GORE: HAUNTED BY HIS OWN INACTION ON IRAQ

While President Bush Leads An International Coalition Against Terrorism, Gore Gives A Partisan Political Speech Riddled With Flip-Flops, Inaccuracies, And Attacks.

GORE FLIP-FLOPPED ON WHETHER THE 1991 GULF WAR SHOULD HAVE SOUGHT THE OVERTHROW OF SADDAM

September 23, 2002: Gore Blamed The Previous George H.W. Bush Administration For Prematurely Abandoning Its Military Effort Against Iraq And For Allowing Saddam Hussein To Stay In Power. “Now, back in 1991, I was one of a handful of Democrats in the United States Senate to vote in favor of the resolution endorsing the Persian Gulf War. And I felt betrayed by the first Bush administration’s hasty departure from the battlefield, even as Saddam began to renew his persecution of the Shiites and Kurds, groups that we had after all encouraged to rise up against Saddam . . . . Now, a mere two years later, after we abandoned Afghanistan that first time, Saddam Hussein launched his invasion of Kuwait. And our decision, following a brilliant military campaign, to abandon the effort prematurely to destroy Saddam’s military allowed him to remain in power. Now, this needs to be debated and discussed by the Congress. You know, what this tells me is that the Congress should require as part of any resolution that it considers some explicit guarantees on whether or not we’re proposing to simply abandon the Iraqi people in the aftermath of a military victory there, or whether or not we’re going to demand as a nation that this doctrine of ‘wash your hands and walk away’ be changed so that we can engage in some nation building again and build the kind of peace for the future that our people have a right to expect.”
(Al Gore, Remarks To The Commonwealth Club Of California, San Francisco, CA, September 23, 2002)

In April 1991, Gore Didn’t Blame President Bush And Acknowledged That “The Conquest Of Iraq” Was Not An Objective Of The Gulf War. “In my opinion, Madam President, and I want to state this clearly, President Bush should not be blamed for Saddam Hussein’s survival to this point. There was throughout the war a clear consensus that the United States should not include the conquest of Iraq among its objectives. On the contrary, it was universally accepted that our objective was to push Iraq out of Kuwait, and it was further understood that when this was accomplished, combat should stop. That is also why, after it became apparent that Iraqi forces were being routed, pressure mounted rapidly here and abroad to proclaim a cease-fire. If it was a mistake to believe that Saddam Hussein would be a prompt political casualty of the war, as the debacle it turned out to be for Iraq, that his rule would end shortly after the defeat of his armies, then that was a mistake widely shared throughout our country.”
(Al Gore, Congressional Record, April 18, 1991)

GORE HAS A HISTORY OF TALKING TOUGH ON REMOVING SADDAM, BUT DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT HIM

April 18, 1991: Gore Called For The Removal Of Saddam Hussein And His Corrupt “Ruling Clique.” “Unless we do that, we run the risk that the Kurds will still not go back to their homes, and that they will stay in these camps for a long time. . . . That is now a risk that we’re running unless we find a way to get Saddam Hussein and his ruling clique there out of power.”
(ABC’s “Nightline,” April 18, 1991)

December 16, 1998: Gore Defended Military Action Against Iraq As A Means Of Preventing Saddam Hussein From Obtaining And Utilizing Weapons Of Mass Destruction. “Larry King: The president pointed out that everyone agreed with this decision: the Security Council, the Joint Chiefs, yourself. Since he did mention you, was that tough for you to say yes to an OK to bomb people? Gore: No, it was not, because if you allow someone like Saddam Hussein to get nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, biological weapons, how many people is he going to kill with such weapons? He’s already demonstrated a willingness to use these weapons; he poison gassed his own people. He used poison gas and other weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors. This man has no compunctions about killing lots and lots of people. So this is a way to save lives and to save the stability and peace of a region of the world that is important to the peace and security of the entire world.”
(CNN’s “Larry King Live,” December 16, 1998)

December 16, 1998: Gore Described Saddam Hussein As A “Mass Murderer” And Pledged To Prevent The Dictator From Obtaining Ballistic Missiles, Nuclear, Chemical And Biological Weapons. “You know, back in November, when we were on the brink of military action then, Saddam Hussein suddenly waved the white flag and said, ‘I give in, I’ll do whatever you want.’ And we left our forces in the region. We can’t leave them there indefinitely. We left our forces in the region and told him, ‘OK, look, we’ll give you one more chance. If you show a sign that you’re not going to cooperate, then we’re going to take military action, and there won’t be any intervening diplomacy either.’. . . Remember, Peter, this is a man who has used poison gas on his own people and on his neighbors repeatedly. He’s trying to get ballistic missiles, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons. He could be a mass murderer of the first order of magnitude. We are not going to allow that to happen. We are going to win this confrontation.”
(ABC News’ “Special Report,” December 16, 1998)

April 30, 2000: Gore Expressed His Belief That Saddam Hussein Has “Been In Power For Much Longer” Than The Clinton Administration Would Have Liked. Saddam Hussein has “been in power for much longer than we would like,” but “some of what is now under way, with respect to Iraq, in [the Clinton] administration, is not something we can talk about in the public arena.”
(CNN’s “Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer,” April 30, 2000)

