Yes, but that is what we do best around here, ya know?
As I said above -- and have said numerous times before -- Jim Robinson needs to buy us a TV network because there is hardly a person here who cannot refute this jerk with FACTS, something that would come as a shock to him, no doubt.
After all, we *ARE* professionals at this!
That we are and we've been doing it for a very long time. :-)
Clinton Nixed OBL Indictment for Black Hawk Down
The Clinton administration prepared a secret indictment of Osama bin Laden in 1995 in connection with the Black Hawk Down attack two years before, but never filed it - a witness before the 9/11 Commission is set to testify on Friday.
"[U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District] Mary Jo White was already working on a secret indictment against bin Laden as early as the late part of 1995," Clinton administration diplomatic troubleshooter Mansoor Ijaz told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday.
Clinton officials, said Ijaz, had "evidence in their hands" implicating bin Laden in the Oct. 1993 Mogadishu attack that killed 18 U.S. Army Rangers.
But they "weren't willing to use it to seek an indictment," he insisted.
Ijaz, who is scheduled to testify before the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors, said the investigation needs to focus on the question, "What caused that indictment not to be handed down?"
As early as 1994, said Ijaz, Sudanese officials had "made it clear [to U.S. officials] that they had very strong indications that bin Laden was closely behind and involved with the Mogadishu terrorist operations."
"At that time [the Clinton administration wasn't] willing to open all of that up," Ijaz maintained.
"But when the early 1996 decision came from the Sudanese to send their defense minister over [to negotiate bin Laden's extradition to the U.S.], there was no question that the Clinton administration was made very clear that bin Laden had casual ties in real terms to the group that killed our 18 [Rangers] in Black Hawk Down."
"Had they been able to take advantage of [Sudan's 1994 offer to share intelligence on bin Laden], the Clinton Justice Department could have indicted bin Laden, which would have enabled them to bring him to the United States," Ijaz contended.
In 2002, President Clinton confirmed to a New York business group that Sudan had indeed offered to extradite bin Laden, but explained, "I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America."
But Ijaz said he personally briefed Clinton on Sudanese evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the Mogadishu attack.
"I took it directly to the president," he told Malzberg. "I put it on the table. I did it because the Sudanese were only able to do it at the lower levels of our government because nobody wanted to listen to them."
"And one of the things I'm going to tell the 9/11 Commission next Friday," the one-time White House operative warned, "is precisely what happened in my conversation with Bill Clinton personally, where I told him these things were possible - and what he said to me."
Though Ijaz has said he hopes to eventually testify in public, he's not leaving it up to the 9/11 Commission to get the word out.
"It's going to shock the nation when I bring all this out in a book - precisely how ignorant these people were about what they were doing," he told Malzberg.
http://tinyurl.com/nqqko
weeks later family members of many of the dead were called to Washington, D.C., to testify at congressional hearings into the debacle.
"When Clinton heard they were in town, he called them into his office for a meeting and told them that part of the reason they were dead was their own fault," McKenny said. "He said they may have been responsible for their own deaths because they were 'too aggressive' in Mogadishu."
President Clinton, unwilling to risk further loss of American life, immediately called off the humanitarian mission and pulled the troops out of the ongoing Somalian conflict.
******
The kind of sweaty-palmed cut-and-run sentiment now gripping the Democratic Party over the question of Iraq was personified in the Oval Office 10 years ago by a panicked President Clinton. His hasty retreat after the "Black Hawk Down" battle created an image of American weakness that was noted by Islamic terrorists at the time and that the United States is still working to undo to this day.
In 1993, the forces of Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed -- hunted by U.S. forces -- brought down two Black Hawk helicopters and precipitated a vicious daylong firefight. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, Clinton managed a burst of bravado, telling an aide: "I believe in killing people who try to hurt you." But soon enough he would be worrying to George Stephanopoulos: "I hope I didn't panic and announce the pullout too soon."
Clinton briefly faked resolve publicly, vowing that "you may be sure that we will do whatever's necessary ... to complete our mission." About a week later he was saying, contradicting his administration's own policy to that point, "It is not our job to rebuild Somalia's society." In a letter to Congress, the White House promptly began rewriting history: "The U.S. military mission is not now nor was it ever one of 'nation-building.'"
Massive reinforcements were sent to Somalia, but only for show. Just days after Aideed's forces had killed 18 Americans, Clinton dispatched former ambassador to Somalia Robert Oakley to Mogadishu to tell Aideed that he was off the hook, the United States would no longer seek his capture. Aideed's clan, perhaps taken aback by the American pusillanimity, didn't believe it.
