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TIME MAG CHARGES: BUSH ADMIN 'DELAYED' CLINTON PLAN TO ATTACK AL QAEDA
Drudge Report ^ | 8/4/02

Posted on 08/04/2002 7:01:43 AM PDT by Brian Mosely

BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S LENGTHY REVIEW PROCESS DELAYED U.S. PLAN TO ATTACK AL QAEDA -- UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE
Sun Aug 04 2002 09:43:33 ET

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Draft Presidential Directive to Eliminate al Qaeda

Approved By National Security Principals Sept. 4, 2001 —Just One Week Before 9/11

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Plan Developed in Last Days of Clinton Administration, Presented to Bush Administration in January 2001

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Proposals Were "Everything We’ve Done Since 9/11"

New York – A bold plan for the U.S. to attack al Qaeda was delayed by a Bush administration "policy review process" and was approved just a week before September 11, a TIME special report reveals. The plan, developed in the last days of the Clinton administration, was passed along to the Bush administration in January 2001 by Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and Richard Clarke, a career bureaucrat who had served in the first Bush administration and risen during the Clinton years to become the White House’s point man on terrorism. In the words of a senior Bush administration official, the proposals amounted to "everything we’ve done since 9/11."

TIME’s special report offers the fullest account of how ambitious the plan was, and how the Bush administration delayed the plan.

On Dec. 20, 2000, Clarke presented a strategy paper to Berger and the other national security "principals." But Berger and the principals decided to shelve the plan and let the next administration take it up. With less than a month left in office, they did not think it appropriate to launch a major initiative against Osama bin Laden. "We would be handing [the Bush Administration] a war when they took office on Jan. 20," says a former senior Clinton aide. "That wasn’t going to happen." "If we hadn’t had a transition," says a senior Clinton Administration official, "probably in late October or early November 2000, we would have had [the plan to go on the offensive] as a presidential directive." Now it was up to Rice’s team to consider what Clarke had put together.

The plan became a victim of the transition process, turf wars and time spent on the pet policies of new top officials. The Bush administration chose to institute its own "policy review process" on the terrorist threat. Clarke told TIME that the review moved "as fast as could be expected." And Administration officials insist that by the time the review was endorsed by the Bush principals on Sept. 4, it was more aggressive than anything contemplated the previous winter. The final plan, they say, was designed not to "roll back" al-Qaeda but to "eliminate" it, TIME reports.

By last summer, many of those in the know—the spooks, the buttoned-down bureaucrats, the law-enforcement professionals in a dozen countries—were almost frantic with worry that a major terrorist attack against American interests was imminent. And in a bureaucratic squabble, nobody in Washington could decide whether a Predator drone—the best possible source of real intelligence on what was happening in the terror camps—should be sent to fly over Afghanistan. So the Predator sat idle from October 2000 until after Sept. 11, TIME reports.

TIME’s Special Report also reveals:

Ž Berger wanted Ground Troops: On Nov. 7, 2000, Berger met with William Cohen, then Secretary of Defense, in the Pentagon. Berger wanted "boots on the ground"—U.S. special ops forces deployed inside Afghanistan on a search-and-destroy mission targeting bin Laden. Cohen said he would look at the idea, but he and General Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were dead set against it. They feared a repeat of Desert One, the 1980 fiasco when special ops commandos crashed in Iran during an abortive mission to rescue American hostages.

Ž Bush official denies being handed a formal plan: A senior Bush Administration official denies being handed a formal plan to take the offensive against al-Qaeda, and says Clarke’s materials merely dealt with whether the new Administration should take "a more active approach" to the terrorist group. (Rice declined to comment, but through a spokeswoman said she recalled no briefing at which Berger was present.) Other senior officials from both the Clinton and Bush administrations dispute that account, saying that Clarke had a set of proposals to "roll back" al-Qaeda. In fact, the heading on Slide 14 of the Powerpoint presentation reads, "Response to al Qaeda: Roll back."

Ž Clinton frustrated: By early 2000, Clinton was becoming infuriated by the lack of intelligence on bin Laden’s movements. "We’ve got to do better than this," he scribbled on one memo. "This is unsatisfactory."

