Posted on 09/27/2006 12:17:59 PM PDT by LSUfan
I love us, don't you? We know EVERYTHING......or at least we can refute it, right? :-)
Actually Clinton DID respond, after three months of agoniizing, he went ahead and pardoned an entire team of TERRORISTS.
Did he meet him once or not at all? I forget?
Most of what the moveon.org poster wrote is not even related to the core question - was the matter of the USS Cole being brought up by Chris Wallace a straw man.
The question to ask is - did President Clinton and his administration have sufficent intelligence information to determine the sources responsible for the USS Cole bombing?
And once that question is answered, the next question is - when was the appropriate time to respond either in a military or otehr fashion to the bombing?
I'll do some research, but leaving it to the next administration to deal with would seem to be an artificial break-point. Why would they do that? Wasn't the plan to fight terrorism robust enough to transcend a change in administration?
Recall too that the left/media had criticized Bush for announcing his proposed cabinet appoitments before the courts had settled the ballot issue.
They said it was "too soon" to make such decisions. The handover was NOT peaceful. The Democrats did not want to leave. It was a shameful betrayal to the most sacred tradition in this country, the peaceful exchange of power.
About the time of the USS Cole suicide bombing attack Slick Willie was extremely busy with higher priorities, namely peddling pardons to high-rolling felons who were willing to contribute megabucks to his library.
From powerlineblog:
On page 234 of "Against All Enemies," Clarke writes:
"I had completed the review of the organizational options for homeland defense and critical infrastructure protection that Rice had asked me to conduct. There was agreement to create a separate, senior White House position for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Security, outside of the NSC Staff. Condi Rice and Steve Hadley assumed that I would continue on the NSC focusing on terrorism and asked whom I had in mind for the new job that would be created outside the NSC. I requested that I be given that assignment, to the apparent surprise of Condi Rice and Steve Hadley."
If Clarke was demoted, he requested the demotion.
Clinton also seems to imply that Clarke was "demoted" prior to 9/11. However, on page 239 of Against All Enemies, Clarke writes the following:
"Roger Cressey, my deputy at the NSC Staff, came to me in early October, after the time that I had intended to switch from the terrorism job to Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Security. The switch had been delayed by September 11."
In other words, the Bush administration kept Clarke at NSC beyond the period Clarke had planned on being there.
In a footnote on page 240, Clarke makes it clear that he left the administration under his own volition:
"Cressey and I did spend over a year working on the cyber security problem, producing Bush's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, and then quit the Administration altogether."
Remember the joke at the time that it was probably just CIA Director James Woosley trying to get an appointment to see Clinton? Recall that Clinton met with the CIA director only 2 times in his first 4 years in office! That's how much terrorism and bin Laden were a priority to him!
Condi Rice and Steve Hadley assumed that I would continue on the NSC focusing on terrorism and asked whom I had in mind for the new job that would be created outside the NSC. I requested that I be given that assignment, to the apparent surprise of Condi Rice and Steve Hadley.
Did he meet him once or not at all? I forget?
Good question. I don't know, either, but, hell, the guy hardly ever met with his own freaking cabinet. What was their average meeting frequency, something like every 4 or 5 months? I guess he did trot some of them outside on the WH lawn to validate his lying after that one finger-wagging news conference when the Lewinsky issue was brought up.
"EXACTLY. It happened while Slick was in office. Their statement makes as much sense as Kerry referring to Viet Nam as "Nixon's War.""
More along the lines of Nixon sending Kerry to Cambodia Christmas of 68. Since Nixon didn't take office until January 69.
So do you!
;O)
The CIA used drones and missles to kill the suspects involved in bombing the Cole...this was done under the current Bush aministrations watch:)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-11-04-yemen-side-usat_x.htm?POE=click-refer
Frankly, I am annoyed by this full court effort to get us thinking about 2001. To me it is wag the dog redux. The visits of three heads of state in Washington this week and the dinner tonight with Karsai and Mushareff at the White House testify to how much has been done to improve relations since 2001. Allbright couldn't even figure out who to call when she wanted to warn Pakistan about incoming cruise missles. Now the president of Pakistan collaborates with Britain and US to break the 10 airliner plot and publically refers to Bush as his friend.
Since GWB actually DID do something about avenging the USS Cole:
If Osama was a hot blond Clinton would have found him in weeks.....
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