Please copy, email, print, send to any and every American you care to. Never forget.
Posted on 11/13/2001 4:54:37 PM PST by spycatcher
Former chief White House political advisor Dick Morris revealed Tuesday that his former boss Bill Clinton cared so little about global terrorism that his own Assistant Secretary of State had trouble getting him to pay attention to a bomb threat against the Khobar Towers Air Force barracks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
"In 1996, I got a phone call from Dick Holbrooke," Morris told WABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "He said, 'We're getting hard intelligence that terrorists are planning another hit on our guys in Riyadh.... They're in the exact same building they were in when it was hit last time.'"
In June 1996 the Khobar Towers military barracks had been hit by a suicide bomber believed sent by Osama bin Laden, killing 19 American airmen.
Months later, after the barracks had been repaired, U.S. military personnel reoccupied it. Holbrooke told Morris that the new U.S.A.F. tenants were "sitting ducks in that building," and then added:
"I've been trying to get a hold of the president for two weeks about this and we're getting increasing reports about (the threat). Can you call him?"
Morris said that when he reached Clinton about Holbrooke's warning, the president began cursing and complained, "You mean they're still in that building? I ordered six weeks ago for them to be dispersed."
Clinton said he would take care of the problem at a meeting with the Joint Chiefs the next day, Morris recalled. "But he didn't follow it up," the top political strategist noted. "He didn't know whether they were in the buildings or not. He was inaccessible so the guy who knew (about the threat) couldn't be in touch with him."
Morris told Hannity the oversight was typical of the way the administration worked. "Clinton was a one-issue-at-a-time guy," he said, adding that the only foreign policy issue that seemed to engage him was Bosnia.
The reference to Bosnia prompted this exchange:
HANNITY: The only time he paid attention to foreign policy was when he had Monica working -- who was he speaking, what Alabama congressman?
MORRIS: Yeah, right. But the - well, he spoke to me on one of those.....
HANNITY: Ahhhwwww!
MORRIS: He did. No, no, I'm in the Starr Report. I'm one of the four conversations (where Clinton had sex with Lewinsky while talking to others on the phone).
Citing another example of Clinton's lax attitude towards terrorism, the former White House political guru noted his boss never visited the World Trade Center after it was bombed in February 1993.
"When the bombing happened, he just issued a statement saying we'll fight them and all that. And then he gave it his Saturday radio address.... It was never a big priority."
During Clinton's second term, Morris said he was "terribly, terribly and totally distracted by impeachment. There was no way that he was going to pay enough attention to an issue like terrorism."
"In the second term," Morris said, "we didn't have a president. Now, was it his fault for Monica? Was it the Republicans' fault for impeaching? Was it his fault for not resigning? Who knows.
"But the fact is the United States didn't have a president for two years and that's why."
Sez it all.
"But the fact is the United States didn't have a president for two years and that's why."
Just the opening Clinton needs to blame it all on someone else - i.e., the VRWC. The truth of the matter is we didn't have a decent president for EIGHT years. And that fault resides solely on his head.
Please copy, email, print, send to any and every American you care to. Never forget.
B-but the press told me Clinton was brilliant, didn't forget things, and was wonderful at multi-tasking!
"'Clinton was a one-issue-at-a-time guy,' he said..."That can't be true; we were told over and over again that Clinton had an uncanny ability to compartmentalize.
"'Clinton was a one-issue-at-a-time guy,' he said..."That can't be true; we were told over and over again that Clinton had an uncanny ability to compartmentalize.
That'snot the same as "multi-tasking". It's more the ability to be oblivious to everything but what you are dealing with.
I have a good friend who contributed to her Senate campaign. He didn't communicate with me for a long time after I emailed him the picture of her flicking the serpent tongue. We have to realize, we inhabit a different reality than do these people. As Walter Williams said - separation is the only answer.
I know. If Morris doesn't know, then that is just more evidence of his own moral depravity (as if further evidence was needed).
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