February 12, 2002: Gore Said The Administration Must Be “Prepared To Go [To] The Limit” In The Use Of Force Against Saddam Hussein And Iraq. “In 1991, I crossed party lines and supported the use of force against Saddam Hussein, but he was allowed to survive his defeat as the result of a calculation we all had reason to deeply regret for the ensuing decade. And we still do. So this time, if we resort to force, we must absolutely get it right. It must be an action set up carefully and on the basis of the most realistic concepts. Failure cannot be an option, which means that we must be prepared to go [to] the limit. And wishful thinking based on best-case scenarios or excessively literal transfers of recent experience to different conditions would be a recipe for disaster.”
(Al Gore, Remarks To The U.S. Council On Foreign Relations, Washington, DC, February 12, 2002)

September 23, 2002: Gore Acknowledged The Stated U.S. Goal Of Regime Change In Iraq, But Urged The Administration Not To Move Hastily Against Saddam Hussein’s Government. “Now, one of the central points I want to make clear today is that we have an obligation to look at the relationship between our war against terrorism and this proposed war against Iraq. We have a goal of regime change in Iraq. We have had for a number of years. . . . Now, here’s another of the main points I want to make: If we quickly succeed in a war against the weakened and depleted fourth-rate military of Iraq, and then quickly abandon that nation . . . then the resulting chaos in the aftermath of a military victory in Iraq could easily pose a far greater danger to the United States than we presently face from Saddam. Here’s why I say that. We know that he has stored away secret supplies of biological weapons and chemical weapons throughout his country. As yet, we have no evidence, however, that he has shared any of these weapons with terrorist groups. If the administration has evidence that he has, please present it, because that would change the way we all look at this thing.”
(Al Gore, Remarks To The Commonwealth Club Of California, San Francisco, CA, September 23, 2002)

September 23, 2002: Gore Favors Focusing On The War On Terror Rather Than Pursuing A Course Of Action Against Saddam Hussein And Iraq. “Specifically, I am deeply concerned that the course of action that we are presently embarking upon with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century. To begin with, to put first things first, I believe that we ought to be focusing our efforts first and foremost against those who attacked us on September 11 and who have thus far gotten away with it.”
(Al Gore, Remarks To The Commonwealth Club Of California, San Francisco, CA, September 23, 2002)

February 12, 2002: Gore Favored Publicly Discussing The “Final Reckoning” Of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Regime. “Even if we give first priority to the destruction of terrorist networks, and even if we succeed, there are still governments that could bring us great harm. And there is a clear case that one of these governments in particular represents a virulent threat in a class by itself: Iraq. As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government should be on the table.”
(Al Gore, Remarks To The U.S. Council On Foreign Relations, Washington, DC, February 12, 2002)

IN MONDAY’S SPEECH, GORE ADDED YET ANOTHER WHOPPER TO HIS EVERGROWING LIST THE LIE: GORE’S PARTISAN POLITICAL FANTASY

Gore Accused The Republican National Committee Of “Running Pre-Packaged Advertising” To Politicize The War On Terror And The Standoff With Iraq. “Now, rather than making efforts to dispel these concerns at home and abroad about the role of politics in the timing of policy, the President is on the campaign trail two or three days a week, often publicly taunting Democrats with the political consequences of a ‘no’ vote. The Republican National Committee is running pre-packaged advertising based on the same theme.”
(Al Gore, Remarks To The Commonwealth Club Of California, San Francisco, CA, September 23, 2002)

The Republican National Committee Is Not Running Any Advertising Related To The War On Terror, The Crisis In The Middle East, Or The Iraqi Standoff.

FOR GORE, IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT POLITICS: GORE SHOPPED HIS 1991 IRAQ VOTE IN SEARCH OF TV TIME

Gore Called His 1991 Iraq Vote “Lonely,” But The “Right Thing.” His Description Of The January 12, 1991, Senate Vote In Favor Of Authorizing The Use Of Military Force In The Persian Gulf Is Yet Another Al Gore Reinvention. “I was one of only a handful of Senators in the Democratic Caucus in the Senate when Saddam Hussein was in Kuwait. And the argument was made that sanctions would suffice to push him out of Kuwait and get rid of that threat that he was posing virulently to all of the Middle East region. And I voted to authorize the use of force. And it felt like a lonely vote at the time. And it was tough. But I was glad that I did it. And I think, in retrospect, it definitely turned out to be the right thing.”
(Democratic Presidential Debate, University Of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, January 5, 2000)

Then-Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole Witnessed Gore’s Vote “Shopping.” “[B]efore [Gore] voted, he came to me and said, ‘If I vote with you, how much time will you give me tomorrow morning?’ This was late in the evening [when] he came to me. Then he went to [Senate Majority Leader George] Mitchell to see how much [floor] time he could get if he voted against it. . . . He said ‘I’m anguishing over this. I’ve got to decide in the morning, and I don’t know whether to vote with the President or against the President, can you give me 20 minutes of prime time?’ Now, if that’s commitment, it’s a new kind of commitment. . . . He was shopping. He was seeing where he could get the most prime time on television, if he voted for or against the Gulf. He ended up voting for it. I mean that’s kind of the inside joke around the Senate, the way he played it.”
(CNN’s “Evans & Novak,” July 24, 1992)

Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) Was An Eyewitness To This Interaction And Confirmed Senator Dole’s Account. “Well, it was the most troubling thing I had ever seen with any colleague because [Gore] came to the cloakroom and Dole and I were sitting there. We’d agreed on two hours [of debate] on each side, and [Gore] said, ‘Bob, how much time will you give me if I support the President on this vote?’ Bob . . . said ‘How much time did they give you on the other side?’ And Al said ‘They’ve said 7 minutes.’ And Bob said ‘We’ll give you 15,’ then I said ‘Maybe we can get you another five, so you’d have 20 minutes, Al.’ And then [Gore] said ‘Well, I’ll think about it all night’ . . . and we sent word over there that he could speak during the news cycle in the debate . . . .”
(CNBC’s “Hardball,” February 1, 2000)

Gore’s “Shopping” Of His Vote Was Widely Known Among His Colleagues. “‘Everybody in the Senate knows he sold his vote for TV time,’ former Vice President Dan Quayle is quoted as saying. ‘George Mitchell doesn’t deny it. [Gore] went to Bob Dole and said “If I vote with the Republicans, how much of your allotted time will you give me on C-Span?” and he went to Mitchell and said, “If I vote with the majority, how much time will you give me?” Dole gave him 20 minutes, and Mitchell gave him 10 minutes, which got his vote.’”
(Stan Slusher, “The Ombudsman’s Report,” The [Louisville] Courier-Journal, November 18, 1992)

While you're providing this history, I thought the following should be added. I posted this long ago -- excerpts from the Congressional Record follow my introduction:

How Al Gore earned the nickname "Prime Time Al"

In the fall of 1992, when the future "most ethical administration in the history of the Republic" was still running for the presidency, candidate Al Gore made a speech slamming then President George Bush. Then Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming rose in the Senate to go on the record condemning those remarks. He also put a spotlight on the future presidential candidate Al Gore with these remarks, which appear in the Congressional Record (S16063) from October 1, 1992. In order to save bandwidth, I have edited this down to the most salient points:

Mr. SIMPSON.
"Mr. President, I want to relate that I think there has been a rather remarkable reaction -- on our side of the aisle at least, and through the country -- to a speech by our colleague, Senator AL GORE, and his criticism of President Bush in the media, both print and electronic. Frankly, I could not believe what I was reading and seeing because Senator GORE accused President Bush of "poor judgement, moral blindness, and bumbling policies." An article said that Clinton-Gore campaign aides billed the speech as a "major foreign policy address," which was certainly news to us all that the Clinton-Gore ticket really spoke forcefully in that area. I do not need to spend a great deal of time responding to this. But I will just make a few short points.

One of the most serious and somber votes that I ever made in this body was the authorization to use force in the Persian Gulf. I was very proud of the way in which that debate was conducted. It seemed to me it look place on a much higher plain than usual for some of the things we do and some of the issues we deal with here. I think everyone would admit that. It was a very close vote, 52 to 47, if I recall. There can never be a vote more significant than the decision on whether to possibly send young men and women to their deaths. It was not a time for posturing or manipulating of the process for political gain.

However, the same Senator GORE who accused George Bush of poor judgement and moral blindness shopped his vote on the basis of which Senate leader, GEORGE MITCHELL or BOB DOLE, would guarantee him the most prime-time exposure during that historic Senator debate.

I found that absolutely appalling. I think most Americans will find it appalling because we will continue to talk about it in these next days. Senator DOLE has covered it very thoroughly in the past few days, with regard to presenting clear information as to what did occur. I urge you to review those documents.

I know that at this time in the campaign, and with the great affinity that the media have toward the duo on the Democratic ticket, that it would be very unlikely that anything will probably be printed about that-or seen. But nevertheless we will have the opportunity in the next 30 days to do that out through the land.

Senator DOLE has very clearly discussed that previously in public on a television program. He has since elaborated on that a bit. Let me tell you what the word "shopping" means to those of us who are involved in legislative and political activity. During this tremendously vital and critical vote at which time everyone was voting from deep down within their interior about this tough, gut-hard issue, whether to send people to fight and die, Senator GORE inquired of Senator DOLE how much time he could receive from Senator DOLE if he were to vote on the side of the President. Then he went to Senator MITCHELL and asked Senator MITCHELL how much time he could have if he were to vote for their position, and also asked whether it might be during prime time.

On our side of the aisle, we have sometimes referred to him as "Prime Time AL." And that happened right here in this Chamber, on a vote where no one was "shopping" the issue. Well, you might note that Senator GORE voted with the majority, joined the majority, so to speak. The record will disclose when he spoke, and how long he spoke, He spoke, and then he voted with the majority after being assured that he would get more time if he voted that way and a better time slot-which to me is a total act of hypocrisy -- and then to speak of George Bush as someone with "moral blindness." ...

