Posted on 10/04/2006 8:01:50 AM PDT by truthandlife
Bill Clinton created a big stir when he angrily defended his anti-terror efforts as president during an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday.”
But comments by a top anti-terror expert contradicting Clinton’s defense got far less attention in the liberal press.
The day after Clinton’s September 24 tirade on Fox, Michael Scheuer – head of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit during the Clinton administration – said the al-Qaida leader "is alive today” because Clinton and his top aides refused to kill him.
"It's just an incredible kind of situation for the American people over the weekend to hear their former president mislead them,” Scheuer said about Clinton’s remarks.
Scheuer resigned from the CIA in 2004 after 22 years of service to publish "Imperial Hubris,” a blistering assault on the anti-terror policies of both Clinton and Bush.
"Although the intensity of [Clinton’s] outburst against Wallace was unplanned, he was ready to upbraid anybody who questioned his performance,” Robert Novak wrote in a column about Scheuer’s response. "Unexpected by him was a rebuttal by a CIA professional never confused with being a Bush acolyte.”
In his role as CBS News terrorism analyst, Scheuer appeared on the "Early Show” and said this about Clinton’s claim that the CIA could not verify bin Laden’s responsibility for the attack on the USS Cole: "The former president seems able to deny facts with impunity."
Scheuer continued: "He defames the CIA . . . and the men and women who risked their lives to give their administration repeated chances to kill bin Laden."
Asked if Bush was equally responsible for letting bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in Afghanistan, Scheuer replied: "The fact of the matter is that the Bush administration had one chance that they botched and the Clinton administration had eight to 10 chances that they refused to try. At least at Tora Bora, our forces were on the ground."
Novak wrote: "Scheuer's blunt remonstrance goes to the heart of what probably impelled Clinton's finger pointing on national television. Rather than attempting to shape the midterm campaign, as Republicans believe, he was interested in protecting his legacy. No former president in the last half-century has seemed so sensitive to critical assessments of his tenure.”
Incredible, yes, but it is not unprecedented.
and now that we know the 9-11 hijackers were at the camp where bin ladin was, we know that clinton could have also killed the 9-11 hijackers had he gone after bin ladin even if he did not know that they would eventually be involved in 9-11.
but instead they just videotaped bin ladin
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10403980
Video of hijackers joking, laughing
Tuesday October 3, 2006
LONDON - Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11 hijackers, is shown laughing and joking while filming his "martyrdom testament" as others involved in the terrorist attacks are filmed listening to a speech by Osama bin Laden in a newly released video.
The footage was taken at a camp used by bin Laden and senior al Qaeda figures in Afghanistan in January 2000 when some of the final details of the plan for the New York attack are said to have been put together.
Atta, who flew one of the planes into the Twin Towers, is seen alongside Ziad Jarrah, the pilot of the United Airlines flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
It is the first time the two hijackers, who both appear to be studying their testaments which were due to be made public after their deaths, have been filmed together.
Also pictured, among the bin Laden audience, is Ramzi Binalshibh, reputedly the quartermaster and co-ordinator of the September 11 attacks who is now at Guantanamo Bay, and the al Qaeda leader's bodyguard Abu Jandal, who is also known as Nasir Ahmad Nasir al-Bahiri. Abu Jandal, jailed in Yemen until 2003, claimed he carried a gun to be used to shoot bin Laden if he was ever in danger of being captured.
The videotape, thought to have been obtained by Yosri Fouda, a journalist with Al-Jazeera television, is soundless and, according to United States security sources, lipreaders have not been able to decipher what was being said.
The filming is said to have taken place at Tarnak Farm, near Kandahar, where the CIA had once plotted to kidnap bin Laden with the help of tribal fighters. Atta, the son of an Egyptian lawyer, disappeared from his home in Hamburg in January 2000. Jarrah, who came from a middle-class Lebanese family, had also studied in Germany. The two men are seen sitting on the floor with a Kalashnikov rifle propped against a wall beside them. Atta wears a dark coloured sweater with horizontal stripes with a zipped collar. At one point he tries on a traditional Afghan hat before tossing it aside with a wry smile. Jarrah, wearing plastic framed spectacles, wears a long white robe.
- INDEPENDENT
It looks like Sandy Berger is already practicing his document removal technique.
That's Sandy Berger? Looks like he could stuff quite a few documents in those drawers of his...
Typical Clinton. He used to wail and whine about Rush Limbaugh : )
According to John Ashcroft, Berger stole the now infamous "Clinton anti-terrorism plan" from the national achives.
the one that just had "NO" written on it in Clintons handwriting?
"According to John Ashcroft, Berger stole the now infamous "Clinton anti-terrorism plan" from the national achives."
Details, please.
IMHO - He may have gone on Fox in order to kill two birds with one stone.
1)Get conservatives to waste valuable time on the radio and in the press talking about Bill Clinton and defending George Bush, BOTH OF WHOM ARE NON-CANDIDATES FOR ANYTHING, instead of important stuff like the faults of Democratic candidates for Congress. i.e. a diversionary attack
2) His legacy.
I don't think #1 is correct. I think as long as Rove and the Republicans can talk about terrorism and what the Democrats didn't do, that is a big win for the Republicans.
I really believe the Foley scandal was launched prematurely by the Dems because they had to. I think they were waiting until the last 1-2 weeks to launch this thing but after Clinton's debacle on FOX they had to launch it now because the Dems saw the election slipping away as well as Clinton losing his legacy. They pushed the panic button too quick. This thing will totally disappear in 1-2 weeks with the 24 news cycle we live in now and their will still be 3 weeks before the election.
Rove has not even launched the GOP hit machine yet and they have lots of money. The GOP commmercials framing the Dem leadership as a bunch of nutcases will make a big impact on conservatives and they will come out in droves.
He was on FOX. I think it was O'Reilly night before last.
Ashcroft said that, on TV?
I don't know how to go about getting a transcript of the program, but it seems to me it would be worth doing.
Heard anything else lately in the media about the "Clinton anti-terror plan?" Nope. I think Bush brought Ashcroft out of the woodwork to let Clinton know he can pander to his base, but he doesn't get to lie about GW.
It's all Foley stuff this week.
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