Posted on 09/26/2006 9:05:47 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON - Former advisers ridiculed ex-President Bill Clinton yesterday for saying he had a plan to invade Afghanistan, topple the Taliban and kill Osama Bin Laden after jihadists nearly sank the destroyer Cole.
"The only order we got from [Clinton] after the Cole was to put together a target list for air attacks," said Michael Scheuer, who led the CIA's hunt for Osama Bin Laden under Clinton.
"What I was involved in could in no way be called a full-fledged plan to attack and overthrow the Taliban," he said.
In his fiery interview on "Fox News Sunday," Clinton claimed he did more than President Bush to get Bin Laden before 9/11, disclosing that he had a secret plan to invade Afghanistan and wipe out the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Clinton insisted he never ordered that invasion because the CIA and FBI could not "certify" that Bin Laden was involved in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the Cole in a Yemeni harbor.
Scheuer, who wrote the book "Imperial Hubris," said he met every 10 days with top members of Clinton's anti-terror team and plans for an invasion were never presented or discussed.
He also lashed out at Clinton for blaming subordinates for the failure to get Bin Laden, saying they had 10 chances to kill or capture the terror kingpin before 9/11.
"I was responsible for sending men and women into harm's way to get information he didn't use," Scheuer added.
Fran Townsend, a former top intelligence adviser in Clinton's Justice Department and now Bush's anti-terror czar, rolled her eyes when asked about Clinton's invasion plan.
"There were lots of things that seemed new" in Clinton's recollections on Fox, Townsend said.
Still, Team Clinton stood by its story. "A plan existed, but the ability to act on it was not corroborated by intelligence until after President Clinton left office," said Clinton spokesman Jay Carson.
P.J. Crowley, spokesman for Clinton's National Security Council and a retired Air Force officer with a security clearance, said many contingency plans existed at the Pentagon.
"It wasn't that there was a lack of plans, it's that there was a lack of actionable intelligence," Crowley said.
Scheuer and a retired senior FBI official agreed that they knew almost immediately that Al Qaeda was behind the Cole bombing. "We all said this was definitely Bin Laden," the ex-FBI official said. "But we couldn't take it to court and get an indictment."
Two sources that Clinton repeatedly cited in the Fox interview - the 9/11 commission report and Richard Clarke's book, "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror" - never mention plans to invade Afghanistan.
Originally published on September 26, 2006
IIRC, he's a liberal.
The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 provides additional, discretionary authorities under which my Administration can act to further the objectives I outlined above. There are, of course, other important elements of U.S. policy. These include the maintenance of U.N. Security Council support efforts to eliminate Iraq's weapons and missile programs and economic sanctions that continue to deny the regime the means to reconstitute those threats to international peace and security. United States support for the Iraqi opposition will be carried out consistent with those policy objectives as well. Similarly, U.S. support must be attuned to what the opposition can effectively make use of as it develops over time. With those observations, I sign H.R. 4655 into law.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 31, 1998.
Read: I thought the dog ate my homework, but after Clinton left office, I found it!
Considering that the Daily News shills for the Democrats, this is pretty strong stuff. The bottom of the article tends to retract some of the points made earlier, but the headline and the top of the article are very negative on clinton.
The Daily News used to be in hillary's pocket, but this is one of many articles suggesting that they no longer want to serve her slavishly the way they used to.
Oh I'm sure Clinton had plans. Micromanager that he was he had developed them in his own mind and fearing leaks, kept them to himself for just the right time to set them in motion.
"It wasn't that there was a lack of plans, it's that there was a lack of actionable intelligence," Crowley said.
_______
So, these idiots made a "plan" without intelligence? Shooting in the dark?
Hell, Clinton was more interested in chasing skirts, punishing Microsoft for being too successful, and violating the rights of Americans from Washington to Waco at every opportunity. And that crooked bastard was offered bin Laden on more than one opportunity and turned the offer down every time.
What a filthy, lying, festering piece of pig crap.
Thank you for that post. That chapter is just staggering. It proves the tantrum we saw on TV was just a great big lie! Did more to get bin Laden..........I don't think so.
P.J. is now B.J. Crowley.
HEAR:
- the only idea clinton was promoting during the interview
- the devastating case made against bill clinton by:
- Michael Scheuer, former 'hunting bin Laden' CIA Division Chief, and
- Richard Miniter, author of Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror
DECONSTRUCTED INTERVIEW
(click image to play--analysis below image)
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