Posted on 10/10/2005 5:21:14 PM PDT by MangoCrazy
Lanny Davis Confirms Freeh on FOX!
I hadn't thought of that
Clinton Has No Clothes
What 9/11 revealed about the ex-president.
By Byron York, NR White House Correspondent
From the December 17, 2001, issue of National Review
snip
Khobar Towers happened not only in the midst of the president's re-election campaign but also at the end of a month in which there were new and damaging developments in the Whitewater and Filegate scandals.
Khobar Towers
"In June of 1996, it felt like an entire herd was converging on the White House," wrote Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos in his memoir, All Too Human. A herd of scandals, that is: In late May, independent counsel Kenneth Starr had convicted Jim and Susan McDougal and Jim Guy Tucker in the first big Whitewater trial; in June, the Filegate story first broke into public view, and Sen. Alphonse D'Amato issued his committee's Whitewater report recommending that several administration officials be investigated for perjury. It was also in June that the White House went into full battle mode against a variety of allegations contained in Unlimited Access, a book by former FBI agent Gary Aldrich.
All these developments were heavy on the minds of Clinton, Dick Morris, and the other members of the re-election strategy team when the bomb went off at Khobar Towers on June 25. As it had after the World Trade Center bombing, a distracted White House gave the case to law enforcement. But there is significant evidence to suggest that the White House was even less interested in finding answers than it had been in the World Trade Center case. In the Khobar investigation, the Clinton administration not only failed to follow potentially productive leads but in some instances actively made the investigators' job more difficult.
From the beginning, the administration ran into significant Saudi resistance (the Saudis quickly identified a few low-level suspects and beheaded them, hoping to end the matter there). According to a long account of the case by Elsa Walsh published earlier this year in The New Yorker, FBI director Louis Freeh on several occasions urged the White House to pressure the Saudis for more cooperation. More than once, Walsh reports, Freeh was frustrated to learn that the president barely mentioned the case in meetings with Saudi leaders.
Freeh — whose own relations with the White House had deteriorated badly in the wake of the Filegate and campaign-finance scandals — became convinced that the White House didn't really want to push the Saudis for more information, which Freeh believed would confirm strong suspicions of extensive Iranian involvement in the attack. Walsh reports that in September 1998, Freeh, angry and losing hope, took the extraordinary step of secretly asking former president George H. W. Bush to intercede with the Saudi royal family. Acting without Clinton's knowledge, Bush made the request, and the Saudis began to provide new information, which indeed pointed to Iran.
In late 1998, Walsh reports, Freeh went to national security adviser Sandy Berger to tell him that it appeared the FBI had enough evidence to indict several suspects. "Who else knows this?" Berger asked Freeh, demanding to know if it had been leaked to the press. Freeh said it was a closely held secret. Then Berger challenged some of the evidence of Iranian involvement. "That's just hearsay," Berger said. "No, Sandy," Freeh responded. "It's testimony of a co-conspirator . . ." According to Walsh's account, Freeh thought that "Berger . . . was not a national security adviser; he was a public-relations hack, interested in how something would play in the press. After more than two years, Freeh had concluded that the administration did not really want to resolve the Khobar bombing."
Ultimately, Freeh never got the support he wanted from the White House. Walsh writes that "by the end of the Clinton era, Freeh had become so mistrustful of Clinton that, although he believed he had developed enough evidence to seek indictments against the masterminds behind the attack, not just the front-line suspects, he decided to wait for a new administration." Just before Freeh left office, Walsh reports, he met with new president George W. Bush and gave him a list of suspects in the bombing. In June, attorney general John Ashcroft announced the indictment of 14 suspects: 13 Saudis and one Lebanese. It is not clear whether any of them are the "masterminds" of Khobar; none is in American custody and no Iranian officials were named in the indictment.
Both the Khobar investigation and the World Trade Center bombing presented Clinton with daunting challenges; there were sensitive political issues involved, and in each case it was not immediately clear who was behind the violence. But in neither instance did Clinton press hard for answers and demand action; Berger would not have taken the position he did if the president fully supported a vigorous investigation. In the coming years, Clinton would be faced with clear acts of terrorism carried out by an organization with undeniable state support. But again, busy with other things, he did little.
http://tinyurl.com/9c5fl
Robert Mueller.
Saudis: Bill Clinton Tearful Over Lewinsky, Not Khobar
According to two sources close to former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, ex-president Bill Clinton was on the verge of tears over legal woes brought on by the Monica Lewinsky scandal during a Sept. 1998 meeting with Crown Prince Adbullah - and spent almost no time discussing the Khobar Towers bombing case.
The Saudi account backs claims by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who told CBS's "60 Minutes" last night that Clinton failed to press Abdullah during the meeting for cooperation in the Khobar case.
Interviewed by the New Yorker in May 2001, two Saudi officials noted that Prince Bandar was present during the meeting. And Bandar's version, according to those same Saudi sources, contradicts the claim by former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger that his old boss vigorously pursued Khobar during the meeting.
