Freeh Continues Criticism of Clinton Terror Record

New York Times ^ | October 16, 2005 | By BRIAN KNOWLTON, International Herald Tribune

[Jim Robinson]

The rancor between Louis Freeh and former President Bill Clinton, who appointed him director of the F.B.I. in 1993, was laid raw anew today as Mr. Freeh continued his assault on the Clinton administration's handling of terrorism, while a former presidential aide accused Mr. Freeh of an "astonishing string of failures that helped leave America vulnerable to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Mr. Freeh, appearing on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" to promote a book he has written, repeated his assertion that the Clinton administration had failed to grasp the scope and severity of the threat of terrorism and had botched the investigation of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, which took 19 American lives.

Mr. Freeh said the administration had failed to press Saudi Arabian leaders for F.B.I. access to suspects in the bombing and - when it appeared that Iran might be behind the attack - had mishandled a letter of protest to the Iranian president in a way that needlessly infuriated both the Saudis and the Iranians.

President Clinton's last chief of staff, John Podesta, sharply rejected Mr. Freeh's accusations, which he has been making in the last week in a series of interviews to promote his new book, "My F.B.I.: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton and Fighting the War on Terror."

Contrary to Mr. Freeh's version of events, Mr. Podesta wrote in an op-ed article in The Washington Post today, "on numerous occasions, senior Clinton administration officials reiterated requests for full cooperation on Khobar Towers, including access to key witnesses, with interlocutors at the highest levels of the Saudi government."

According to Mr. Podesta, those in the room when President Clinton met with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia "all concur that Clinton pushed Abdullah hard for cooperation."

[hawkaw]

Thanks for posting the interview. I was wondering what was said.

[ravingnutter]

From my files:

Vice Adm. Thomas Wilson, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote to all DIA personnel this week to explain the protest resignation of a DIA analyst in October. The analyst, Kie Fallis, quit the day after the USS Cole was attacked by suicide bombers in Aden, Yemen. Mr. Fallis charged that a report he had written on the threat of a terrorist attack in Yemen was suppressed by senior DIA officials.

Mr. Fallis' resignation letter stated that he had "significant analytic differences" with DIA superiors over a terrorist threat assessment produced in June.

U.S. intelligence officials said there were warnings, but they arrived too late. The National Security Agency issued a report shortly after the Cole was bombed warning of attacks in the region —too late to be useful.

Adm. Wilson said he asked the Pentagon inspector general (IG) to investigate Mr. Fallis' charges. In an awkwardly worded statement, the three-star admiral said on Wednesday the IG "found no evidence to support the public perception that information warning of an attack on Cole was suppressed, ignored or even available in DIA." What about the private perception?

The admiral's statement drew smirks from several intelligence officials. It relied on a dodge often used by intelligence analysts to dismiss unwelcome information. Saying there is "no evidence" —like that presented to a court of law — is often used to mask the fact there is lots of intelligence to the contrary that spooks would rather not talk about in public.

Source

The MSM keeps citing defense lawyers as the culprit in Able Danger...however...

Shaffer says he was trying to broker a connection between SOCOM and the FBI. Shaffer told Spencer that one reason that Able Danger got denied permission to brief the FBI on their findings was that there was a fear not just among Pentagon lawyers but among Special Ops command that if things went badly with any FBI operation to take out the al Qaeda cells they had identified, it would be “another Waco."

Spencer says, “He didn’t blame the DoD lawyers so much, but the command” (for blocking the team from sharing their findings with the FBI). “Not Schoomaker…. It rose to the level of a 2-star, 3-star general,” who he didn’t name...

Source

VADM Wilson was a Three Star General.

[razorback-bert]

Thank you for the post, it appears that Russert is far more interested in covering clinton's butt than learning about terrorists.

[KC_Conspirator]

Let me guess, Russert went after Freeh on Sunday morning, but let that lying piece of garbage, Aaron Broussard get away with lying and lying on Meet the Press?

[Deguello]

"made incredible counterterrorism cases during that period. Kansi was brought back..."

I would like him to elaborate more about Kansi. Will he say if this was a hit on a specific target at the CIA?

