Clinton saw no al Qaeda link to Cole

Washington Times ^ | April 10, 2004

[BigWaveBetty]

Former Vice President Al Gore met with the September 11 commission privately yesterday, a day after President Clinton told commissioners that intelligence wasn't strong enough to justify a retaliation against al Qaeda for the 2000 bombing of a U.S. Navy ship.

[BigWaveBetty]

Commissioners said that Mr. Clinton addressed big-picture policy issues.

And that worked out so well.

"He was adamant about trying to work in a bipartisan way to fix the problems," said Democratic commissioner Timothy Roemer, a former U.S. representative from Indiana. "He was quite honest and frank."

Here Mr. Roemer, use my hankie to wipe your face.

[bayourod]

If Clinton had just "shaken the trees" he would have known about the attack on the Cole beforehand.

[JENINMO]

Bipartisan Commission? Give me a break!

[hflynn]

If Clinton had just "shaken the trees" he would have known about the attack on the Cole beforehand.

Clinton wasn't concerned about beforehand. Bill was busy using his forehand and it wasn't trees he was shaking.

[AD from SpringBay]

Commissioners said that Mr. Clinton addressed big-picture policy issues.

Does Monica's rear-end count as a big-picture issue?

[Solamente]

This from a man who worried only about getting his schvantz caught in the links of his zipper.

[First_Salute]

Why was the U.S.S. Cole ordered to Yemen?

[Fiddlstix]

Clinton wasn't concerned about beforehand. Bill was busy using his forehand and it wasn't trees he was shaking.

Bingo!

[TomGuy]

One radio commentator said last week that personnel on the ships like the Cole were not allow to have or show weapons when they approached ports in the ME. That was a Clinton era directive. The Clinton Admin didn't want weapons shown because it might be intimidating.

If that is true, the USS Cole sailors would have been unable to fire upon the approaching bomb/boat, even if they had realized.

So, why isn't the Commission concerned about things like that? [Rhetorical question--they don't want any questions raised about the Clinton era. So, there would be no investigating the Murrah Federal Building. Where was the Commission for that? Don't those 160+ who died there deserve a full and complete investigation? Oh yeh, politics. And the Dems control the politics.]

[BigWaveBetty]

This is the only explanation I could find in a short time:

But in an effort to improve relations with the current moderate government—a move advocated by the former commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command and other senior U.S. officials as part of the U.S. engagement strategy—the Navy started using Aden for refueling in 1999. The Cole was the 28th U.S. ship to use the port in two years. Link

That's sounds about right if my memory serves.

[NormsRevenge]

Would you like another "piece of pizza" , Mr. President? 9-)

[Belisaurius]

You asked why the Cole was ordered into Yemen.

I can answer that question, because my ship, the USS Sirocco pulled into Aden, Yemen a few months before the Cole.

Aden is the only place between Salalah, Oman and Port Suez, Egypt where we could refuel. The refuelling point there is actually a cement island in the middle of the harbor, and from a force protection pov, not a bad place to park your ship. Unfortunately, the Cole did not take force protection seriously, and they paid for it. This was due to a uniquely USN tendency to treat personal weapons like nuclear warheads, i.e. there was so much fear of accidental discharges or a loss of accountability for even one 9mm pistol round, that, before the Cole, there was a reluctance to do more then post a minimum of armed watchstanders. Often, these watchstanders had very little training on the use of their weapons and the rules of engagement.

Fortunately, for me, the USS Sirocco, since we worked with special warfare forces, took force protection very seriously, and deployed an overwhelming show of ironmongery while we were there. It was readily apparent, to anyone watching, that any attack on us would not have succeeded.

Happily, the USN has learned the lessons of the Cole, although there is still too much focus on 'gun safety' and not enough on 'gun use'.

[Belisaurius]

It's easy, and often, the right idea, to blame Clinton, but he's off the hook in this case. Clinton et al did not keep us from displaying, ready for use, a GAU gun, 2 twin 50 cal. mounts, 2 M-60s, as well as several guys floating around with M-4s, and the entire crew strapping Sig Sauer pistols...all this on a 400ton ship with a crew of 30. The Cole got hit because the Cole was asleep.

The amazing thing to me is that the CO got off pretty much scotfree...this in a Navy which normally holds COs absolutely responsible for any mishap that occurs on their watch. Guys routinely get fired for running ships aground and collisions.

[M-cubed]

Commissioners said that Mr. Clinton addressed big-picture policy issues.<<< Like what? How he could get Monica's fat as* on a big screen TV...That would have been a big-picture issue for him....

[Sabatier]

" ...my ship, the USS Sirocco pulled into Aden, Yemen a few months before the Cole...there was a reluctance to do more then post a minimum of armed watchstanders..."

What you say makes sense of the situation. Great post.

BTW, with all the second-guessing by Clarke and the Democrats have any of them explained exactly what an administration - any administration - was supposed to do beforehand to prevent a particular instance of terrorism when there was no system in place to detect and prevent it?

Oh, there should have been such a system? You bet. Should the possibility of terrorism on US soil have been taken as seriously before 9/11 as after it? You bet. All the way back to the fall of Iran. That would include the Clinton years, of course.

[Helms]

  

Schvantz

There exist euphemisms that, while limning the lewd, offer themselves up on a different plane: that of verbal delectation. Compared with dick, schlong, johnson, willy and so many more, shvantz offers something almost serene and glowing, perhaps recalling Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper or the elegant skater's curve cut on the water by Sibelius's swan. This applies equally to such variants as schvantz, schvanz, schwantz, schwanz, schvontz, shvonce and shvuntz. The hilarious contortion envisaged in the idiom step on the (your) shvantz, displacing step on it and step on the gas, evokes what used to be called the anatomical impossibility: go ---- yourself. Add to this innovation the military version of the phrase, meaning to blunder, commit a snafu, and you gain some idea of the verbal Laocöon that someone cussing can become entangled with. It has been said that, without the Jewish passion for reading, there would no longer be any serious literary culture left in the United States. By a similar token, without Yiddish, there would be a dearth of saliva-spraying, mildly-obliterative words and phrases of condemnation. Moral: Those who read know how to damn.

                    

©1999 Paul West and Nerve.com   

[Belisaurius]

The same could be said for taking anti-air defense seriously before and after Pearl Harbor. Sometimes, shock is only thing that will effect change.

[JesseHousman]

...Clinton told commissioners that intelligence wasn't strong enough to justify a retaliation against al Qaeda for the 2000 bombing of a U.S. Navy ship.

Besides, Billy Goat was too interested in what was going on in the kneehole of his desk!

[3catsanadog]

"He said he's going back in his mind over and over again about whether there was something more he could've done," Mr. Kean told PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. . . . ."

". . . . . so the Commission has concluded that because the Clinton Administration worried and fretted, they are absolved. Bush is still to blame."

[BigWaveBetty]

We are living in Bizzaro World.