Former President Bill Clinton Defends Handling of Usama bin Laden in Combative FNC Interview

Fox News ^

[boughtwithaprice]

NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton accused Chris Wallace of carrying out "a conservative hit job" on him after the "FOX News Sunday" host asked him about his administration's handling of the growing Al Qaeda threat in an interview. . . .

Clinton pointed the finger at Republican factions in Congress and Pentagon for stymieing his anti-terrorism efforts.

"All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office," Clinton said. "All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough, said I did too much — same people.". . .

Clinton vigorously defended his efforts to hunt down Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden after the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, saying he authorized the CIA to assassinate him and even contracted with other parties 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," Clinton said. "I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it, but I did try and I did everything I thought I responsibly could."

[muawiyah]

Billzo was hopped up. Doesn't prove a thing.

[shankbear]

Clinton is such a sack of goat excrement. His nose was growing ever larger as he spoke.

[Mr. K]

They don't like it when their own tactics are used against them...

I hope the inteveiwer asked why he didn't answer the phone when they had Bin Laden in their scope sights waiting for his command...

[labette]

".. accused Chris Wallace of carrying out "a conservative hit job" on him .."

See tagline.

[digger48]

I'm still waiting to see the quote, where any conservative ever accused The Rapist of being "obsessed" with benLayden

[dighton]

Some combatant.

“If you want to fight, join the Army.”

[butternut_squash_bisque]

Eat LOTS more fatty burgers and trans-fat-coated fries, Billy Bob Bubba Jeffy Klintoon, TRAITOR!

[Captain Jack Aubrey]

This person is a serious nut case.

[Mobile Vulgus]

It was the funniest interview I have seen in quite a while. He was out of his mind, spouting foolishness, jumping to conclusions, badgering the interviewer... he came close to losing control totally!

Ha, ha,ha.

[dennisw]

Bill Clinton EMBARRASSED HIMSELF. He came off like a paranoid. He's a horse's ass and operated the same way when he was President

[P-40]

President Clinton, in a February 2002 speech to the Long Island Association, said that the United States did not accept a Sudanese offer and take Bin Ladin because there was no indictment. President Clinton speech to the Long Island Association, Feb. 15, 2002 (videotape of speech). But the President told us that he had “misspoken” and was, wrongly, recounting a number of press stories he had read.After reviewing this matter in preparation for his Commission meeting, President Clinton told us that Sudan never offered to turn Bin Ladin over to the United States.President Clinton meeting (Apr.8, 2004). Berger told us that he saw no chance that Sudan would have handed Bin Ladin over and also noted that in 1996, the U.S. government still did not know of any al Qaeda attacks on U.S. citizens. Samuel Berger interview (Jan. 14, 2004).

[anonsquared]

Do you know what I would like to see on YOUTUBE.com? I'd love it if someone could put together side-by-side screens: on the left, the footage of Bill Clinton emphatically stating that he did not have sex with that woman & on the right, Bill Clinton emphatically stating that he did all he could to bring Osama to justice. I swear he has the same angry posturing and facial features in both because HE KNOWS HE'S LYING while the words are coming out of his mouth. If you didn't put sound to either one, it would look identical. Just put subtitles under each and call it LYING AGAIN!

[TNCMAXQ]

Drudge is playing clips now. Clinton sounds like he is ill. Says he has "never criticized President Bush." What a load of bull.

Now he's saying Chris Wallace is some kind of right wing attack figure. The same Wallace who was praising Sens McCain, Warner, and Graham the other day for being "real patriots," as opposed to GWB.

[stephenjohnbanker]

clinton sux.............details at 11............

[Andy from Beaverton]

All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden

Whatever! Stop rewriting history! If you were obsessed with OBL, you would have picked the other side in Bosnia and KosovO.

[FairOpinion]

"They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office," Clinton said."

====

NOT TRUE.

A Strategy's Cautious Evolution

At 1:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, two weeks after receiving the nod as Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice walked into a room whose maps and charts only partly obscured the peeling of pale yellow paint. Room 302 of the Old Executive Office Building had become the unlikely seat of a bureaucratic empire built by Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey, his chief of staff.

In this first meeting with Rice, on Jan. 3, he won a prompt invitation to keep the job.

"The focus was on al Qaeda &endash; who is al Qaeda, what is al Qaeda and why is it an existential threat?" Clarke recalled in an interview.

Rice told him first, he said, that the dangers appeared to be greater than she had known.

"Her second reaction was 'What are you going to do about it?" Clarke said. "I don't think we actually got a tasking at that meeting, but it was clear that she wanted an organized strategy review. She didn't just passively take this information."