Posted on 09/23/2006 1:49:25 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
The liberal website Thinkprogress has published a rough transcript of Bill Clinton's interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, and it appears to be even more contentious than the brief clip that has been released shows. Here are some excerpts from Clinton's angry defense of his conduct of the war on terrorism, beginning when Wallace asked him "Why didn't you do more, connect the dots and put [al Qaeda] out of business?"
I will answer all of those things on the merits but I want to talk about the context of which this arises. I’m being asked this on the Fox network…[note — these ellipses are in the Thinkprogress transcript]. ABC just had a right wing conservative on the 'Path to 9/11' falsely claim that it was based on the 911 commission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 commission report. I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much. Same people….
I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him. The CIA was run by George Tenet who President Bush gave the medal of freedom to and said he did a good job.. The country never had a comprehensive anti terror operation until I came to office. If you can criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this, after the Cole I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full scale attack search for Bin Laden. But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan which we got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that Bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would have had to send a few hundred special forces in helicopters and refuel at night. Even the 9/11 Commission didn’t do that. Now the 9/11 Commission was a political document too. All I’m asking is if anybody wants to say I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book…
At least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t….. {ellipses in the Thinkprogress transcript]. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… [ellipses in Thinkprogress transcript] So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me….
I worked hard to try and kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that think Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever…
Clinton's answers raise many points that call for answers. More tomorrow.
I couldn't disagree with you more. Clinton doesn't feel guilt. Clinton feels anger. In his mind, it really IS all about him. Everything past, present and future. He has spent a lifetime manipulating the truth in order to make it fit his script. And surrounding himself with bit-player thugs and morally corrupt vagabonds who would insure that script was followed. When someone like Chris Wallace, Ken Starr, Juanita Broderick, Paula Jones, etc. walks into the script and doesn't read the lines as written, he becomes unhinged. He's done it before. He will do it again.
As smart as he thinks he is, he could have put the whole Paula Jones case to rest by declaring that it was beneath the presidency to respond in any way to such an investigation. Just totally refuse to respond or be deposed. That would have meant that some judge would have had to call him in contempt and what, JAIL a sitting president? Heck, he couldn't have even been impeached for it.
If he'd said "Wait until I am out of office" the case would have waited. Monica would not have been called.
In other words, CLINTON chose to make this the big obsession of the country because he was so cocksure he'd win.
I think the Democrats were more interested in getting the words "oral sex" into the general common language usage set, in pub ed contexts -- their "passion" for sex (gay/straight, etc.) simply outweighed good sense.
BRILLIANT.
Now how to get someone who looks like Tim Russert in time for the interview?
He feels guilt. That is why his reaction was one of anger and lashing out.
With all due respect, I strongly disagree with you. Clinton is a psychopath (no, they are not all serial killers - it is more common than you may realize) and psychopaths do not have an conscience. His extreme reaction is solely because he has been CRITICIZED - it doesn't matter for what - and because he is a narcacist (can't spell worth a darn) this is a major hot button that drives him over the edge. Remember, if he was still President, there is no way on earth that ABC could have aired The Path to 9/11 because the Comrades Clinton would have had the power to stop it. This is a man who is obsessed with one thing only: himself
Well, burst my bubble! heh heh
The truth in that joke speaks volumes.
I'd be willing to bet big bucks that he spent more time on the phone having phone sex with Monica (15 times according to the Starr Report)--than he did speaking about Bin Laden with Woolsey, Tenet, Freeh, or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs COMBINED!
I'd DOUBLE that bet--on how many times he met PERSONALLY with all of the above VS. the number of times he spent 'defending the consitution' with his pants around his ankles (according to the Starr Report, a dozen times, if I remember right)!
Did the *Crintoon get this upset after Sandy Bergler pinched classified documents just prior to *Bubba's testimony? I don't recall...
Clinton certainly was 'OBSESSED'. He was 'OBSESSED' with the same thing he has been 'OBSESSED' with his entire life--
his own personal self-gratification and self-aggrandizement.
Nothing else has EVER mattered to him.
Ronald Reagan wanted to be President to do 'great things'. Slick wanted to be President to 'be somebody'.
Pretty much violates most treaties that are in place. This is why people really complained when Clinton allowed British Special Forces and intelligence personnel to participate in the extermination of American, Canadian, and Australian nationals at Mount Carmel Texas. But Reno took the heat for that one. We as Americans must NEVER sanction Presidential death squads. It is tyranny. I do not care which party is in power.
And George Bush wanted to be known as El Diablo.
This interview will put more weight on the ideas that Clinton targeted his political enemies with IRS audits, physical and sexual assualts and the many people whom have connections to Willie that are not with us anymore.
Stocktrader, thank you for your posts. I hope that you and two other great guys don't mind a lil ping and bump.
If the impeached *Perjurer spews the right words, leftists respond. Don't be surprised...
You nailed the key point, sir.
I suspect we are going to soon learn that he "misspoke" again. Ha.
For whatever reasons they are, I think we both can agree that constructing false realitys are the pillars that hold this man up.
What better proof do we need that he had no interest whatsoever in our national security needs? It is absolutely pathetic that the Director of the CIA is unable to speak to the President (hence, the genesis of that joke), but 'you know who' gets called on a regular basis for phone sex. That is ABSOLUTELY UNCONSCIONABLE!
And he has the unbelievable NERVE and unmitigated GALL to say he was OBSESSED with finding Bin Laden? And yet that average person believes that kind of crap? Amazing.
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