Posted on 09/23/2006 1:49:25 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
The liberal website Thinkprogress has published a rough transcript of Bill Clinton's interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, and it appears to be even more contentious than the brief clip that has been released shows. Here are some excerpts from Clinton's angry defense of his conduct of the war on terrorism, beginning when Wallace asked him "Why didn't you do more, connect the dots and put [al Qaeda] out of business?"
I will answer all of those things on the merits but I want to talk about the context of which this arises. I’m being asked this on the Fox network…[note — these ellipses are in the Thinkprogress transcript]. ABC just had a right wing conservative on the 'Path to 9/11' falsely claim that it was based on the 911 commission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 commission report. I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much. Same people….
I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him. The CIA was run by George Tenet who President Bush gave the medal of freedom to and said he did a good job.. The country never had a comprehensive anti terror operation until I came to office. If you can criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this, after the Cole I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full scale attack search for Bin Laden. But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan which we got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that Bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would have had to send a few hundred special forces in helicopters and refuel at night. Even the 9/11 Commission didn’t do that. Now the 9/11 Commission was a political document too. All I’m asking is if anybody wants to say I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book…
At least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t….. {ellipses in the Thinkprogress transcript]. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… [ellipses in Thinkprogress transcript] So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me….
I worked hard to try and 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. And if I were still president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that think Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever…
Clinton's answers raise many points that call for answers. More tomorrow.
Let's help make that a reality.
Ok, MM, but we'll have to flip a coin over who gets to touch his forehead with a toothpick to make that happen. ;-)
I don't know why, with Clinton forcing himself in the news today, the song "Devil in a Blue Dress" comes to mind after reading your post!
"He looks like he is in more dire need of a b****** than any white man in history."
Heart meds would preclude any of that activity..........
He looks crazy in the eyes in that freeze frame on Drudge.
He should be impeached again.
L
"I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him."
So that's what was in the Burger papers' notes.
Ranks, Jeff. :-)
That was the first thing that crossed my mind! It is so illegal, maybe we should take his ass back to court and this time he admitted it on television, WHAT AN IDIOT! I he was lying he would have to reveal that to save his butt so either way we win....he lies and goes to jail or tells the truth that he is a liar.
Where was Daddy? Might explain some of it.
But when he speaks, he leaves no doubt that he's crazy in the head....the words "Bin Laden" are the trigger which sends him over the edge.
Great post!
Well, then consider yourself a hero. You are if you stood up to those murderers and traitors.
BJ Chavez
Say what? I'll leave the 'neocons' for now. But when have any on the right claimed Slick was too obsessed with bin Laden? We claimed he was obsessed, but not with anything masculine. Even his legacy isn't all that macho.
Perfect you should send those questions to Meet the Press!!
FINALLY it all turns! I want to laugh and laugh.
I also want to thank Monica. If she hadn't been so open about everything, maybe none of the other women would have been. I guess it's really Linda Tripp we owe that all to. We may not have been able to avoid the 8 years we had with him in the WH, but at least the one thing he wants more than p**** is going down in flames and ashes -- his legacy.
I am sick. I just watched a segment of The Beltway Boys, where Mort Kondrake stated klintoon's approval rating is at 60%. No way in hell!
LLS
As opposed to those darned left-wing conservatives?
The President of the United States of America is prohibited from ordering the military, FBI, or CIA to kill an individual. Congressional action is the ONLY way to authorize an operation. The Impeached one said that HE put it together.
Soooo does this mean that instead of a phone tap we just tripple tap them and it is ok? Sweet, rounds are much cheaper than sattelites and translators:-) I think I know some guys who would volunteer to help out. This would increase our level of security and help people stay dialed in on their weapons.
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