Posted on 05/13/2002 10:02:33 AM PDT by Lucky2
Monday, May 13, 2002 10:48 a.m.EDT Bush White House Angered by Secret Clinton-Abdullah Meeting
The Bush White House was surprised and angered when it discovered two weeks ago that ex-president Bill Clinton held a secret meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah only hours after members of the royal family met with President Bush and his father in Houston.
"To the dismay of White House planners, [Abdullah] saw an unscheduled and unexpected visitor: Bill Clinton," reported USA Today on Monday - more than two weeks after NewsMax.com became the first news organization to reveal the secret sit-down in print. (See: Clinton in 3-Hour Mystery Meeting with Saudi Prince Abdullah)
The paper notes that the surprise meeting had taken place at "a sensitive moment for the Middle East," during a visit where the Bush administration had taken great pains to "plot every detail of [Abdullah's] weekend trip to Texas."
"The former president, in Houston for a fundraiser and staying at the same posh hotel as the Saudi leader, headed upstairs after midnight for a private chat that had been arranged only a few hours earlier. Their 90-minute meeting didn't end until 2 a.m.," USA Today said.
Actually, according to former top Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, the Saudi-Clinton get-together lasted much longer - till 4 a.m., according to his little-noticed remarks on ABC's "This Week" the next day.
And just hours before the Stephanopoulos comments, Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told Fox News that Abdullah's meeting with the ex-president featured three hours of "serious talks."
White House officials were apparently so embarrassed by Clinton's efforts to upstage President Bush that they refused to respond to NewsMax.com's inquiries about the meeting.
The silence left many concerned that Bush himself had signed off on Clinton's foreign policy meddling at a moment of crisis in the Mideast.
But according to USA Today, the ex-president didn't even have the decency to notify the White House about the high-stakes get-together.
"[Bush] aides express exasperation about Clinton's impromptu session with Abdullah two weeks ago, at a time of delicate negotiations and evolving policy," the paper revealed. "No administration official sat in on the meeting."
Indeed, NewsMax.com confirmed that officials at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, where Abdullah met with Bush senior on Friday, April 26, had no idea that Clinton was scheduled to meet the Saudi prince just hours later.
"I can assure you Clinton was not here on Friday," said Tom Hughes of Texas A & M University, where the Bush library is housed. "We would have covered that if he was."
Even members of the local Houston press queried by NewsMax were unaware of the Clinton-Abdullah mystery meeting.
I've been saying this for quite some time too. Those 900 FBI files go a long way in explaining what the 'toons get away with. They've got something on just about everybody in congress, not to mention plenty of journalists, etc. Nothing sticks to the 'toons for just that reason.
Also, it is entirely possible that the Bush administ- stunt. They can't keep their eyes on Clinton at all
times. He is an ex-president. Although he is always
under some suspicious cloud; he hasn't been convicted of
anything (Unfortunately). With most other American ex-
presidents, we would expect them to at least in-form
the current one of it's dealings with foreign figures,
But not Clinton, he hasn't got the decency. With Clin-
ton, the rules other ex's follow, he figures he doesn't
have to follow. We have come ot expect that of him.
With clinton, he pushes the packet enough that it is
merely shady, but never quite criminal. Someday, they
will hopefully find something that will really stick to
him. Someday he and his followers will let down their
guard, and he will be exposed again. Then they can
catch him.
Doc
There is so much to not like about Bush now, I was merely focussing on how he lets Rat x-Potuses basically step on him with golf shoes.
It would take many, many, threads to talk about the shortcomings of W, though, I applaud your reply.
But, Bush has a lot of power now, Clinton, much less.
If Clinton and Carter continue to perform ad hoc foreign policy excursions that Bush does not like, Bush has every right to hassle the two clowns with the usual tools in his toolbox: the FBI, the CIA, maybe a special investigator, maybe just a sh*tty letter from the Attorney General. Whatever.
How about just a condemnation of their behavior in a press conference?
But SOMETHING should be coming out of Bush's mouth except platitudes.
He is just dropping the ball every day.
And he looked so good following September.
I was a fool.
I listened to his Madison Avenue slogans, and, I actually believed them.
Silly me.
Carter has gone surpassed dasshole's criticism of President Bush while Bush was out of the country. ex-President Jimmy Carter has gone to a foreign country, a totalitarian country, a country run by a murderous dictator and stood side by side with the dictator and accused the administration of LYING to him regrding Cuba.
IMHO, these acts are worse than any committed by bubba (although those acts led to our current state of affairs). And yet...WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE!!!!!!
Clinton did "volunteer" his "services" as unofficial Mideast peace envoy. I recall that Colin Powell publicly declined the "offer".
YOU'RE DARNED RIGHT BUSH HAS CLASS!! We won't get LUCKY enough for Bubba to have a convenient heart attack, or have his brains bashed in by a convenient burglar (never caught, of course) at the White House, or have his brains conveniently blown out.
"We've even been accused of murder." -- former Co-Klepto-in-Chief, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Yes, it does.
However, you pretty much know the Klinton's behavioral patterns by now. If the administration goes after him, he and Prince What's-His-Face will say they don't recall any such meeting took place. Clinton and the rest of his Third Way New Democrats will whine and moan that the VRWC is conducting a "witch hunt" against po' innocent Bubba.
You mean "Prince of Piece" don't you? (Personally, I prefer Beezlebubba - the Prince of Darkness"
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