Posted on 04/18/2006 10:38:57 AM PDT by Carl/NewsMax
Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of his alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the U.S.S. Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al Qaeda terrorists.
Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody."
The Rumsfeld critic explained that he personally signed off on berthing the Cole in Yemen even though "their coast is a sieve for terrorists."
"The threat conditions in Aden were better than elsewhere," he insisted, citing risk assessments for Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers.
Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.
In what may be an even more troubling development, a report indicates that the leading Rumsfeld critic may have inadvertently played a role in tipping off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack two years before the Cole episode.
Two days after President Clinton ordered the attack on bin Laden's encampment in Khost Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported:
"Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, quoting unidentified sources in London today, reported that Pakistan leaked to bin Laden news about an impending U.S. strike. The sources said the leak was aimed at limiting casualties, so that bin Laden would have less justification for a counterattack.
"A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials.
"Other Pakistani sources said Zinni came with a team of U.S. intelligence experts whose task was to pinpoint the camps and determine bin Laden's exact whereabouts."
Bump
Talk about treason!
I have long considered 9/11 to be slick willie's legacy.
Every time he went to the area and met with Arafat there was an increased number of attacks against Israeli citizens.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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Or a resident of Belgrade.
Back during the Clinton years, the deal was to "take responsibility" for screw ups, but no penalty would ever be applied. It was all window-dressing for the Evening News.
Remember Janet Reno "taking responsibility" for the Waco debacle? Did she ever pay a price for that? In fact, she was hailed as a hero for being so forthright. Who cares if she burned all those kids to death? She came up with the right soundbite by the 5:30 deadline, so she was a hero!
Thousands and thoudands of ex Generals in civis.
A few are bitching. Such is life. Zunni is nobody anyway.
What book is he writing?
Zinni fell on his sword during his testimony for Slick Willie over the Cole but the question remains why didn't Zinnis' successor at CENTCOM, Tommy Franks, change the policy and ROEs in the three months that ensued after Zinni left CENTCOM in July and the Cole was attacked in October.
ROTFLMAO! As good as "Senator Bareback YoMama!"
Zinni was Powells' envoy not Slicks'.
The press doesn't give a flip about Flame. They use that case to distract from things like this.
Special Envoy who would sit there grinning like an idiot everytime Hamas would blow up a bus full of children when he was in Jerusalem. I can't remember exactly when that was.
Written. He is, as we speak, on a book tour for a tome he collaborated on with Tom Clancy.
WhAT? Have you never heard of Posse Comitatis? Not to mention the putting of the "Heart & Soul" (Ilegales) of America out of those jobs? Put the military to work picking up trash in Tehran. That will show Ahmedine-jihad that we mean no harm.
So, did Clinton give orders to Zinni to tip off Osama??? My guess is that he did.....TWO TRAITORS!! HANG EM HIGH!!
Powell is ANOTHER anti-Israel guy.
Tom Clancy has gone over to the Dark side also.
In the Department of Defense there are:
34 - four star generals/admirals
124 - three star generals/admirals
278 - two star generals/admirals
439 - one star generals/admirals
Throw in the U.S. Coast Guard and you have 900 generals and admirals on active duty today. This is roughly the same number of generals/admirals who were on active duty in WWII when our military was 12,000,000 strong.
Given that on any given year 15-20% of those generals/admirals will retire each year it doesn't take much figuring to realize that the number of generals calling for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign is laughable.
They could have just as easily used a friendly port in the U.A.E. like Jabal Ali, which we used freely during GW1. The more I hear about Zinni, the more I'm glad he's not an active duty Marine general.
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