Senator Simpson then went on to recall other instances of Gore's incredible gall - on how he did nothing on the Clean Air Act except offer amendments that were "so outrageous, so bizzare, so unrealistic, that they were actually rejected on his side of the aisle... not one contribution was made by the [now] Vice Presidential candidate to the Clean Air Act"... And how Senator Al Gore "shopped" his vote on other issues in exchange for "Prime Time" speaking slots: on the issue of scrambling TV signals to satellite dish owners in the fall of 1986... As Senator Simpson related "Then on October 2, 1986, I was here on the floor in my duties as assistant leader, and I visited with Senator Al Gore. And he said 'I have to speak tonight on the issue at 8 o'clock.'" Simpson said 'Well, we will certainly try to accommodate you, although the accommodation must be on your side of the aisle with your leadership, but we will certainly determine whether we can do that here.' He said 'I must have a time specific.' It is in my memory that the time specific was 8 o'clock. I remember distinctly that he was very impatient. I said, 'Is there something we can accommodate you with regarding this legislation?' He said, 'Yes, it must be done by 8 o'clock or near that hour.' So, finally there was an accommodation, as we do with each other here through the majority leader's auspices and our side of the aisle.

Senator Simpson was challenged by Arkansas Senator Pryor based on Senate Rule XIX Rule 19.2: "No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming of a Senator."

In response, Senator Simpson offered the following: "Mr. President, the phrase I have described and used with the Senator from Tennessee is part of the public domain. That is not my statement. I said he was referred to-and I will be glad to obtain it and place it into the RECORD-as Prime Time Al. That is not my definition; that is a definition that is in a press release and in the public domain.

Furthermore, Mr. President, if you like, I will enter into the RECORD a transcript from the EVANS and NOVAK program of July 25, 1992, with regard to the shopping incident to which I referred, which is also in the public domain. I so ask unanimous consent. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

Mr. EVANS. 'Gore favored the war in the Gulf. Did Teddy Kennedy favor the war in the Gulf?'

Senator DOLE. 'You know, Gore favored the war in the Gulf, but before he voted, he came to me and said, if I vote with you, how much time will you give me tomorrow morning? This was late in the evening, he came to me. Then he went to Mitchell, said how much time would he get if he voted against?'

Mr. NOVAK. 'The Democratic leader, George Mitchell.'

Senator DOLE. 'Yeah.'

Mr.EVANS. 'During the debate, this is?'

Senator DOLE. 'No, this was after it. He said, I'm anguished over this, I've got to decide, but I don't know whether to vote with the president or against the president. Can you give me 20 minutes of prime time? Now, if that's commitment, it's a new kind of commitment.'

Mr. EVANS. 'He did vote...'

Senator DOLE. 'Yeah, he voted but then he...'

Mr. EVANS. 'You're saying he was trying to bargain?'

Senator DOLE. 'He was shopping. He was seeing where he could get the most prime time on television, if he voted for or against the Gulf. He ended up voting for it, but it was quite an inside joke around the Senate, the way he played it.'

Mr. EVANS. 'All right, just to continue that for a minute. He was a sterling character at the Democratic Leadership Council, which is of course a centrist Democratic body. I don't think Teddy Kennedy ever had anything to do with the DLC.'

Senator DOLE. 'Well, being a member of something doesn't means that you're a moderate or a conservative. If it were Sam Nunn - Sam Nunn, I'd say is a moderate. I can say that with a straight face. I can't say that Al Gore is a moderate. He's a good person, I like him, but he's a liberal. Why shouldn't he get up and say he's a liberal?'

END OF TRANSCRIPT

So there it is... the principled Senator/Vice President Al Gore... Prime Time Al... I guess there's no controlling legal authority...

100 Reasons to be Afraid of Gore

AL GORE for president? Amazingly, there are people who think that would be a good idea. Here are 100 reasons why it wouldn't:

1. In his first year as vice president, Gore cast the tie-breaking vote to wrap the largest tax increase in world history around the necks of American taxpayers.

2. Gore's vote also passed America's first retroactive tax increase -- an amazingly unfair precedent that raised taxes on historical events. Imagine paying your income tax bill and then later getting a bigger bill for the same year because the government wants more money. Gore thinks that's okay.

3. But anybody who wants to cut taxes in view of record surpluses is peddling a "risky tax scheme."

4. Liar, liar (#1): "I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal." Gore's environmental credentials are based on lies.

5. He wouldn't french-kiss Tipper in front of guests at his dining room table. But he was gauche enough to do it at the Democratic convention in front of 4,400 delegates, 12,000 members of the press, and a nationwide TV audience. Why? Because his advisors told him it would make him a Manly Man. And he's not man enough to know it won't.

6. Fed up with a slumlord who wouldn't fix the overflowing toilets, clogged drains, and moldy walls in their house, the Mayberry family finally gave up and moved out in July. The slumlord? Al Gore.

7. Listen to a liberal: "[Gore is] a classic Washington insider, who has been trained ... to tailor his views to what he thinks the voters want to hear ... He is a hypocrite" -- Jonathan Sallet, Democratic National Committee staffer, in a 1992 memo to his bosses.

