Inhofe: Clinton Should be Held Accountable for Failure to Get Bin Laden

NewsMax.com ^ | Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | Wes Vernon

[USA21]

Inhofe: Clinton Should be Held Accountable for Failure to Get Bin Laden

WASHINGTON-A senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says ex-President Clinton should be held accountable for his decision during his presidency, to give terrorist leader Osama bin Laden a pass. That confession by the impeached 42nd president was revealed in a taped statement publicized exclusively by NewsMax.com

Reacting to that tape, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., in a statement relayed by his spokesman Gary Hoitsma, says Clinton’s comments constitute "an admission that he didn’t seriously go after Osama bin Laden,” although Clinton tried to justify it in "a self-serving” manner.

Inhofe, who is also the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, tells NewsMax that Clinton "is admitting that he didn’t go after them [al-Qaeda] when he could have, and he’s making excuses as to why he couldn’t or wouldn’t.”

Asked how the former chief executive should be held accountable, Hoitsma, again speaking for the senator, replied, "We would want to do that in some way. It’s a matter of picking the right forum.” Presidents and ex-presidents are rarely called before congressional committees.

At the moment the Intelligence Committee is looking into some things that went on in the intelligence community leading up to 9/11, although that probe "is not a matter of holding anyone accountable for wrongdoing or anything like that,” Hoitsma notes.

Some lawmakers have privately complained to NewsMax.com that the Intelligence Committee channels so much of what it does through so many political filters so as to reach a consensus that very little is accomplished when it comes to pressing for accountability.

Senator Inhofe says "objectively,” during the Clinton presidency, "not very much was done to deal with some of the terrorist incidents that had happened during that time.” Each time terrorist acts were committed, they were viewed by the Clintonites as law enforcement issues "instead of acts of war against America.”

The Oklahoma conservative listed the first World Trade Center bombing in 1998, the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996 (death toll: 17), the embassy bombings in Africa (killing over 200), and violent action against the USS Cole (leaving 17 American sailors dead).

These attacks on Clinton’s watch were "downplayed,” and there were "never serious consequences for the perpetrators.”

Inhofe sees 1998 as "the lost year,” when the entire country was focused on a single issue (the Monica Lewinsky scandal) "that had nothing to do with any serious public policy.”

As the senator sees it, this was "when the [then] president was lying to the country [and under oath] about his personal problems,” and "dragged the country through the trauma of an impeachment trial.”

[USA21]

[kayak]

WHOA!

[PhiKapMom]

Inhofe for Oklahoma Senator site

Senator Inhofe is one of the two best Senators in the Senate -- the other one is also from Oklahoma -- Don Nickles. They both are not afraid to speak out when something is wrong and both are huge supporters of President Bush!

Senator Inhofe needs our support in his race with David Walters, indicted on ten felony counts and plea bargained down to one misdemeanor when he was the Governor. Walters is a friend of the clintons who was supposed to be on the Ron Brown fatal trade mission but dropped out at the last minute. First it was cited to be back trouble but not he says it was a funeral.

[USA21]

[Tailgunner Joe]

bump

[PhiKapMom]

FYI! Once again Sen Inhofe tells it like it is!

[USA21]

After the 9/11 attacks, F.B.I. agent Coleen Rowley, general counsel in the Minneapolis field office, wrote a scorching 13-page open letter to F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller III and the Senate Intelligence Committee. She asserted that the French government had shared ample intelligence on Moussaoui, including information on his links to Osama bin Laden, information that supported requests for a special surveillance warrant to search Moussaoui's laptop computer in the weeks before the terrorist attacks. (The French, who had put Moussaoui on a watch list in 1999 because they suspected him of terrorist activities, insisted that they had shared their thick dossier with American intelligence agencies.) Rowley said some field agents were so frustrated that they joked about spies and moles for bin Laden working at Washington

[spanky_mcfarland]

If we're pointing fingers, let's not forget that 41 lacked the stones to take out Saddam (who by some accounts is a major player in the bidness of international terra).

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for posting the picture in 5 -- Clinton Legacy IMO!

[spanky_mcfarland]

Nice Rowley photo...reminds me of a joke...

What do you call a lesbian with big hands and long fingers?

Well hung!

[Diogenesis]

Courtesy of Peabody, the time-travelling dog, his pet boy, Sherman, and the "Wayback Machine".

---

An impeached and disgraced President kissing up with a psychopathic murderer (past, then present, and future) of Americans to "improve their legacies".
The murders of Americans (civilian and military) and Israelis continued.

[Steve Eisenberg]

There needs to be a big high-publicity congressional investigation of September 11, just as there was, I believe, for December 7. However, I have to say that the legitimate focus should be more on new legislation to make sure it does not happen again, rather than partisan bickering over how much to blame Clinton. Some security holes have been fixed, I think, since 9/11, such as the strengthening of flight deck doors (although I fear that they still can be opened from the outside by a flight attendent, something which should be impossible). However, even if those doors are now perfect, we still need to find out how each hijacker got into this country and/or remained here illegally, and, whereever possible, set up law enforcement procedures which would have prevented that or caught the hijacker in time. Also, we need to be see how the intelligence failures occurred, and be assured that they same type of failure could not occur again. Why is it that there are just isolated charges like this rather than high-profile hearings? Or did I miss something?

[OldFriend]

I have heard both clinton and albright state that the political climate wasn't right for an attack on OBL.

[USA21]

THE COMPLETE 9/11 TIMELINE

[EGPWS]

Each time terrorist acts were committed, they were viewed by the Clintonites as law enforcement issues. That depends upon what one's definition of "terrorists acts" is.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks!

[USA21]

terrorists acts" is.

[lawdude]

"If we're pointing fingers, let's not forget that 41 lacked the stones to take out Saddam (who by some
accounts is a major player in the bidness of international terra)."

Once again a popular democrat myth is offered.

Recall for a fact that 41 was expressly forbidden to go after Saddam.

Fact - His charter by the UN in 91 was to force Iraq out of Kuwait - ONLY.

Fact - There was talk of him going after Saddam but the dems and left wing press all exploded at the very thought of doing so.

Fact - It was your players that kept it from happening, just as klinton looked the other way at even going after him. Play to the dove/cowards in the democrat party.

Fact - It is the pure D fault of the dems, not the GOP.

[Seeking the truth]

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