Posted on 08/05/2002 6:02:59 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
(CBS) The Bush administration said Sunday it moved as swiftly as possible to develop a plan on how to eliminate al Qaeda - a process that took eight months and wasn't complete until one week before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Clinton administration had handed off to the incoming Bush team detailed assessments of the threat, and offered ideas on how to counter al Qaeda.
But Bush administration officials took issue Sunday with a report in the Aug. 12 issue of Time magazine that said the current administration's review of its predecessor's briefings became bogged down in bureaucracy.
The current White House denies receiving any firm plans for dealing with al Qaeda.
"The Clinton administration did not present an aggressive new plan to topple al Qaeda during the transition," said White House spokesman Sean McCormack. "We were briefed on the al Qaeda threat and what the Clinton administration was doing about it. These efforts against al Qaeda were continued in the Bush administration."
According to Time, Clinton's anti-terror czar, Richard Clarke, offered detailed proposals: arresting al Qaeda personnel, choking off the group's financing, aiding nations fighting the organization and beefing up covert action in Afghanistan to deny al Qaeda sanctuary.
Clarke, who stayed on in the Bush administration, also called for a substantial increase in support for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and for planning of air strikes on Afghan terror camps.
But a senior Bush administration official said Sunday the Clinton White House offered the incoming Bush team only ideas on how to "roll back" the threat over a three- to five-year period.
Soon after it began studying the issue, the Bush administration decided a "rollback" was inadequate, and began planning for eliminating al Qaeda altogether, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, attended a meeting during the transition at which the Clinton and Bush teams discussed counterterrorism issues.
Berger did not return calls to his office on Sunday.
In the first few days of the Bush White House, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice asked for proposals for major presidential policy review and, based on a response from Clarke, ordered a review of policy toward al Qaeda, the senior official said.
Top Bush administration officials approved what McCormack called the "comprehensive strategy to eliminate al Qaeda" exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Time Magazine also reports that while concern was mounting by last summer that a major terrorist attack against U.S. interests was imminent, no decision was made to send a Predator drone - the best possible source of intelligence on the terror camps run by Osama bin Laden - to fly over Afghanistan.
"The Predator sat idle from October 2000 until after September 11," Time reported.
"The Predator was not flown because we were in the final stages of developing new capabilities for it," said a senior Bush administration official, commenting anonymously. The official declined to describe the new capabilities, which could have included arming the drone.
Questions about the Bush administration's planning against al-Qaeda come on top of disclosures that American intelligence officials intercepted communications in Arabic that made vague references to an impending attack on the United States. They contained the phrases, "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match is about to begin."
The intercepts weren't translated until Sept. 12. Their relevance is uncertain.
Monday, August 5, 2002
Speaks volumes. This pathetic Clinton alibi is a BIG LIE.
Bull's-eye.
That does it for me! How could Bush have been so reckless!! All he had to do was fly a Predator over Osamma, focus on his lips, and read what he was saying about the 20 kamikazi criminal operatives in America! And he did nothing!Shoulda voted for Gore!
</sarcasm> I'll bet ben Laden was lying on his back, sunbathing,
and telling the world about his plans.Probably in English, too!
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