8. Gore refused to promise that as President he woouldn't interfere with the criminal justice process on Bill Clinton's behalf.

9. Listen to a liberal: "A president can lead only if other politicians believe that he keeps his word.... But Gore has displayed a Clintonesque tendency to say or do whatever is expedient" -- David Broder in The Washington Post, Sept. 27, 2000.

10. He reacted to Clinton's impeachment by cheering the man who had sullied the Oval Office, betrayed his wife, lied under oath, obstructed justice, and dragged America through the gutter for over a year. Clinton, Gore said, "will be regarded in the history books as one of our greatest presidents."

11. Liar, liar (#2): "I ... walked through the elephant grass, and I was fired upon" in Vietnam. This is nonsense. Actually, his CO was under orders to "protect him" because he was a senator's son. As a military reporter, Al carried a pencil in Vietnam. A senior photographer assigned to keep an eye on Al says "you could have worn a tuxedo" on all his field assignments.

12. Gore claims his favorite book is The Red and the Black, a novel written in 1830 by the French author Stendhal. Puh-leez. This is just sophmoric posturing.

13. "I learned from my dad the respect for the environment that all farmers who farm their own land have" -- Gore at a Boone, Iowa campaign stop. But Gore kept for decades on his Tennessee property an open waste dump near a river. It was filled with pesticide containers, farm chemicals, aerosol cans, unrecycled cans and bottles, used tires, used oil, and other waste. When confronted with these facts, Gore blamed his dead father. This guy is just a creep.

14. Listen to a liberal: "Gore is trying to scare farmers. The fact is he's not for the family farmer. The fact is after years under the Clinton-Gore administration and policies the family farmer is worse off today."
-- Rep. George Miller, D-Calif

15. Private schooling for the Gores, but not a penny for vouchers that might rescue poor inner-city kids from crummy public schools. Why? Education unions donate tons of money and poor inner-city families don't. How's that for racial profiling?

16. Asked whether his opinion of Bill Clinton changed when Juanita Broaddrick charged that Clinton had raped her in 1978, Gore replied: "Whatever mistakes he made in his personal life are in the minds of most Americans balanced against what he has done ... as president." Rape is just a "personal mistake" to Gore.

17. He wants gasoline to cost even more. "Higher taxes on fossil fuels ... is one of the logical first steps in ... a more responsible approach to the environment" -- Al Gore, Earth In The Balance, p. 173. This will hit the poor the hardest.

18. Liar, liar (#3): He told seniors in Florida that his mother-in-law pays $108 a month for the same arthritis medicine he gets for his dog for $37.80. This is not even remotely true. Gore is perfectly willing to lie to your grandmother.

19. Listen to a liberal: "He waged a relentlessly negative campaign, engaging in distortions and misrepresentations"
-- Al Hunt in The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3, 2000.

20. For a campaign manager, Gore chose Donna Brazile, who in 1988 was fired from the Dukakis campaign for spreading filthy rumors about George Bush's private life. Gore hires rumor-mongers.

21. And for his first campaign chairman, he chose Tony Coelho, a political shakedown artist and influence-peddler who left Congress under an ethical cloud. Good leaders hire good people. Gore hires political hatchet-men.

22. Gore will "fight for the little guy?" Besides being a slumlord, Gore donated only $353 to charity in 1997 on an adjusted gross income of $197,729. Gore is a hypocrite.

23. Stung by bad publicity on his charitable giving, Gore upped his donations the following year -- and then issued a press release trumpeting his generosity. ["...I asked him why he dressed, with twenty pounds of headlines, stapled to his chest" -- Bob Dylan]

24. He boasts that he was a co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, a scandalous and patently unconstitutional proposal to silence grassroots activists, muzzle political speech, and prevent challengers from raising the money they need to compete against incumbents.

25. Liar, liar (#4): "Co-sponsor"? Gore left the Senate before McCain-Feingold was ever introduced.

26. He cozied up to loathsome race-baiter Al Sharpton in a private meeting in his daughter's Manhattan apartment -- then had his aides deny that any such meeting was taking place. Gore is unscrupulous.

27. Listen to a liberal: "Why should we believe that you will tell the truth as president if you don't tell the truth as a candidate?"
-- Bill Bradley, Jan. 26, 2000.

28. Gore in the White House means four years of being talked down to like we're a class of unusually slow 5th-graders.

29. "I was raised a good part of my life on a farm. I've cleaned out hog lots. I've planted. I've harvested. I've taken up hay all day in the sun, and then ... helped neighbors take it up by moonlight before the rain came." Puh-leez. He grew up in a D.C. hotel with maid service.

30. Liar, liar (#5): "I accompanied James Lee Witt down to Texas when those fires broke out."

31. He chose a running mate independent-minded enough to oppose affirmative action, favor school vouchers, and back partial privatization of Social Security -- then forced him to recant on all three.

32. He is so unhinged on the subject of global warming that he compares it to the Holocaust.

33. Listen to a liberal: "Gore is manifestly willing to lie for political convenience"
-- James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly, July 2000.

