The world is a happy happy place. We just have to give people a chance to show their happy side. The nice man in North Korea - Happy trying to get out of a sad body. But he can do it. I'll show him how!
Posted on 09/22/2003 12:36:09 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Kudos to Tim Russert for managing to go a week without urging a guest to agree with him that the tax cuts should be rescinded and for raising with Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, a scenario laid out in a new book about how, after the bombing of the USS Cole, she opposed going after Osama bin Laden.
During Albright's appearance on the September 21 Meet the Press, Russert read from a new book by Richard Mintier on how the Clinton administration failed to pursue bin Laden. Russert read a passage, with the words on screen, ellipses as on screen:
"There's a debate which is waged in political and diplomatic circles about September 11. Could more have been done by the Clinton administration prior to September 11 -- and you write about some of that in your book. Another book called Losing Bin Laden is out and it talks about, the Clinton administration, you specifically. Let me go through that and give you a chance to respond. In October 12, 2002, the USS Cole was blown up. 'An American warship had been attacked without warning in a 'friendly' harbor -- and, at the time, no one knew if the ship's pumps could keep it afloat for the night. Now, they had to decide what to do about it.
"'[Clinton administration counter-terrorism czar Richard] Clarke had no doubts whom to punish. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had compiled thick binders of bin Laden and Taliban targets in Afghanistan, complete with satellite photographs and GPS bomb coordinates...The detailed plan was 'to level' every bin Laden training camp and compound in Afghanistan as well as key Taliban buildings in Kabul and Kandahar. 'Let's blow them up,' Clarke said....
"'Around the table, Clarke head only objections—not a mandate for action...
"'Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was against a counterstrike—but for diplomatic reasons. 'We're desperately trying to halt the fighting that has broken out between Israel and the Palestinians,' Albright said. Clarke recalls her saying, 'bombing Muslims wouldn't be helpful at this time.'...
"'Albright urged continued diplomatic efforts to persuade the Taliban to turn over bin Laden. Those efforts had been going on for more than two years and had gone nowhere. It was unlikely that the Taliban would every voluntarily turn over its strongest internal ally.'"
Done with the book excerpt, Russert pointed out: "And nine months later, after that discussion, September 11."
Albright answered by boasting of how much the Clinton team did to get bin Laden after the embassy bombings in Africa, but she insisted they did not have any definitive evidence to tie him to the Cole bombing.
For a look at Mintier's book, Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror, see Regnery Publishing's page on it:
http://www.regnery.com/regnery/030820_losing.html
Albright answered by boasting of how much the Clinton team did to get bin Laden after the embassy bombings in Africa, but she insisted they did not have any definitive evidence to tie him to the Cole bombing.
Or
Dereliction of Duty by Lt.Col Robert "Buzz" Patterson,USAF [Ret.]Carrier of the "nuclear football":
On August 7, 1998, truck bombs exploded at the U.S. embassies in Nairrobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Two hundred and wenty-four people were killed, twelve of them Americans. More than five thousand were injured. President Clinton responded, "We will use all the means at our disposal to bring those responsible to justice, no matter what or how long it takes...We are determined to get answers and justice."
It was cyrstal clear that these attacks were tied to bin Laden. On August 20, the president ordered a retaliatory strike. Five U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea fired sixty Tomahawk cruise missiles at for suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan known to be used by bin Laden and his senior staff. From the Red Sea, two Navy warships fired another twenty missiles at the Al-Shifa pharmceutical plant, in Sudan, suspected of manufacturing chemical weapons.
The attack on bin Laden failed. He escaped themissiles and was able to enjoy his safety as a guest of Afghanistan's Taliban government. The success of the attack on the pharmacutical factory was less clear. Intelligence officials had provided evidence that the plant could have been used for the development of VX nerve gas. At best, the strikes were a message, at worst, they were ineffective and insignificant.
In the wake of the retaliatory strikes, Secretary of State Madelieine Albright notied, "I think it's important for the American people to understand that we are involved in a long-term struggle. This is, unfortunately, the war of the future." But it was obvious to me [Patterson] that the Clinton administration went right back to business as usual; there was no follow-up, let alone any "war on terror".
Two years later, on October 12, 2000, the final act of terrorism during the Clinton presidency occurred. Seventeen American sailors were killed and thirty-nine wounded off the coast of Yemen when terrorists floated a bomb-laden boat to the edge of the USS Cole and detonated it. Clinton's response was muted. He called the attack "a despicable and cowardly act" and added, "We will find out who was responsible and hold them accoutable." As in the embassy bombings, investigators quickly linked responsibility to bin Laden and his network, yet nothing more substantial was done.
Dereliction of Duty.. pg. 140-141
In other words, Clinton wanted a Nobel Peace Prize, and boneheaded lefty logic (Palestinians = Muslims = Bin Laden = "bombing Muslims wouldn't be helpeful") dictated that this would trump straightforward national defense considerations.
Infuriating.
Probably because O'Reilly already asked her those questions during his interview on Fox last week. Albright denied that anyone ever offered up OBL.
News came out today that there was originally supposed to be up to five hijackings on 9/11/01, with five targets on the east coast and five on the west coast. Can you imagine what the impact to this country would have been if the radical Islamists had succeeded in so expansive a plan of attack? That they actually were planning such a massive attack is a testament to how they learned not to fear the U.S. during the Clinton era. We should all be turning our energies to (1) further exposing this truth, (2) demanding answers to why no one in the Clinton administration is being held accountable for their criminal negligence.
Yeah, Maddie preferred to bomb Orthodox Christians instead.
Without a doubt, history will prove that Clinton was a bum.........but we all know that already!
Yeah, Maddy, that was a great plan. We might as well have asked the Nazis to turn over Hitler in 1942.
The world is a happy happy place. We just have to give people a chance to show their happy side. The nice man in North Korea - Happy trying to get out of a sad body. But he can do it. I'll show him how!
I had heard about the ten total this morning. I did not hear whether they actually tried to carry out four or five on 9/11. Were five more hijackers ready to take another plane and they stopped for some reason (late flight, rumors of ugly virgins waiting for them, plane landed before the hijacking could be done) or did they only try for four on that day?
Incompetent boob.
"There must be 50 ways to leave a secretary of state, but Joseph Albright took the direct route.
"Without warning [in 1982], he said: 'This marriage is dead and I am in love with someone else,' recalls Madeleine Albright in her new memoir, 'Madame Secretary.'
" '[He] told me he was moving out . . . to live in Atlanta, where the woman he loved was a reporter. Beyond saying that she was considerably younger and beautiful, Joe didn't volunteer more information.'
"Madeleine Albright remembers that Joseph, a newspaper heir and foreign correspondent, 'called me daily. [He'd say,] "I love you 60% and her 40%." Or the next day, "I love her 70% and you 30%." '
"He later married Marcia Kunstel, still his wife and writing partner."
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