[Iron Matron]

Wonder why Russert didn't mention the 46 federal indictments against the Klinton Kabal.

Because the liberal elite do not like egg on their faces..they prefer payback..indictments of every person in the Bush admin. they can set their cameras on..to do less would be to admit they were wrong..cant have that in the Media!

[Ann Archy]

Tim Russert took on the role of Defense Attorney for the Clintons. Pathetic.

[Ann Archy]

I'll bet that it was NOT "misdelivered". It was delivered so as to sabotage it. The Clintons are devious, evil people and their followers are also.

Podesta makes my skin crawl....what a sleezy guy.

[Ann Archy]

Wonder how much the Clintons paid Tim Russert, their new Defense Attorney?

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[ScaniaBoy]

I'll bet that it was NOT "misdelivered".

I wouldn't bet against you - but whatever the cause of the misdelivery, these tidbits from the White House and State Dept under the Clinton years do not improve his "historic legacy".

Podesta makes my skin crawl....what a sleezy guy.

I've never seen him, so I can still sleep soundly.

:-)

[ncountylee]

All the Clintonistas are out trying to polish a turd - tough job.

[jer33 3]

I indulged and bought Freeh's book this weekend. I had a hard time finding it in the bookstore as it was on the bottom shelf almost hidden. Of course, most of the bookstores are run by liberals in our area so that shouldn't surprise me.

[p23185]

Of course, most of the bookstores are run by liberals in our area so that shouldn't surprise me.

Bookstores nationwide are run by the Libs, just like our institutions of higher learning. We have an entire couple of generation of mush heads amongst us now.

[strategofr]

"Mr. Freeh, appearing on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press""

The amazing thing is that NBC considers this "news". Weren't all those things he's taking about actually Bush's fault? Isn't Freeh just a disgruntled failure?

It's all interesting because it impacts Hillary (even when its about Bill), so it's serious stuff.

[strategofr]

"FBI director Louis Freeh, and those around him, began to suspect that the administration didn't care that much about finding the perpetrators because if connections with Iran were established it would be forced to take, or at least consider, action against Iran. This meant that getting to the bottom of the case would present what the administration hated most: a difficulty, a risk."

I believe Clinton is a traitor who aided and abetted the terrorists. Too many convoluted excuses like this. Everything points the same way.

[kcvl]

Podesta said "there was no wrongdoing"

Earlier, former White House chief of staff John Podesta, former White House counsel Beth Nolan and former deputy counsel Bruce Lindsey were joined by Jack Quinn, another former White House counsel who served as attorney for Rich, whose presidential pardon is the focus of the hearings by the House Government Operations and Reform Committee.

Rich fled to Switzerland 17 years ago to avoid prosecution on racketeering, wire fraud, income tax evasion and illegal oil trading charges. His was one of 140 pardons that Clinton granted in his last hours in office on January 20.

Denise Rich has been a major contributor to Democratic campaigns and the Clinton presidential library foundation. Dozoretz has pledged to raise $1 million for the Clinton presidential library. The House committee is looking into whether those actions had any impact on Clinton's granting of the pardon for Rich.

Podesta, Nolan and Lindsey all said they recommended that the pardon be denied, but supported Clinton's decision-making process.

"I believe that President Clinton considered the legal merits of the arguments for the pardon as he understood them, and he rendered his judgment, wise or unwise, on the merits," Podesta said.

[kcvl]

John Podesta is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress. Podesta served as Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001. A frequent guest of Sunday morning news programs, Podesta is known for his straight talk, acerbic wit, and fierce defense of the Clinton Administration – which he also served from 1997 to 1998 as both an Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy. Additionally, Podesta is currently a Visiting Professor of Law on the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, a position he also held from January 1995 to 1997.

[parisa]

It's absolutely mind-boggling. For over twenty-six years the regime in control of Iran has been involved in terrorism and mayhem and murder both inside and outside the country -- all over the world, in the farthest corners of the world -- and what have the governments of the world been doing about it? They've been busy protecting and whitewashing and HIDING the mollas' murderous deeds.

Will Freeh's book make a difference? Absolutely not.