34. He tries to demonize George W. Bush for admiring Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia -- without mentioning that he voted to confirm Scalia in 1986.

35. He says support for gays in the military will be a litmus test for anyone he names to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. How about a litmus test on the Joint Chiefs' ability to run the military and defend the nation? Not a word.

36. Say good-bye to your car: Gore has proclaimed "the strategic goal of completely eliminating the internal combustion engine."

37. Liar, liar (#6): "The size of the federal government will go down in a Gore administration." This is a laugh. It simply isn't possible with the approximately $700 billion in new spending programs, federal giveaways, and new regulations Gore has proposed.

38. Gore sold his 1991 Gulf War vote to the highest bidder. According to former Senator Alan Simpson, Gore offered to support whichever side "would offer him the most and the best speaking time." The night before the vote, he barked at the GOP Senate secretary, "Dammit! If I don't get 20 minutes tomorrow, I'm going to vote the other way." Joe Lieberman who supported the Gulf War and was the Senate's Democratic vote counter was with Simpson and witnessed Gore's solicitation. Tellingly, Lieberman has not come to Gore's defense.

39. He mocks conservative activists as "the extreme right wing, the extra-chromosome right wing." An extra chromosome is what causes Down syndrome. Gore is shameless.

40. On a tour of Monticello in 1993, Gore paused before some sculpted busts to ask, "Who are these people?" The unfamiliar faces: George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Gore is no brainiac.

41. Listen to a liberal: "Gore means gridlock"
-- David Broder in The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2000.

42. His explanation for not realizing that his fund-raising calls from the White House were soliciting hard-money contributions was that "he drank a lot of iced tea during meetings, which could have necessitated a restroom break." Puh-leez. Are we supposed to believe a man who has spent over 20 years as an elected official is an affable dunderhead when it comes to fund raising?

43. Then a memo to Gore from the White House Counsel was found warning "no fund-raising phone calls or mail may emanate from the White House." So Gore then claimed he charged them all to a Democratic National Committee credit card account. Phone records then proved that the calls had been on the taxpayer's dime. Gore piles lies upon lies.

44. So Gore then trotted out that there was "no controlling legal authority" that applied those laws to him as VP. In other words, he said, "I'm above the law."

45. Oh, yes, there was controlling legal authority. It has been illegal since 1883 to solicit campaign contributions in government buildings.

46. Listen to a liberal: "There's no end to his betrayal ... He exudes a lack of credibility"
-- Ralph Nader (as reported in the LA Times, Oct 21, 2000)

47. Gore created the Internet. "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." -- Al Gore, CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, March 9, 1999. This even though Gore is not a computer expert. "I'm not an expert on computers." -- Al Gore, Fox's Special Report With Brit Hume, June 14, 2000.

48. He'll exploit anything for political advantage: In his convention video, he made a point of showing off a nude drawing of his wife. Gore has no class.

49. Listen to a liberal: "Visions do count. Gore doesn't have one."
-- Alexander Cockburn, Oct 25, 2000

50. Rather than present a positive vision for America (or at least face his own campaign failings head-on), Gore has decided to take the low road, to take his opponent down into the gutter with him. Gore has launched an all-out anti-Bush TV ad blitz nationwide. Gore apparently believes that he can succeed only by destroying others.

51. Listen to a liberal: Gore ran Citizenship USA, a scheme to subvert the 1996 elections by naturalizing a million immigrants in time for them to vote. To achieve their targets "all safeguards to keep criminals from becoming citizens were sidestepped." Subsequently the Clinton-Gore Justice Dept directed that pertinent INS/GAO records be destroyed.
-- David Schipper, Democratic Chief Counsel for the Judiciary Committee and former Chicago prosecutor.

52. Liar, liar (#7): "I will not engage in negative personal attacks against Governor Bush." Yet his campaign spokesman, his Web site, and his new TV ads are literally trashing George W. Bush personally, and in the harshest terms. They disparage his good name, berate his intelligence and question his ability to lead. All are precisely "negative personal attacks". Gore is perfectly willing to engage in the politics of personal destruction.

53. Gore's tax ethic is 'what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.'

54. Listen to a liberal: "Al Gore distills in his single person ... almost every unalluring feature of the Democratic Party"
-- Jeffrey St. Clair, Editor, CounterPunch

55. Gore's campaign literature touts his record as a "brilliant student" while insinuating that Bush is dumb. But Gore flunked out of Vanderbilt Divinity School with F's in five of the eight classes he took. He then dropped out of law school. And his grades at Harvard were no better than Bush's at Yale. And Bush went on to earn his MBA from Harvard. Gore is no brainiac.

56. Gore, champion of the low-flush toilet, had a utility dump an extra half-billion (Yes, BILLION with a B) gallons of water into a New Hampshire river to accommodate a photo op of himself in a canoe to buoy his sinking image. In reality, Gore is cavalier toward the environment.

57. Gore imagines himself an intellectual policy wonk, with a tremendous grasp of legislative and budgetary details. The last such President to hold such credentials? Jimmy "Malaise" Carter (who at least was well educated). A Wonk is the opposite of a Leader.

