Posted on 05/20/2002 5:27:12 AM PDT by areafiftyone
(New York-AP) Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani defended the Bush administration's handling of intelligence information prior to September Eleventh, saying today he did not believe the federal government could have anticipated the terrorist attacks.
Giuliani, a Republican, suggested that the Clinton administration also should be accountable given that much of the intelligence now coming under scrutiny was collected during its watch.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) defended the Bush administration's handling of intelligence information prior to Sept. 11, saying on Sunday he did not believe the federal government could have anticipated the terrorist attacks.
Giuliani, a Republican, suggested that the Clinton administration also should be accountable given that much of the intelligence now coming under scrutiny was collected during its watch.
"Remember, the Bush administration when this attack took place was a very new administration and they had just inherited the intelligence apparatus put in place by the Clinton administration so when you look at this you're going to have look at both," Giuliani told The Associated Press after a speech to graduates of Georgetown Law School.
Giuliani received an honorary degree from Georgetown Law School Sunday and received a standing ovation from students for leading New York through the Sept. 11 attacks.
Giuliani demurred when asked whether Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), D-N.Y., had gone too far in a speech on the Senate floor last week when she called on the Bush administration to explain what it knew about hijacking threats.
"I'd rather not comment on what she said," Giuliani said. "I think that from everything that I've seen, nothing so far suggests to me that the federal government — whether were talking about the Clinton administration or the Bush administration — would have had the kind of information that would have suggested that kind of attack.
"Even the information that we're talking about, a lot of it goes back to 1998 and 1999 when Mrs. Clinton's husband was president," Giuliani said.
"We're looking at a continuous course of conduct here. I don't know that people should be playing that kind of game," he added, referring to critics
Clinton's speech — in which she referred to a New York Post headline "BUSH KNEW" — drew the ire of the White House. Spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) singled out the former first lady for criticism in a briefing to reporters.
Giuliani said Sunday he had spoken with officials in the Bush administration recently and came away assured that no intelligence they had could have prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center or the Pentagon (news - web sites).
The Bush administration has come under fire since news broke that the White House knew prior to Sept. 11 that followers of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) might be plotting hijackings. The administration contends the information was not specific and they had no way of knowing the hijackers would turn the airplanes into suicide missiles to attacks American targets.
But critics point to earlier intelligence data they say could have alerted authorities to that possibility but that various branches of law enforcement failed to communicate among themselves.
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