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.
Hmmm...don't think BJ's been this riled up since his grand jury questioning.
Wow! He went off his rocker. I guess he's not used to being asked real questions.
Anybody know what time it will be on tomorrow?
Well, you're half right, BJ.
Anyway, you've got your legacy. Enjoy it.
Gee, Billy boy is watching his so-called "legacy" turn to shi* right before his eyes. He squeals like the pig he really is, and I trust the American people a lot more than I trust that lying P.O.S. former President. Thank God he is out of office now. Hey Bill, still like black dresses?
When he starts wagging and pointing his finger is when you know he's making something up. Watch for that gesture in the interview.
Bin Laden: Dead Or Alive? ~ CBS reporters from Karachi - London
Clinton has to believe that Rove is behind this latest report....
Does anyone get the feeling that the election tide for November is turning and that Clinton's efforts to rewrite his legacy may actually be helping to turn it?
Pal, we've been saying you didn't do enough a lot longer ago than just now.
The very notion that this sociopath still thinks he can screw up his face, wag his finger, and try to assert some righteous indignation over a legitimate question is ridiculous.
Hey, Slick: That ploy may psych out the ladies, but it ain't playin' here.
What a lying MF. This creep will be trying to make excuses and rewrite history until the day he dies.
Now you have to admit that that is a classic Clintonism.
How does that make any sense? My head is spinning in circles... How do you quantify 'closeness' like that? I think he means that he 'intended' to kill UBL more than President Bush did. That's pretty much his legacy - intentions.
A_R
I mean, really, Bubba, this almost goes beyond whining to read like Phil Queeg's "strawberries" riff from "The Caine Mutiny".
She can blame any "loss" on him.
She'd never admit that if she hadn't married Bubba, we'd all be saying: "Hillary, who???".
Those are some priceless sound bites. He crashed and burned with those. Those are going to be added to the wav file collections on hundreds, maybe thousands of radio station sound boards and played for humorous effect for years to come.
Bill Clinton-the gift that keeps on giving.
[Wow! He went off his rocker. I guess he's not used to being asked real questions.]
Oh yeah, his blood pressure must have pegged 300/180.
"All of President Bush’s neocons claimed . . . ."
Them Jooooos!!!
That is news to me.
I believe conservatives have been saying that Klintoon did not do enough because he was obsessed with MONICA!!
Bin Laden? If you were obsessed with catching bin Laden, you would not have turned down the Sudanese when they offered him to you!
Oh, and you cannot weasel out of that one as it is YOU on tape telling us that!!
What a low life, scum.
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