58. Gore's plan for Social Security: credit to Social Security the interest saved by paying down the nation's debt. The idea of crediting unpaid interest has been hooted at as double counting even by many Democrats. From Dan Crippen, director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, "It's like if I go to the Price Club and the checkout guy says, 'You just saved $50 by shopping here.' If I say, 'So credit the $50 to my credit card,' he'd laugh." Gore has absolutely no long-run proposal to keep the system solvent.

59. Gore's history on Social Security: As VP, Gore voted to increase taxes on Social Security recipients. As senator, Gore supported increasing the age of eligibility from 65 to 67. For all his talk about keeping our solemn promise to America's seniors, Gore has broken that promise.

60. Gore proposed spending $2 million to clean the air by reducing cow farts. Worse yet, this was part of his Reinventing Government (REGO) program -- "All Too Human", George Stephanopoulos's White House memoir. Both Clinton and Stephanopoulos laughed behind Gore's back on this one.

61. Listen to a liberal: "Gore's thralldom to the teachers' unions strikes us as an impediment ... His political clumsiness and know-it-all manner raise questions about his ability to inspire the country and work with Congress ... His team of advisers on international and domestic policy is unimpressive ... Gore's characterization of himself as an 'imperfect messenger' for reform [is an] understatement ... There is a risk he may meddle in economic matters better left alone, and thereby derail growth"
-- Washington Post Editorial, Oct 22, 2000 (and the Post likes Gore!)

62. Liar, liar (#8): He claimed he visited a Florida school that was so overcrowded lunch began at 9:30 in the morning. Not true.

63. Gore believes that returning surplus tax collections to their rightful owners is a "government expenditure".

64. Liar, liar (#9): Gore claimed that half of his 1988 presidential campaign staff were women. Not even close to being true. Gore is perfectly willing to lie to and about women.

65. The Unabomber had a copy of Gore's book "Earth in the Balance" in his shack.

66. Candidate Gore has proposed cutting chemotherapy (cancer treatments) in doctors' offices, as part of a Medicare package. (New York Times, Aug 6, 2000)

67. Environmentalists are angry with Gore for misleading them over repeated 1992 campaign promises to close a controversial hazardous waste incinerator near a school in Ohio. Gore never even tried to address the issue once he was in office. Gore's campaign promises aren't worth the breath used to make them.

68. Gore said he would veto every measure that unions oppose (such as free trade) that comes to him.

69. While in the Senate, Gore pulled such stunts as standing in the hallway pretending to read a physics textbook. His eyes, not on the book, watched for pedestrians coming his way. Senate colleagues laughed at his sophmoric posturing.

70. Gore personally was involved in setting up a secret computer system and secret email accounts so he and his staff could evade the federal record-keeping and campaign laws and thwart scrutiny by Congress, federal law-enforcement agencies, federal courts, the press and, ultimately, the American people. -- Insight magazine, Oct 20, 2000. This guy sounds like Nixon more and more.

71. Gore to a woman's group: "This pledge is in honor of my mother: an equal day's pay for an equal day's work." Meanwhile, US News reports that payroll records show women staffers for Gore earn about 86 cents for every dollar his male staffers earn. Let's see now: Gore dishonors his mother, lies to women, and, according to his own hollow rhetoric, he is an unfair employer. That's a triple whopper in just one sentence. Wow!

72. Gore's 1996 Democratic Convention speech was an emotional and graphic recollection of the death of his sister from lung cancer. He passionately told of how he held her as she died. And that her death is why he had dedicated his life to fighting the tobacco industry. (This is a contemptible exploitation of a family tragedy for political gain.)

73. Gore failed to mention in his convention speech that he had already broken his pledge by accepting major contributions from big tobacco companies after her death. No matter how big or how personal the issue, Gore has his hand out.

74. In case you think tobacco money was just a temporary lapse, you should also know that Gore hired top tobacco lobbyist Carter Eskew to be a lead strategist in his current campaign.

75. In case you think these lapses in fighting tobacco are a just a few isolated incidents, Gore also forgot to mention that for several years after his sister's death, he grew and sold tobacco. In fact Gore bragged about his tobacco-growing prowess to tobacco farmers at a campign rally after his sister died. Gore is so reprehensible, it is hard to comprehend.

76. Liar, liar (#10): Gore claimed his father was a leader in the civil rights movement, when in fact, the opposite is true. Gore Sr. voted against this type of legislation, including the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Gore will lie about his own family for political gain.

77. Advanced encryption technologies from American companies were transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Laboratory of Information Security, a Chinese army unit that specializes in computer security and encryption technology. Who approved the export license? Gore, of course. He had been secretly appointed by Clinton to be chairman of the Commerce Department's "Interagency Working Group" that determined export policy. Who received campaign finds secretly funneled from Chinese government sources? Clinton-Gore, of course. The implications are mind-boggling.

78. He may just be the nastiest campaigner in national politics. An incredible number of acquaintances and friends characterize Gore as just plain "mean."