Mark Bowden, author of the book "Black Hawk Down," writes of how terrified the warlord's allies were after the battle: "Some of Aideed's strongest clan allies had fled the city fearing the inevitable American counterattack. The clan's arsenals of RPG's were severely depleted. Others were sending peace feelers, offering to dump Aideed to ward off more bloodshed." They didn't have to bother. Aideed could look forward, shortly after his attack, to becoming part of negotiations for peace.
Clinton's retreat broadcast a signal of weakness around the world. As it happens, al-Qaida operatives had provided assistance to warlord Aideed's forces. "It cleared from Muslim minds the myth of superpowers," Osama bin Laden said of Somalia in his interview with ABC News journalist John Miller in May 1998. "The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat."
After "Black Hawk Down," bin Laden probably asked himself: If 18 dead could shake America, well then, what could be accomplished by killing thousands? There were two lessons for the United States from Somalia: (1) Don't send U.S. troops somewhere unless it's truly important; (2) don't let setbacks scare you into retreat. The Bush administration seems to have learned both, and perhaps the world will eventually get a very different object lesson in U.S. staying power.
http://tinyurl.com/ftmky
Sunday, Aug. 11, 2002 10:52 p.m. EDT
Disabled Vietnam vet retired Capt. James Smith, whose son James was killed during the disastrous raid in Somalia memorialized in the movie "Black Hawk Down," took exception Sunday to ex-President Clinton's recent attempt to blame President Bush's father for the 1993 debacle during a recent interview with Washington, D.C., TV station WJLA.
"He seems to forget that when Bush number one sent troops into Somalia he sent them in by the tens of thousands. And they had complete armor, mechanized infantry, artillery, air cover support," Smith told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg.
While Bush the elder was president, the Somali warlords "decided to keep a low profile because they knew if they stuck their head up they were going to get it shot off," he insisted, adding, "So Bush number one did it correctly."
But things changed when President Clinton took over, the former soldier told WABC.
When his son's Ranger unit was sent to Mogadishu to capture notorious Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Adid, they didn't have the artillery, helicopter gunship or tactical air support they needed, he told Malzberg.
Smith's comments were prompted by Clinton's recent attempt to dodge responsibility for the episode, where he told WJLA, "Now, you know, I didn't blame [President Bush's] father for Somalia, when we had that awful day memorialized in 'Black Hawk Down.' I didn't do that."
Although then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin was forced to resign over the deadly blunder, Smith said he had no doubt that the decision to under-equip his son's unit came directly from the White House.
When he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the episode, the former soldier said reporters privately agreed, telling him, "Les Aspin had nothing to do with this. This was a White House decision."
"They knew how the White House works. They knew there was no way Les Aspin made that decision on his own."
Smith recounted his trip to the White House to meet Clinton, an invitation he suspects was prompted by advanced word on his damaging Senate testimony.
Instead of taking responsibility, the Vietnam vet said, the president "blamed Les Aspin, he blamed the Defense Department, he blamed the Joint Chiefs ... he blamed everybody except himself."
At one point, Smith recalled, Clinton even attempted to blame the Rangers "for being too aggressive."
"There were three fathers there," he told Malzberg. "The three of us just leaned over instantaneously and he backed off of that one."
After the exchange, Smith refused to shake the commander in chief's hand, handing him instead a 3rd Ranger Battalion patch.
"Don't forget them," he remembered telling Clinton.
"I honestly believed that the Rangers had died in vain, that the failure to provide proper combat support would have made the difference," he lamented.
Capt. Smith also revealed that he has another soldier son now in Special Operations who recently served in Afghanistan.
During a recent conversation with his son's Special Ops commander, he asked, "Sgt. Major, are we doing this one right or is this just a knee-jerk reaction?"
After a moment's hesitation, Smith said the commander responded, "Sir, we've got a real commander in chief this time. This time we're doing it right."
http://tinyurl.com/ew4jz
8/16/02
Clinton's Somalia Fiasco
President Clinton may be forgiven for his latest attempt at legacy maintenance, recounted in your editorial on his comments regarding Somalia ("Clinton's Black Hawk History," Aug. 6). After all, his reality is defined by his desperate need to be a "Great Man." So, he sees the failure and deceit of the past as strength.
What amazes me, however, is that Mr. Clinton appears to remember little and regret less about that terrible, pointless day in Mogadishu nine years ago.
I will never forget what so many of my friends and comrades did that day, and what too many gave up. I will always regret how, with the enemy on the run and at such terrible cost, we were prevented from re-arming, kitting up and finishing the task. Mr. Clinton, by contrast, has forgotten, and regrets nothing. As with all else, Somalia was someone else's mess.
John Belman
Member, Task Force Rangers, Somalia
Ann Arbor, Mich.
http://tinyurl.com/k666h