Ž Submarines were ready to attack bin Laden: For all of 2000, Clinton ordered two U.S. Navy submarines to stay on station in the northern Arabian sea, ready to attack bin Laden if his coordinates could be determined, sources tell TIME.

Ž CIA attempted to recruit tribal leaders in Afghanistan: The CIA attempted to recruit tribal leaders in Afghanistan who might be persuaded to take on bin Laden; contingency plans had been made for the CIA to fly one of its planes to a desert landing strip in Afghanistan if he was ever captured. (Clinton had signed presidential "findings" that were ambiguous on the question of whether bin Laden could be killed in such an attack.)

Ž Plans to capture bin Laden tied up in politics: After the U.S.S. Cole was bombed, the secretive Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., drew up plans to have Delta Force members swoop into Afghanistan and grab bin Laden. But the warriors were never given the go-ahead; the Clinton Administration did not order an American retaliation for the attack. In fact, despite strong suspicion that bin Laden was behind the attack in Yemen, the CIA and FBI had not officially concluded that he was, and would be unable to do so before Clinton left office. That made it politically impossible for Clinton to strike—especially given the upcoming election and his own lack of credibility on national security. "If we had done anything, say, two weeks before the election, we’d be accused of helping Al Gore," a former senior Clinton aide told TIME.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; alquaeda; billclinton; binladen; sandyberger
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1 posted on 08/04/2002 7:01:43 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
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To: Brian Mosely
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,333835,00.html
2 posted on 08/04/2002 7:02:37 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
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To: Brian Mosely
I'm asking this question without reading the article: Why didn't Clinton implement his own plan, he certainly had time to attack al Qaeda?
3 posted on 08/04/2002 7:04:57 AM PDT by demlosers
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To: Brian Mosely
Time creating a story designed to make Clinton look good. Why didn't Clinton take action against Al Qaeda, except for the cruise missile strike in Afghanistan, from '98 to '00, after the Embassy bombings? Towards the end of Clinton's term, some staffer drew up a report and recommendations that we go after Al Qaeda, and it wasn't implemented immediately. Actually, it was evaluated and improved upon. This is clear leftist spin to make Bush look inept, when it was Clinton that cleary was in dealing with the Al Qaeda threat.
4 posted on 08/04/2002 7:05:17 AM PDT by tomahawk
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To: Brian Mosely
But Berger and the principals decided to shelve the plan and let the next administration take it up. With less than a month left in office, they did not think it appropriate to launch a major initiative against Osama bin Laden.

Of course not. During its last month, the Clinton administration was too busy selling pardons and issuing executive orders to focus on terrorism.

Besides, Monica wasn't scheduled to testify before the grand jury so there was no need to fire any more cruise missles at Bin Laden.

5 posted on 08/04/2002 7:05:17 AM PDT by 07055
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To: Brian Mosely; All
Bush and Clinton and 911- some facts...

6 posted on 08/04/2002 7:08:00 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: demlosers
What are you? A mind reader?...this thought was going through my head as well...
7 posted on 08/04/2002 7:08:37 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
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To: Brian Mosely
Predator drone—the best possible source of real intelligence on what was happening in the terror camps—should be sent to fly over Afghanistan. So the Predator sat idle from October 2000 until after Sept. 11, TIME reports.

Well, there you have it - - if only Bush had listened to Clinton and sent that Predator drone to take a peek at the terror camps, 9/11 would never have happened. We would have gone straight from 9/10 to 9/12.

TIME Magazine, LOFL!!!
How much does the DNC fork over to prop up that pathetic dentist's office throw-away?

8 posted on 08/04/2002 7:09:40 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Brian Mosely
What are you? A mind reader?...this thought was going through my head as well...

I wish.
I'd say it was the obvious question one asks after reading the headline.

9 posted on 08/04/2002 7:12:53 AM PDT by demlosers
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To: Brian Mosely
Ah yes;

History in the writing.

First formal entry in the "Clinton would have done it better" revision of the past two years.

