Posted on 07/23/2004 1:11:17 AM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON - U.S. officials scrapped a 1999 plan to offer the Taliban a $250 million bribe to turn over Osama Bin Laden, fearing then-First Lady Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would object to paying off the infamous women's rights abusers.Clinton had long criticized the Islamic regime in Afghanistan for covering women with burkas and denying them educations and jobs.
According to the final 9/11 commission report, Bill Clinton's administration had already made fruitless overtures to the Taliban, paying $10 million to $20 million annually in bribes.
"Two senior State Department officials suggested asking the Saudis to offer the Taliban $250 million for Bin Laden," the report said, citing a May 1999 memo. But White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke "opposed ... a 'huge grant to a regime as heinous as the Taliban' and suggested that the idea might not seem attractive to either Secretary Albright or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton - both critics of the Taliban's record on women's rights."
"Sen. Clinton was a vocal critic of the heinous Taliban regime well before 9/11," said her spokesman, Philippe Reines.
James Gordon Meek
Originally published on July 23, 2004
Yes, this is great. I don't know if you all remember the disinformation, propogated by Robert Scheer (sp) and other liberal journalists that the Bush admin was supporting the Taliban before 9/11 (which was an outright lie - the Bush was giving relief aid in the form of wheat and money which was disbusred via the UN to Afghanis and explicity not the the Taliban), but it turns out that actually it was the Clinton administration that was doing so!!! I wonder if Robert Scheer and company will write an article apologizing for their past smear of President Bush and condemning Clinton admin for supporting the Taliban?
Foiled by their fear of Hillary??
HAHAHAHHAAHHA
and to think they never made the offer for Ossama because Hillary might have been upset!!!!!!!
Devil's advocate says this was appropriated by Congress and signed off. Most likely for anti-heroin or humanitarian uses. If anyone can bring up a itemized list that would be start. Now I'm sure Clinton was getting money FROM the Taleban...just hasn't come out, yet.
They do that all the time. They blame their "enemies" for doing what they are guilty of doing and know full well that their "enemies" aren't doing what they are claiming. It's called Saul Alinsky (the father of democratic radicalism) Hillary's teacher.
No wonder this never came out.
This is nothing more than a Friday morning news dump. Now they can pretend its OLD NEWS.
It's clear now why Richard Clarke was passed over for the head of Homeland Security.
I found this...
26 December 1997
There is movement on two diplomatic and political fronts, and even President Clinton has expressed his support for one initiative coming out of the United Nations. There, the UN's drug czar has proposed giving the Taliban regime economic support in exchange for its cooperation in eliminating the cultivation of the opium poppy and attempting to restrict the heroin trade. Pino Arlacchi, the man in charge of US drug operations, says that Taliban fundamentalists have expressed their intention to crack down on opium production. Earlier this month, the White House announced approval for Arlacchi's initiative which calls for a 10-year development program to assist the theocratic regime, beginning with $25,000,000 in assistance in 1998.
snip
For President Clinton, the benefits may be more immediate. Adam J. Smith of the Washington, D.C.-based Drug Reform Council charged earlier this month that in Afghanistan and elsewhere, President Clinton has allowed the bogeyman of his own perceived weakness on the drug issue to chase him into the arms of tyrants. Smith added that with the Republicans preparing to attack the Democrats in the year 2000 elections -- and possibly Al Gore -- for being too soft on drugs, aiding despotic regimes as part of an anti-drug strategy.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:kj6uv0JBBfQJ:www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/115.html+clinton+funding+taliban&hl=en
Treason.
They would have never accepted the bride and even if they did, they would have never turned Osama over. After 1998 the US should have defeated the Taliban terrorist regime and the terror groups, such as Al Queda, it harbored.
Yup, a stupid thing. One can compare it currently to the $250 million dollars the US gives each year to the Palestinian Authority for nothing...oh...they do get something in return - body bags (as the PA sponsors both terror in Israel and Iraq)
Who is UNOCAL?
1997-UNOCAL brought members of the Taliban here to the States to wine and dine them, take them to beach, show them their U.S. offices and take them to Washington to meet with the Clinton State Department. The fact they are harboring a wanted terrorist, bin Laden, is ignored.
snip
1997-The Northern Alliance threatens to overrun the Taliban and is poised to remove them from power. The Clinton Administration imposes a cease fire that both sides agree to. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan use this opportunity to re-arm the Taliban army. Clinton knows this is happening, but withholds that information from the Northern Alliance and Congress. This action assures that the Taliban will solidify their power and push back the Northern Alliance.
snip
1998- UNOCAL gave up all hope of a pipeline across Afghanistan and pulled out. Not because of Afghanistan harboring a terrorist, but from pressure from the Women's Rights groups over the Taliban's treatment of women in Afghanistan.
snip
1999-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, (R-Cal), who has spent time in Afghanistan fighting with the Northern Alliance, received credible information as to the whereabouts of bin Laden in Afghanistan. He immediately contacted the CIA with this information. The Information was never acted on. During the Clinton Administration the Voice of America became known, within Afghanistan, as the Voice of the Taliban. “People go berserk when I say that Clinton supported the Taliban, but that is the truth.” says Rohrabacher.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:YrN_0giR_u4J:www.republicanandproud.com/clintonlegacy.htm+clinton+funding+taliban&hl=en
ambrose- Weird huh? We now have proof that the fear of Hillary affected federal policy!!
Clinton's 'Talibangate'.
Is the New York Daily News a reliable source? The only thing I know about them is that almost daily they have a big anti-gun story.
Probably true (we'll never know), but the point is the reason why they didn't do it.
I don't want to seem on the side of the Clinton Administration here, but if that statement is being made, one could also say that Bush is currently helping fund Hamas (through US direct aid to the PA terror regime that is harboring Hamas) or that Roosevelt helped fund the KGB through US funding Stalin's communist dictatorship during WWII. What one can say is that the US, as history has shown, needs to practice more logic in who it gives money to (even now, as it continues to send money to a regime itself that publicly prides itself on murdering Americans, the Palestinian Authority, and has done so numerous times in Israel and in Iraq).
The fear....HER, not OBL.
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