Braggadocio: Bill Clinton Admits to Serious Violation of Law

Human Events ^ | 9/29/6 | Oliver North

[ZGuy]

"I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since."

-- William Jefferson Clinton, Sept. 24, 2006

Now there's a passage for the next edition of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations"! It was a stunning, blatant confession -- made in the midst of a heated exchange on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace -- that as president, Clinton sanctioned the assassination of Osama bin Laden. To put this little piece of braggadocio in context, it should be noted that no other American head of state -- sitting or former -- has ever before admitted to such a serious violation of law. Though assassination is specifically forbidden as a course of action open to U.S. officials -- including presidents -- no one seems to have taken notice -- perhaps because they were so caught up with the theater of what was happening on the screen -- and not listening to the words being said.

Over the course of the past week there is hardly a talk show in America that hasn't run the tape of the Clinton tirade and then proffered instant analysis of the former president's performance. One jabber-jawed host even asked a guest after playing the clip, "Who won that exchange between Wallace and Clinton?" as if he were interviewing the judges at the Friday Night Fights.

Yet, not one of the "experts" has, as yet, observed that in all of this, the biggest losers weren't on screen -- it's the American people. The tape of a former president, arrogantly proclaiming on international television that he personally authorized the killing of a foreign foe may be great stuff for the screenplay of "Rambo V" -- but it's specifically forbidden by U.S. and international law. Over the course of fighting the jihad being waged against us, Clinton's intemperate words will come back to haunt us many times over. And of course, he won't be the one to pay the price.

Apparently neither violations of law nor increasing the vulnerability of the American people seem to matter much to Clinton, his political cronies or his allies in the media. The silence has been deafening from the barons of bombast and political potentates who went nuts last year when Rev. Pat Robertson suggested that Venezuela's tin-horn dictator Hugo Chavez should be "eliminated." Then, there were calls for an investigation of Robertson. Not so for Clinton.

For the record, Clinton proudly claimed to have broken a long series of U.S. law:

• Executive Order 11905, signed Feb. 18, 1976, by President Gerald Ford in response to the Church Committee. Section 5(g) of that order states "no employee of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination."

• Section 2-305 of Executive Order 12036, signed by President Jimmy Carter on Jan. 24, 1978, broadens the prohibition from "political assassination" to "assassination" generally.

• Executive Order 12333 -- signed by President Ronald Reagan on Dec. 4, 1981, specifies that assassination is against the law and contrary to U.S. policy. Section 2.11 of the order, labeled, "Prohibition on Assassination" says "no person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination." The next section (Section 2.12) states "no agency of the intelligence community shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this order."

Without hubris, I must acknowledge that I wrote, "staffed" and presented EO 12333 to President Reagan for his signature. I was asked then -- and have been many times since -- if I thought such a prohibition was important. I did then and I do now. And since no chief executive has ever rescinded them, it seemed as though they did, too -- up until Clinton's petulant outburst.

Ordering the assassination of a foreign national is arguably more important than lying about a tryst with an intern in the Oval Office. So where is the "shock and awe" from human rights standard bearers who still complain about the so-called abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay? Do they not care that Clinton ordered an assassination?

Where are John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Arlen Specter and Colin Powell now? If we want the world to know our prisoners of war are accorded protection under the Geneva Conventions, don't we also want the world to know we don't engage in assassination?

And since presidential findings -- orders for the CIA to conduct covert operations -- are all highly classified, shouldn't those who reveal them be held accountable?

Ah, there's that word again -- "accountable." It doesn't apply to Clinton.

[poobear]

"Ah, there's that word again -- "accountable." It doesn't apply to Clinton."

Ah, but be damned any Conservative who would utter such claims. Ollie, good catch!

[GBA]

Great post! I've been wondering about that myself. UBL was offered to Clinton and he didn't take him, but in an interview he tells the world he was trying to kill him?

[PureTrouble]

Law is mostly for US to not kill leaders of other countries. Osama was not the leader in Afgan.

[beltfed308]

Executive Order 12333

If there were 12,333 of these executive orders then. How many are there now?

[P-40]

UBL was offered to Clinton and he didn't take him, but in an interview he tells the world he was trying to kill him?

I am sure that Clinton can once again claim to have 'misspoken' and use the same excuse he used with the 9/11 Commission regarding Sudan's offer on Bin Laden...that he was confused over press reports.

[El Sordo]

Innerestin'.

[woofie]

Clinton and law dont mix

[A Citizen Reporter]

"Where are John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Arlen Specter and Colin Powell now? If we want the world to know our prisoners of war are accorded protection under the Geneva Conventions, don't we also want the world to know we don't engage in assassination?"

A VERY good question, Ollie.

[PhiKapMom]

ROFLOL! This is great!

[Onelifetogive]

The tape of a former president, arrogantly proclaiming on international television that he personally authorized the killing of a foreign foe may be great stuff for the screenplay of "Rambo V" -- but it's specifically forbidden by U.S. and international law.

The problem is....while committing a political assassination and conspiracy to commit a political assassination are crimes, lying about them are simply Clintonian....

[Diamond]

"I worked hard to try to kill him."

It depends on what the meaning of "kill" is?

Cordially,

[Diamond]

"I worked hard to try to kill him."

It depends on what the meaning of "kill" is?

Cordially,

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

This needs to be trumpeted frpm the highest mountaintops again and again and again. Email it around people.

[TomGuy]

For Clinton, in his own mind, shoulda-woulda-coulda equals accomplished.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

While I agree with the tenor of the article, the author seems to conflate "law" and "executive order." I'm not sure the referenced EOs would be considered "law." Wikipedia says "Some orders do have the force of law when made in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress due to those acts giving the President discretionary powers." Were the EOs by Ford, Carter and Reagan written to comply with acts of Congress?

Any lawyers care to comment?

[SoCal Pubbie]

Nah, it depends on what the meaning of "worked hard" is? With Monica around the White House, wasn't Bill always "working hard"?

[Just mythoughts]

It was an I am a tough guy lie, knowing there was no evidence to the contrary. We all know it would have been "LEAKED" were it true!!!! extreme sarcasm...

[edcoil]

Ann Coulter noted this in this weeks column of what he says he did vs what he actually did.


Clinton yelled at Wallace: "What did I do? What did I do? I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since."

This is so crazy it's worthy of an Air America caller. Clinton has consistently misrepresented the presidential directive about political assassinations. Clinton did not order bin Laden assassinated. He did not even lift the ban on intelligence agencies attempting to assassinate bin Laden.

What he did was lift the ban on political assassinations — provided that assassinating bin Laden was not the purpose of the mission. So if U.S. forces were engaged in an operation to capture bin Laden, but accidentally killed him, they would not be court-martialed.

[Revenge of Sith]

That's correct. Osama was never a head of state. I find it hard to believe that Ford, Reagan or Bush 41 would have construed the executive order to protect terrorists.