Posted on 12/14/2003 10:30:57 PM PST by Rennes Templar
By Associated Press Published December 14, 2003, 12:57 PM CST
WASHINGTON -- Former President Clinton praised the capture of Saddam Hussein and said the ousted Iraqi president finally will answer "for decades of tyranny and murder."
"I am glad he was captured alive so he can be brought before the bar of justice," Clinton said Sunday in a statement.
Clinton saluted U.S. troops, who found the bearded and disheveled former dictator in an underground hide-out on a farm near his hometown, Tikrit. Clinton also congratulated his successor in the White House.
"Saddam Hussein's capture is a tribute to the skill and bravery of our troops and the good work of our intelligence officers," Clinton said. "I know President Bush is very proud of our troops today. I congratulate him and them."
Clinton, who ordered bombing and missile strikes against Iraqi targets in the 1990s, said he hoped the seizure would help bring more stability to the country.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Bill Clinton's Sins Of Omission
Mansoor Ijaz, a millionaire Manhattan businessman who acted as a go-between for the Clinton White House with various Muslim officials, including the Sudanese. In practice, Mr. Ijaz is a citizen diplomat, using his own resources and connections to try to help the United States approach Muslim leaders, and vice versa. During the Clinton years, he was the administration's main connection to the American Muslim community. He is not a partisan Republican crank with an ax to grind. He contributed or raised $900,000 for Democratic campaigns and was a recognized "Friend of Bill," an insider. Hillary Clinton's birthday celebration was held at Mr. Ijaz's Manhattan apartment in 1999.
In e-mails and other correspondence provided exclusively by Mr. Ijaz to The Washington Times, Democratic heavyweights such as former Sen. Chuck Robb, Sen. Tim Johnson and Sen. Chuck Schumer recommend him for a position on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In a handwritten note, Sandy Berger, Mr. Clinton's own national security adviser, writes that he "will make sure he is considered" for a PFIAB spot. There are personal handwritten notes to Mr. Ijaz from President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore that are signed simply Bill, Hillary or Al. In one note, Mrs. Clinton thanks him for a birthday present he gave her. These personal connections and the wealth of personal correspondence are important, because they prove the credentials of Mr. Ijaz.
So what did he tell them? In detailed confidential memos to Mr. Berger (provided to The Times by Mr. Ijaz), Mr. Ijaz sets out the Sudanese offers. In a Sept. 27, 1996, brief, he details the contents of the intelligence files, which he had told Mr. Berger about in a previous August memo. In letters to President Clinton from officials from Islamic governments delivered by Mr. Ijaz, repeated appeals were made for efforts to work on better relations between Washington and Muslim nations. In one letter to Mr. Clinton from Hassan Turabi, chairman of the National Assembly of Sudan, the Sudanese official wrote:
"We are prepared to work with you to usher in a new era of improving the understanding and attitudes of all elements in the Islamic world, whether here in the Sudan or in other Islamic regions of mutual interest and concern." The most significant cause for concern with the Muslim world was then what it still is today: bin Laden. And the Sudanese were in a position to hand him over. The Clinton administration might not have taken the Sudanese seriously, but the Sudanese voluntarily placed all their cards on the table. Mr. Ijaz's correspondence proves the administration knew what was available. The Clinton administration simply chose to snub the offer to work together with the government that harbored the al Qaeda mastermind.
In an interview yesterday with the Washington Times, Mr. Ijaz summarized his view of the Clinton administration's culpability regarding September 11. "I said then as I say now: Bill Clinton's inability to understand what was fueling the rise of bin Laden as a phenomenon — not as an individual — was the greatest U.S. foreign policy failure of the last half-century. It has affected hundreds of millions worldwide. Even if we get him now, who will be the next bin Laden? There are many willing candidates standing in line. Islamic radicalism exists today because Clinton didn't dismantle al Qaeda when he had the chance."
Al Bore on the other hand seems to have forgotten all that he said during his eight years in office.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Al Gore were President, so would Saddam Hussein still be President.
Clinton drove me absolutely nuts that day. Wasn't that whole "farewell ceremony" at Andrews one of the most ridiculous and blatant examples of a runaway ego that you had ever seen? I thought he he would never get on the plane. I kept yelling at the TV, "get on the plane Bill, get on the damn plane!" My family thought I was going crazy, but after eight horrible years and that nightmare in Florida, I was at the end of my rope.
Now we have a man that truly respects the military and is honored to be the Commander in Chief. I thank God every day that we are blessed to have George W. Bush as our President.
AMEN brother... hope Bush is smart enough to know this will die down and JUST as it does go find some of the WMD's Sadaam tells them about... a little every week till the election.... saving something juicy for a big finish in the coming Goat and Camel show...Election 2004
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