Clark: Bin Laden Not My Problem

NewsMax ^ | Sunday Jan. 4, 2004; 2:05 p.m. EST | Carl Limbacher

[Kaslin]

Democratic presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark has repeatedly blamed President Bush for not protecting America from the 9/11 attacks, regularly invoking Harry Truman's Oval Office motto, "The buck stops here."

But when it comes to intelligence gathered during the Clinton administration on the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, the then-Supreme Commander of NATO said Sunday that it just wasn't his job to intervene.

Clark passed the buck in bin Laden during the following exchange with NBC "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert:

RUSSERT: When you were Supreme NATO Commander were you aware of Osama bin Laden [and] al Qaeda? And did you warn anyone about the threat?

CLARK: The information [we had on bin Laden] was coming out of the Central Command area. What my responsibility was, was to take the measures in my area. [End of excerpt]

"In fact, we did have threats by Osama bin Laden," he told Russert. "We had continuing discussions on this at our commanders' conferences with the Secretary of Defense."

[Kaslin]

In the next breath Clark admitted that what he and other Clinton generals did about bin Laden pretty much amounted to all talk and no action.Typical of the Clinton Administration

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[polemikos]

Bush will capture Osama before Clark Clinton captures Ratko Mladic.

[OldFriend]

Clark gave the very same excuse regarding Rwanda. They 'talked' about it but that's all they did. Never mind that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost.

As for OBL, guess Clark doesn't mind that three thousand Americans were incinerated on 9/11......not his problem.

He had no problem moving the military in place at WACA tho. After all, they were innocent women and children he was about to set afire.

[Kaslin]

That is forsure

[Kaslin]

Clark gave the very same excuse regarding Rwanda. They 'talked' about it but that's all they did. Never mind that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost.

As for OBL, guess Clark doesn't mind that three thousand Americans were incinerated on 9/11......not his problem.

Not surprising is it?

[CyberAnt]

Well .. I read somewhere that in the WACO thing .. Clark was only responsible for loaning the military equipment .. that Clark was not in command of the operation ..?? Don't know if that's true or not .. but I'm not going to blame him for WACO until I know if he commanded the operation.

[OldFriend]

A waiver for the posse comitatus act was given and Clark, as head of the nearby military base, provided the tanks, tear gas, etc.

[OldFriend]

google in General Wesley Clark/WACO and read the story for yourself. It's in an article from Insight Magazine.

[Ann Archy]

I blame Clark for allowing the Clintons and Janet Reno to have the military kill American men, women and children. He would be truly a Leader if he would have stood up to those killers.....but, alas, the Perfumed Prince Talk But Do Nothing Positive is not a leader....he's a FRAUD thrust on us by the Clintons!!!!! BEWARE.

[angkor]

The Almost-Commander-In-Chief and the Wannabee-Commander-In-Chief (Clark and Dean) cannot for the life of them understand what sort of military leadership is called for at this time in our country's history.

It is seriously pathetic to watch the Rats in action.

[CyberAnt]

So .. all he did was provide the equipment .. he didn't command the mission ..?? Is that correct ..??

[CyberAnt]

Well .. you can't blame Clark for following orders .. that's what you do in the military. I mean .. after all .. he only provided equipment from the base he commanded .. he didn't command the mission.

A military person does not "allow" the President or the AG to do anything. Let's be realistic. You cannot blame an officer for following orders .. especially in the case of WACO, because I'm sure at the time Clark would have had no way of knowing what they intended to do with the equipment.

I'm not voting for Clark .. but smearing a guy just because he's an opponent is not my style. I think Clark is very dangerous .. partly because of his cozy relationship with the Clintons. Remember .. the democrats have plenty of ammunition we can fire at them .. we have no need to make stuff up.

[river rat]

The only ACTION Clinton successfully concluded during his entire administration -- was ejaculating on the blue dress.

Not ONE serious or effective action against terrorism was concluded during his entire administration..

In fact - Clinton and Clark with NATO, went to war to defend the Islamist terrorists in Kosovo....

Semper Fi

[weegee]

You cannot blame an officer for following orders ..

"I vas only following orders."

American tanks were used on American soil against Americans.

[philetus]

Who's Clark Bin Laden?

[CyberAnt]

Well .. you're entitled to believe what you want. However .. I believe there was an order signed by someone with higher authority than Clark allowing the equipment to be used by the police .. and at the time was it a known factor that the equipment was going to be used to kill people ..?? I don't think so. You're expecting Clark to have had some sort of premonition as to what was going to happen and thereby prevent it from happening. I don't see that as a very logical conclusion.

[PhiKapMom]

Excerpted from link below:

West Point graduate Joseph Mehrten Jr. tells Insight that, "Clark had to have knowledge about the plan because there is no way anyone could have gotten combat vehicles off that base without his OK. The M1A1 Abrams armor is classified 'Secret,' and maybe even 'Top Secret,' and if it was deployed as muscle for something like Waco there would have been National Firearms Act weapons issues. Each of these M1A1 Abrams vehicles is armed with a 125-millimeter cannon, a 50-caliber machine gun and two 30-caliber machine guns, which are all very heavily controlled items, requiring controls much like a chain of legal custody. It is of critical importance that such vehicles could not have been moved for use at Waco without Clark's knowledge."

"This is something that the general staff would know in the daily situation report or manning reports. Clark would have known and, given his obsession for micromanagement, there is probably someone who can place him on the scene. He wouldn't have been able to resist going in. At the very least there is no way he didn't have knowledge," Mehrten continues.

So what if the general was aware that his military equipment was being used against American civilians, and so what if he even participated in the planning? Wasn't he just following orders from above?

"To follow that order," explains Mehrten, "is to follow a blatantly illegal order of a kind every West Point officer knows is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Clark's obligation was to say, 'No, I'm not going to do it.' Look, Clark went to the same institution I did and at West Point we had extensive instruction in military ethics and issues concerning how one avoids obeying an illegal military order. It is drilled into our heads from the earliest days as cadets that the 'I-was-just-following-orders' defense isn't necessarily a good one."

He had the juice to say no, concludes Mehrten, "and he could have and should have. But if he had done so he probably wouldn't have gotten his next star. There is a reason critics say this man was not recommended by the military for that fourth star but got it anyway because of political clout, just as there is a reason that Chief of Staff Hugh Shelton brought him home early from Europe because of 'character and integrity issues.' Sure the Bradley vehicle could have been operated by a civilian, but that's unlikely. This military equipment is very specialized and would be virtually useless in the hands of untrained operators. But just using military equipment against civilians is running way afoul of Posse Comitatus. Legally, if he were involved in it and there were active-duty units where these armored vehicles came from, then it is a clear violation of the act. Clark's command at the time, 1st Cavalry, is an active-duty federal division and it is my understanding that these vehicles used at Waco were from Fort Hood – his command."

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/clark.htm

[OldFriend]

He had the right to argue that waiving the posse comitatus act against a farmhouse filled with women and babies was NOT a good idea. Instead he went along like a 'good soldier'. THAT IS NOT LEADERSHIP

[OldFriend]

Re your #17.......Clark was the highest in command at the military base. He KNEW the tanks and banned tear gas would be used against the Branch Dividians.

This standoff had been going on for weeks, was it not?