Posted on 06/30/2002 9:34:22 AM PDT by kattracks
Responding to former Vice President Al Gore's criticism on Saturday of the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, Secretary of State Colin Powell blasted the Clinton-Gore administration for not accepting a deal for Osama bin Laden's extradition from Sudan negotiated by Pakistani-American businessman Mansour Ijaz in the late 1990's.
"Perhaps that's what Vice President Gore should have been talking about - what happened on their watch as opposed to the progress we've made on our watch," Powell told "Fox News Sunday," after being asked about Ijaz's claims.
In a Sunday Washington Post op-ed piece, Ijaz and former U.S. ambassador to Sudan Tim Carney detailed the Clinton administration's mishandling of both Sudan's bin Laden offer and overall U.S. relations with the country. In another reference to the Ijaz-Carney piece, Powell said the Bush administration had made progress, "not only in Afghanistan but, I would also submit, in Sudan."
"We've recently sent a presidential emissary to Sudan," Powell told "Fox News Sunday." "Sen. Jack Danforth, he's had very successful trips there. We now have a policy with respect to Sudan that will start to move them in the direction of cooperating with us in the campaign against terrorism."
Powell cited the Clinton-Gore bin Ladengate scandal after the former vice president slammed the Bush administration for failing to capture the 9-11 terrorist mastermind.
On Saturday Gore told a crowd of Democratic Party faithful, "They haven't gotten Osama bin Laden or the al Qaeda operation and they have refused to allow enough troops from the international community to be put into Afghanistan to keep it from sliding back under control of the warlords."
Before making reference Mr. Ijaz's allegations, Powell called Gore's remarks "patent nonsense" adding, "I notice the previous administration didn't even make a serious try (to get bin Laden)."
With his comments on Sunday, the Secretary of State becomes the highest ranking Bush administration official to endorse Mr. Ijaz's claims, which have been all but ignored by the mainstream news media except for the occasional op-ed column authored by the Pakistani-American businessman himself.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ijaz has come under fierce attack from the Clinton administration and their supporters in the press.
In a May radio interview, for instance, Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri called Ijaz "a liar" and "a crackpot." (See: DNC Spokesgal Trashes Key Bin Ladengate Accuser)
Clinton friendly media reporters like the New York Times' Judith Miller and NBC newswoman Andrea Mitchell have explained their own decisions not to cover Ijaz's claims by saying he lacks credibility. Miller said she established Ijaz's lack of credibility by contacting former Clinton administration sources.
In May, Ijaz told radio host Sean Hannity that he, Mr. Carney and the chief of Sudanese intelligence would be willing to give sworn testimony on bin Ladengate but had not yet been called by Congress. (See: Bin Laden-gate Witness Dares Dems: Depose Me on Clinton 9-11 Cover-Up)
Earlier this month, Ijaz told radio host Don Imus that former Clinton administration officials had mounted a campaign to block his testimony. (See: Bin Laden-gate Accuser: Ex-Clinton Officials Trying to Silence Me)
But with Powell's tacit endorsement, the bin Ladengate accuser's story it may be more difficult for congressional investigators and the press to ignore.
In their Sunday Washington Post op-ed piece, Ijaz and Carney added new details to their account of the Clinton administration's bin Ladengate intelligence failure:
"After offering to hand bin Laden over to U.S. authorities, Sudan expelled him..... Sudan gave U.S. authorities permission to photograph two terror camps. Washington failed to follow up. In August, (Sudan) sent an 'olive branch' letter to President Clinton through Ijaz. There was no reply.
"By election day 1996, top Clinton aides, including (National Security Advisor Sandy) Berger, knew what information was available from Khartoum and of its potential value to identify, monitor and ultimately dismantle terrorist cells around the world. Yet they did nothing about it."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
Al Gore
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals
Media Bias
Lots of people have believed that Powell is off the reservation, taking the "leaks" reported by the New York Times and the Washington Post as gospel. I have never thought so. It seems to me that Powell has kept his comments rather ambiguous, and now that the emboldened democrats have been lured into firing a shot at the President, he appears as the "super secret weapon."
I know it is hard for many people on this forum to understand, but many moderates and democrats consider Colin Powell to be the epitome of integritiy. When he speaks, those people listen.
I think this was excellent strategy on the administration's part. Powell is free to attack the Clintonistas, because they already attacked first, via Albright and now Gore. I expect Gore will crawl back into his hole for a while. Ha!
