[Cicero]

As you say, this doesn't exactly absolve clinton. He was up to his eyebrows in corruption and scandals, so he couldn't afford to conduct foreign policy in a manner beneficial to the country. Instead, as we all know, his main foreign policy objective was to do whatever was needed to take people's minds off Monica and his other assorted scandals. A secondary objective was to give CNN and his media buddies good photo-ops, so they would continue to support him.

[aristeides]

I don't believe Clinton is as blameless in this matter as you suppose. Rice's behavior was so bizarre that I think she must have been following orders. I think Clinton did not want intelligence agencies and other parts of the government to learn too much about bin Laden and the Islamofascists, because they were involved in some of his own dirty business.