Of course, that might depend on what the definition of "stop" is...considering his propensity not to do that in..ahem...certain matters...
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.
You remember that too, eh MNJ? Because bj had reduced the inventory, we were reduced to pulling the nuke warheads off tomahawks to replace 'em with conventionals - a 3 month job! What an incompetant traitor he is!..............FRegards
And they usually got away with it, too. Think Vince Foster.
Clinton is losing it- what little cool he may have ever had to begin with - he has more issues than a collector of every published Reader's Digest
We didn't known how very dangerous it was to have such a crap weasel as leader of the free world, did we?
It all depends on the definition of "close"...
Stay healthy, Billy Blythe!
Read Clark's book? Bwahhhahahahahahahahahahaha!
At least I bumped the thread.
I posted this on another thread early evening....IT didn't take the COMpost too long to jump into BUBBA'S defense!
ping
.
NEVER FORGET
3 Free Offers from the Sudan during the 1990's to give us OSAMA bin LADEN on a silver platter ...refused by the CLINTONS =
9/11 Lifesaver RICK RESCORLA, ..R.I.P.
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
NEVER FORGET
.
The intensity of the Clinton Family RAGE
is exactly why Hillary is so dangerous!
If these two ever get back in the Presidency,
there will be HELL to pay!
Fox News Sunday on Fox News Channel -- 3:00 PM Pacific. I try not to miss it, but still miss Tony Snow.................oh, he has another job now, doesn't he? LOL!
Of course, that might depend on what the definition of "stop" is...considering his propensity not to do that in..ahem...certain matters...
In terms of authorizing anyone to kill...within the Clinton years...it would have been halted by the attorney general...because the President was "deemed" not to have such powers. This has been said on seveal occassions. I've never heard that CIA was given kill-orders by Bill...and would seriously doubt that statement that he made. I think this interview made Bill look a bit more stupid than what he actually did in the 8-year period...the less he talks...the better off he is.
Lock and load! Go weapons hot! Target acquired...FOX THREE! (no pun intended on "Fox")
Money quote. And a lesson to Republican presidents: either never say, "read my lips: no new taxes", or if you say it, do not ever break it. It may not have been the determining factor in the 1992 loss, but it didn't help.
If he blows a vein over a semi-tough question, what would he had done if he was asked about his Gorelicker Wall??
Pray for W and Our Troops
Yeah...before the show ever airs! :) I'll have to catchup when I get home from church. Priorities, and all.
LOL, Erasmus.
Great "Good morning Vietnam" reset!
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