Accountability

What do the following stories have in common:

Espionage in the White House;

Iran's fingerprints are all over bombs that have blown up in Iraq killing scores of people;

Airbus landing gear problems go back years without resolution;

Ethan Allen, the boat involved in accident resulting in 20 deaths, was unstable;

The investigation continues into Hinrichs' suicide bombing;

Porter Goss will not seek an accountability review for former CIA Director Tenet and others relating to 9/11; and

A summary report of Able Danger will be released in coming weeks.

That list seems pretty disparate, but there is a theme. It's accountability. Or the lack thereof. Are any of the individuals or entities involved in these incidents going to be held accountable for their actions? Is Porter Goss going to let George Tenet and other former high level CIA workers off the hook, despite their failures to detect and/or treat Islamic terrorism as the highest threat to the US before 9/11? Is the Able Danger story going to be whitewashed behind a report that doesn't say anything as to why Able Danger was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report? Will the Commission be chastized and publicly renounced for its failures to detail all relevant information? Will the boating company be held responsible for a boat that appears unsafe to handle the number of passengers it was rated for? Will the federal and state government revise the passenger loading/weight standards because of changes in what average weights are? Will the individuals involved in the spy ring that extended from Washington, DC to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey be brought up on charges of treason or will they be charged under lesser crimes, even though the ultimate goal of the involved individuals was to undermine US national security? In other words, are they going to be held accountable for their actions?

We've been hearing for weeks and months, especially among the blogging elites, that Iran has had their hands all over the bombs blowing up in Iraq. Will someone finally stand up to Iran and tell them flat out that their actions will force a reaction that they would not likely survive? Will the world sit idly by while Iran uses a proxy army of terrorists to undermine a nascent democratic regime in Iraq?

Will we get to the bottom of what happened in Oklahoma and whether Hinrichs acted alone, whether it was a suicide or part of a terror campaign?

So far, I think that we can rate who will be held accountable or not. The owners of the Ethan Allen will face numerous lawsuits, and will probably go out of business as a result. The NTSB tests look pretty damning. The federal government will take another 5 years to modify the weight restrictions to account for the growing waistlines of Americans.

Airbus will face greater scrutiny from the FAA and the FAA will eventually issue an airworthiness directive that forces the A320s to be fixed properly. JetBlue will suffer as a collateral party since they rely solely on the Airbus planes for their fleet of aircraft.

The spies involved in the Filipino spy ring at the White House will face reduced charges, but no one will actually be executed for treason. The incident will be swept under the rug, especially since it occurred during two administrations.

No one will be held accountable for lapses and failures relating to Able Danger or 9/11. And that is the scariest part of all. Nothing has changed among the bureaucrats and those who are entrusted with the solemn duty of keeping this nation safe from all threats, foreign and domestic.

UPDATE:
Captain Ed notes an important clarification in the New York Times:

The New York Times provides important clarification this morning, noting that Aragoncillo did his spying after his security detail at the White House, and that no evidence exists (yet) of any such activity during his tenure as a security staffer for Al Gore and Dick Cheney

. The quick linkage in the media between the White House and the spy case may have been due to partisan politicking, but there is no evidence thus far that Aragoncillo spied while stationed with the White House detail.