Forget the aspirin factories and the lost deals to extradite Osama,
Forget the pandering and convenient timing of every military move made under Clinton,
Forget Somalia and Kosovo...

Bill had the answer to Osama Ben Laden, Bill handed the plan free to GWB.
Then, openly partisan Republicans waited too long to use it...
But, when they finally did use it, boy-howdy, worked like a charm.

Our grand kids will be thanking old Bill, yessir, sure they will.

10 posted on 08/04/2002 7:17:21 AM PDT by norton
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To: Brian Mosely
ClintonClintonClintonClintonClintonClinton
ClintonClintonClintonClintonClintonClinton
ClintonClinton
ClintonClintonClintonClintonClintonClintonClintonClintonClinton
ClintonClinton

BLAH BLAH BLAH....

Shut up already!

Bush plays golf while Americans are Slaughtered in Israel. TODAY!! I cannot take the: ClintonClintonClintonClinton
ClintonClintonClintonClintonClinton dribble.

Serves no purpose. Concentrate on the present.

When is our leader meeting with Pres. Fox to give away MY country?
I could care less about the baffoon Clinton. He is like a bad ex-wife.

11 posted on 08/04/2002 7:18:14 AM PDT by Afronaut
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To: Brian Mosely
That made it politically impossible for Clinton to strike—especially given the upcoming election and his own lack of credibility on national security. "

Time admits it in a backhanded way that the ChiCom election scandals had conpromised our ability to defend ourselves.

12 posted on 08/04/2002 7:19:01 AM PDT by JZoback
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To: Brian Mosely; demlosers
What are you? A mind reader?

Personally, I'd trust a mind reader before a Time reader.

I once received a gift subscription for Time from a wonderful uncle of mine. Despite the risk of insulting him, I canceled the subsciption and told him why.

He's since canceled his own subscription, too.

13 posted on 08/04/2002 7:19:34 AM PDT by jigsaw
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To: demlosers
I'm asking this question without reading the article: Why didn't Clinton implement his own plan, he certainly had time to attack al Qaeda?

Well, that's simple:

With less than a month left in office, they did not think it appropriate to launch a major initiative against Osama bin Laden. "We would be handing [the Bush Administration] a war when they took office on Jan. 20," says a former senior Clinton aide. "That wasn’t going to happen."

See, Clinton was on top of this whole thing, awrighty, but he didn't think it would be appropriate to hand off a war to a new President. But they gave Bush everything he needed and Bush dropped the ball. Yes sir, Bush dropped the ball. TIME Magazine has proved it irrefutably. If only we still had Clinton, everything would be great and the whole world would be holding hands and skipping through the park tossing daisies.

You can always depend on TIME to come up with the most absurd spin to help their party.

14 posted on 08/04/2002 7:19:38 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard
pathetic dentist's office throw-away

LOL That's the best description of that rag that I've ever seen!

15 posted on 08/04/2002 7:29:37 AM PDT by fellowpatriot
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To: Brian Mosely
We must put all Time magazines behind other magazines whenever we come across them in a store. They must be stopped! Thankfully people are NOT buying any magazines anymore. We must turn the Time magazines around and put other different magazines in front of them. DO IT!
16 posted on 08/04/2002 7:38:32 AM PDT by timestax
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To: timestax
but but but I remember them saying that it only took the month before to plan September 11th. Are they saying that the Toon knew something? And he knew enough that a plan needed to be drawn up while he was in office? /so
17 posted on 08/04/2002 7:42:13 AM PDT by Unknown Freeper
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: Unknown Freeper
Why did Clinton allow Al Qaeda to gain strength and turn into a dangerous cancer during his entire Presidency? Then, at the end of his second term, some staff comes up with the idea of fighting Al Qaeda and this is somehow Bush's fault because it wasn't immediately implemented?
19 posted on 08/04/2002 7:44:50 AM PDT by tomahawk
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To: Brian Mosely
More liberal spin and smears!
20 posted on 08/04/2002 7:47:44 AM PDT by TLBSHOW
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