The problem for the Clinton's is that Ijaz isn't a bimbo. It would be so much easier to smear him if he were a bimbo.
The military advisor is Bob Belavaqua.
-PJ
I also like the former Special Service guy David Christiansen on Fox. He also has excellent insight and commentary.
House of Representatives
Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Crime
Hearing on H.R. 748
"Prohibition on Financial Transactions With Countries Supporting Terrorism Act"
Tuesday, June 10, 1997, 10:00am
Room 2237, Rayburn House Office Building
Testimony
of
Mansoor Ijaz
Chairman
Crescent Investment Management, LP
SNIP
Mansoor Ijaz is founder and chairman of Crescent Investment Management, a New York-based global investment advisor and investment bank. He received his SM degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1985, where he trained as a neuro-mechanical engineer under a fellowship granted by the joint MIT-Harvard Medical School Medical Engineering Program. He received his bachelor's degree in nuclear physics from the University of Virginia in 1983. He has applied the extensive modeling experience he gained at MIT to the development of Crescent's proprietary currency and interest rate risk management systems, CARAT, TRACK, RMU and CALOP.
Mansoor has been featured twice in BARRON'S Currency Roundtable discussions, and has appeared on CNN's "Inside Business", "Business Asia" and "Washington Unwrapped" programs to provide insights on topics ranging from hedge-funds to U.S.-China relations to key elements of Pakistan's economic policies to Sudan's oil politics. He has contributed to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, where his op-ed pieces appeared in June and October 1996 and in March 1997. He was also honored as the Endowment for Democracy's 1995 Humanitarian of the Year in recognition of his efforts to aid poor and disaffected people in Bosnia, South Africa, Hungary and his father's native Pakistan. In October 1996, Mansoor served as a Plenary Session speaker on nuclear proliferation at the State of the World Forum in San Francisco, along with General Lee Butler, Senator Alan Cranston, nobel laureate Joseph Rotblat and others.
Much of Mansoor's time away from Crescent's daily affairs is spent in designing, funding and implementing projects for the people of third-world countries under the direction of his private foundation, The Ijaz Group. His current projects include structuring the asset management systems for the governments of the CIS and designing models for low-income housing in poor African countries. He derives much of his philanthropic motivation from his father and mother who emigrated to the United States in 1960. Mansoor's parents were both physicists. His father was one of the early contributors of the Pakistani nuclear program.
Mansoor has devoted much time to broadening the knowledge base and understanding of American policy-makers to reach more informed positions where the countries of South Asia, East Africa and the CIS are concerned. He has advised the Unity Government of President Nelson Mandela on low-income housing programs, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia on global investment programs for domestic pension plans, and President Haidar Aliev of Azerbaijan on investment of the revenues from Caspian oil reserves. He also meets regularly with the economic and political leaders of Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan, the Sudan and Persian Gulf states on economic and political issues related to his investment management business.
Mansoor is active in Democratic Party politics in the United States. He also earned All-American weightlifting status while attending the University of Virginia. Born in Florida in 1961 and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Mansoor divides his time between his homes in New York, Toronto and France today.
Mansoor is active in Democratic Party politics in the United States.
IMO, that alone is enough to show someone "lacks credibility".
Wonder how Miller and Mitchell's Biographical Sketchs stack up regarding the rest of it.
I just looked on the Fox News site. It is spelled Robert S. Bevelacqua.
I wasn't even close.
-PJ
And that time that the diplospeak was being spouted, we were able to bring Russia on board with out Mideast plan and basically make it so that the Euro-wobblers would be on very weak footing in their attempts to appease the terrorists to the same degree Neville Chamberlain had appeased Hitler.
The bad part is that in that period of time, some innocent Israelis were killed. But the sad fact of the matter is, there are going to be more Israelis dead before there is peace in the region, and Bush's plan may very well be the one option on the table that minimizes that number.
Aha! Gore would dearly love for November 2004 to coincide with a downward spiraling malaise in Afghanistan, with xenophobic Afghan warlords shooting and bombing Western peacekeepers daily.
Of course I may be giving Dim Al way to much credit. It's entirely possible he really thinks this is a good idea.
Proverbs 15:1 ¶ A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.
On his own Gore flounders. He has no discernable redeeming qualities or positive personality traits. He has no inner self, his father would never let him develope one. He smoked weed excessively, failed at everything he did. Has to check in with Mommy for instructions, still.
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