Tale Of Two White Houses [BUSH-KNEW!]

CBSNEWS ^ | Monday, August 5, 2002

[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.

[JohnHuang2]

look for the attacks to continue through the month of August with the President in Crawford...

And look for it to backfire, even harder than it did last time.

[JohnHuang2]

I found this interesting. Illustrates the difference between the grownups and the boomers running the show.

Exactly. It further disproves the notion there was any such plan to begin with.

[philosofy123]

Clinton is on the offensive. The Democrats don't have a good candidate, so they "have" to select Hillary?

[liberallarry]

Read from the source : The Time magazine article - 8 long pages but worth it. It's an accurate description of the difficulties of a transition of power in a democracy, and of the sweat and doubt that go into making life-and-death decisions with only very imperfect information and limited resources.

The political spin put on the article by others is just that - spin. That's my opinion.

[norton]

Fox had the author on this morning, just innocent as hell.

Words like 'of course the democrats will make political use of it...but the timing was purely to allow us to investigte completely..."

Straight face and very little from the staff to shake his story. Call-ins, however, were good...it's going to be a lot worse on CNN.

It'd be great if they'd just dump the entire briefing into the news stream.

About the Predator 'just sitting around...' what is this fixation on destroying SUVs anyway?

[Semper Paratus]

Maybe if Bubba spent more time during the transition in briefing the incoming administration and less time lining his pockets and paying off political debts with pardons we would have been better prepared - but I doubt he and Sandy Berger know WTF was going on outside the country.

[freedomcrusader]

The White House ought to say it developed plans as fast as it could given the delay in transition and the difficulties getting key personnel who developed the report confirmed by the Senate.

[JohnHuang2]

Regarding the political impact of all of this, I take a contrarian position. This is a loser for Democrats. So, let 'em spend the fall campaign trying to blame Bush for 9/11 -- it'll backfire, big time.

[esopman]

Yes, the Bubba Rex machine is on the offensive. We will never see all the machinations in the dim Dem backrooms. Hillary will wait in the wings a while (she cannot wait until '08) and be 'drafted'...and settle for VPOTUS. The sickening media will be pedal-to-the-metal in support of her. And it just might work.

[rintense]

And considering it only took the Bush admin 8 months to develop a plan, whereas Clinton had 8 farking years!

[wtc911]

The large unasked question that everyone will get around to....if they had a plan and a target what were they waiting for

[KC_Conspirator]

This is just another weak attempt by liberals to blame Bush and exonerate Klinton. What did Klinton do in the previous 8 years? Nothing. Not only did Klinton fiddle while Rome burned, but instead of fighting terrorists he pardoned terrorists in New York for his wife's campaign.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Mayhaps 43's difficulties in the early days could be found in the vandalism wrought by the outgoing criminals. The phones were reportedly reprogrammed (a smart plan for an outgoing administration leaving behind an unresolved geopolitical problem).

The new president was busy recovering all the purloined furniture belonging to the American public, stolen from the WH by the New Yorkers from Arkansas. 43 had to restock the linen closets and silver service on Air Force One, the contents of which also vanished with the former president.

In short, this whole new affair is nothing but more of the same old buck-passing we witnessed for 8 horrid years. Thanks for the post.

[uncbob]

Its very interesting this article came out at a time when Clinton claims he would take up arms to defend Israel if he had to. Maybe coincidence, maybe not.

As somebody posted on another thread HIS OWN COUNTRY has been attacked and we are at war
Haven't seen him at the recruiting office

[JohnHuang2]

As somebody posted on another thread HIS OWN COUNTRY has been attacked and we are at war Haven't seen him at the recruiting office

Bingo.

[gaspar]

This is another shot by Albright and Berger to save their sadly diminished reputations. They suffered a damaging blow earlier this year in a Vanity Fair article, and they have spent the spring and now the summer attempting to justify the unjustifable. History will treat them very poorly despite the efforts of Time, Newsweek, the Washington Post and the NYTimes to save them. Likewise, history will give the American media its proper due, and the Clinton era will be known as the Age of Propaganda.

[NC Conservative]

Harken must be dead. Halliburton also.

[okiedust]

Well one thing we have learned from these Clintoon clowns is that they have one inviolate rule: When something big is about to break, get out ahead of the story. Given this fact, this latest offering of "Bush Knew(and WE told him)" smells rotten. Clearly there are many factors in the story which don't hold water when examined, so the question is why now? And I don't buy the "its August and the news is slow" explanation. If this were true, they would have had it out at the first whisper of Clintons negligence being responsible for 9/11.

So many unresolved stories of Clinton administration security lapses. Which one do you think is hanging out there ready to fall, like ripe fruit, (if any).

regards

[TADSLOS]

The Clinton Administration's Anti-Terror Plan in action:

MOGADISHU

KHOBAR TOWERS

USS COLE

Why should the Bush Administration take anything these buffoons and criminals have to say seriously?