Times seems to focus on the push for the use of troops, it appears that there largely opposition to it in the Bush Administration.
Still, at least one high-level meeting was convened to debate the issue, at which several top Bush aides argued firmly against the proposal to use the military, advanced by Mr. Cheney, his legal adviser David S. Addington and some senior Defense Department officials.
Among those in opposition were Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser; John B. Bellinger III, the top lawyer at the National Security Council; Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Michael Chertoff, then the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.
In the end, Bush made the right decision. It was obviously a tough situation, as the country was really treading on new territory with the global war on terror, but at least there was discussion on the options and debate. Bush-haters like to claim that Bush merely surrounded himself with like-minded people, or was a “puppet” of Cheney. But, obviously there was more than one opinion on the matter, all issues and concerned were weighed, and, incidentally, Bush didn’t choose the option Cheney supported. There was clearly more thought, debate, and planning with the war on terror in the Bush Administration than there has been since January 20, 2009. Barack Obama’s reckless decision to close Gitmo without a plan being a prime example.
I’ve read Bob Woodward’s book Bush At War, and it is a fascinating look into the months following the September 11th attacks, and the gravity of the decisions that had to be made. It is certainly hard to look back now, nearly eight years later, and understand what the Bush Administration had to deal with. The Lackawanna Six were arrested nearly a year after the September 11th attacks. And while those were still very uncertain times. I still say even though the war on terror is a national security issue that merits use of the military, that having the FBI make the arrests in this case was the right call.
UPDATE: Subsequent stories have reported shock about the news that Cheney supported the use of the military.
“If you bring in the military, you create a panic,” Lackawanna Police Captain Ronald Miller said. “If you look at our history, the military, the National Guard, are brought in during times of extreme emergency, like [Hurricane] Katrina and securing New York City after 9/11.”
“I was really kind of surprised,” First Ward resident Patricia Barco said in reacting to Cheney’s proposal. “I’m glad cooler heads prevailed because everything went smoothly. Living in this neighborhood, we all get along and I don’t care what anyone’s nationality is.”
Of course, it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback here… Everything may have went smoothly, but could have foreseen then exactly how things would go?
Tags: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Lackawanna Six, war on terror
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