"Clinton, by many accounts, was almost crying," the New Yorker said, based on interviews with the Saudis.
Bandar "remembered the crown prince consoling Clinton about his legal troubles. At one point, the crown prince, who was wearing a black robe, said to Clinton, 'All those who attack you and are making such a big issue out of this' - the Lewinsky affair - 'should be like the lint on my robes. One should just throw them off.'"
Addullah promised Clinton that he would "talk to people on the Hill and tell them they should respect the Presidency and not wipe the floor with it" over the Lewinsky case.
The Saudi sources said that while Clinton did eventually mention Khobar, "It was along the line of 'Would you be kind enough to continue cooperation?' "
Abdullah was stunned that Clinton had demonstrated so little interest about a bombing that had killed 19 U.S. airmen.
According to the New Yorker:
Bandar had warned him to expect some "very important questions" about Khobar, but Clinton had not raised them.
"What's going on?" the bewildered Saudi leader asked his U.S. ambassador.
The effect of this meeting, Bandar's associates told the New Yorker, "was to persuade the crown prince that the [Khobar] case was no longer of great importance to the United States."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/10/10/113212.shtml
Thank you...
I have been watching Greta interview GHW Bush...and so far no mention of Clinton...he has just talked about all of the damage...and how he is learning every day about the needs of the area....
He did say that he missed "making decisions", to a question by Greta about whether it is "fun" being an EX-president, in that he gets to "do" things without having to make the "hard decisions"...
IOW..he misses being "in charge"...and then went on to say that it is much harder to hear the critisizm of his son, than hearing the critisizm of his own presidency....
They went to commercial....I will listen to the rest and let you know what is said...
I appreciate that. I'll stay on this thread, thanks.
He also said that it makes Barbara mad but I think it hurts him more than makes him mad. Do you remember when GHWB was Pres and how angry GWB was at the criticism aimed at his father? I remember reading that from a couple of witnesses who were on the premises. It's a family thing, isn't it?
I think the interview is over...
The rest was about the treatment President Bush is getting...
He said that Barbara Bush doesn't even watch the news anymore because it makes he "so damn mad"...LOL
He said re: Harriet Miers, that he knows her and believes she will be good...and is mad at the people that get "their 30 seconds on Fox News to talk negative...and they don't even know her"....
Then, he said that is makes him more mad, when Bush's "own people" go against him...and he started to name names, but then said he "could name names, but I won't"...
But, you could tell he was dying to say WHO he was most mad at!!
Then, he said that he and Barbara can't "know" how the people down there feel, but that they felt bad and would go home and "pray for them".
And he also talked about how he felt he did his "best" as POTUS, but, he lost...but now he has two sons in politics and 3 not, that he is very proud of....
NOT one word about Clinton.....which is good...
kevl - I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the research you do to bring us this and all the other factual posts you offer up. I always look forward to your imput.
Thanks for an excellent summary. I'm glad Clinton didn't come up. I was worried that their friendship was getting a little too cozy.
With a name like "Tab?"
Is there nothing and no one sacred anymore?
I read a biography about Cary Grant recently and he was bi! Ruined my week.
Freeh has some baggage. Quite a bit, actually.
There was a guy on Fox this morning who has written a couple of books on the CIA and FBI, who was very critical of Freeh. Apparently the agency had antique computers and was very poorly run during Freeh.
But that doesn't mean that he isn't right about Clinton and terrorism, because he is. I plan to read the book.
Keep in mind, The FBI would be perfectly comortable to blame TWA 800 on a security guard in Ga. or a Walmart greeter anywhere. Knowing all the while it's rediculeous.
I am convinced (for a while actually), but even more, after reading these articles...
That Bill Clinton's foreign policy goals were to stay OUT of any "hard slogs"....and just push them under the rug...
until his successor takes office. Then, blaming THAT POTUS for any and all fallout from almost a decade of neglect. I just pray that ALL is found out before enough idiot Americans cast a ballot with Hillary's name on it...
which in essence, puts Bubba back in power to "spread the love" again...and put any gains that Bush has made in the shredder.
An attack against American servicemen abroad was not merely a crime. It was an act of war. As Louis Freeh later put it, "Khobar represented a national security threat far beyond capability or authority of the FBI or Department of Justice to address. Neither the FBI Director nor the Attorney General could or should decide America's response to such a grave threat."
An attack against American servicemen abroad was not merely a crime. It was an act of war. As Louis Freeh later put it, "Khobar represented a national security threat far beyond capability or authority of the FBI or Department of Justice to address. Neither the FBI Director nor the Attorney General could or should decide America's response to such a grave threat."
Yeah, he looked like he could almost cry at times, when talking about the vitriol against Dubya...
I think there is probably part of him that wants to "make up" for losing to Clinton...and doing things that he "didn't finish"...but, he did have to admit that he doesn't keep up with things like he would if POTUS...
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