79. "I'm proud we're holding this hearing into the disgusting filthy lyrics coming out of the record companies." -- Gore (1985) "I was against holding that hearing into filthy lyrics, and I apologize." -- Gore (campaign fundraiser with music execs, 1999.) Not a single word that comes from Gore's mouth can be believed.

80. When Gore's son was hit by a car and severely injured 11 years ago, the accident "changed my priorities totally" -- Gore on Oprah Winfrey. So much so he arranged a press conference, over Tipper's objections, to witness his 6-year-old son being discharged from the hospital. And he sent his Senate staff scrambling for a more family-friendly shirt so he would look more like "home, dad" for the photo-op. Apparently it changed his priorities for the worse.

81. Listen to a liberal: "If you want to be president of the United States, you better start by being accurate."
-- an exasperated Michael Dukakis to presidential candidate Gore in 1988

82. In 1992, Al Gore said, "We have an environmental crisis, a health insurance crisis, (and) substandard education. It is time for a change." It's eight years later, and Gore is still carping about the same crises. What has he been doing for the last eight years?

83. Liar, liar (#11): Gore asserts "the big drug companies [are now] spending more money on advertising and promotion than they are on research and development." Actually, advertising is but a small fraction of the $21 Billion spent on R&D by the drug companies (Kaiser Family Foundation, July 2000). And much of the advertising cost is government-mandated spending on "full-disclosure" and "consumer education" information. Gore just made up this factoid. Gore is perfectly willing to use lies to demonize any group. Wasn't this one of Hitler's tactics?

84. Gore voted for more spending than Ted Kennedy in six of the eight years they served together in the Senate. In two of those years, the National Taxpayers' Union identified Mr. Gore as the biggest spender in Congress.

85. Bill Clinton picked Gore as his Vice President. While this is being damned with faint praise, it is also arguable Gore was selected to make Clinton look good in comparison.

86. Liar, liar (#12): He claimed his uncle was gassed in the Balkans during World War II. Not true. No U.S. serviceman has ever served in the Balkans (until Clinton sent them, of course).

87. Liar, liar (#13): He claimed he helped launch the Strategic Oil Reserve. Not true. It was established two years before he entered Congress.

88. Liar, liar (#14): He claimed his mother sang the "union label" song to him as a child. Not true. The song was not written until he was 27.

89. While taking illegal donations hand-over-fist from Chinese sources, Gore has sat on his hands while government reports show that China is preparing for a future war with us. Gore is perfectly willing to put all of America at risk for the purpose of securing elected office for himself.

90. Liar, liar (#15): He claimed he "got a bunch of people indicted and sent to jail" as an investigative reporter in the 1970's. Not true.

91. Liar, liar (#16): He claimed he supported a nuclear test ban treaty. Not true. He opposed it.

92. Liar, liar (#17): He claimed he wrote the laws that created Superfund. Not true. It was created and funded before he came to Washington.

93. Liar, liar (#18): "I'll put Medicare in an iron-clad lock box where the politicians can't touch it" -- Gore's magical and impossible "lock box" is at least a cynical ploy; the real danger is that he actually believes it.

94. Liar, liar (#19): He claimed he wrote the laws that created the Earned Income Tax Credit. Not true.

95. Liar, liar (#20): Gore claimed that he had a private meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. Not true.

96. Liar, liar (#21): "I sponsored the Environmental Justice Act." Wrong again, Al.

97. Liar, liar (#22): Gore claimed that he negotiated Internet protection for children. Not true.

98. Liar, liar (#23): During congressional agriculture hearings in 1979, Gore said: "I have raised chickens myself; 10,000 at one time, 5,000 in each of two houses." Not true. While not particularly relevant to the current race, it does sound eerily similar to some of his other lies indicating a life-long pattern of lying.

99. Liar, liar (#24): He claimed he wrote key lines in Hubert Humphrey's 1968 Democratic convention speech. Besides being untrue, it is also a fairly bizarre claim.

100. Liar, liar (#25): He claimed that his late sister was the very first Peace Corps volunteer. Not only is this not true, but he told this whopper when he didn't gain anything by making the claim and simply had to know it was false.

101. Liar, liar (#26): "There has never been a time in this campaign when I have said something that I know to be untrue."

102. Gore's surreal pattern of lies is the problem. For over 20 years, Gore has lied about everything, private and public, denials and assertions, when it's important and when it's just plain silly to lie. He lies, not in the calculated, deliberate way that Clinton lies, but casually, from the hip. Gore can't stop lying, even after numerous warnings from advisors to stop - the trademark of an compulsive serial liar. That's very bad. And if Gore truly doesn't think he's lying, that's delusional and dangerous.

Oops - over 100 already -- and we haven't even mentioned the fundraising felonies at the Buddhist temple, or the creepiness of his numerous fake personae, or his secret and illegal acquiescence to Russia's nuke exports to Iran, or his Hollywood hypocrisy, or China's theft of top nuclear secrets on his watch, or his willingness to race-bait, or his incredibly inept oversight of US tax dollars funneled into Russia, or his general untrustworthiness as highlighted by his persistent violation of debate rules, or his willingness to engage in class warfare, or his "reinventing government" sham, or his sweetheart deals with Occidental Petroleum, or his abortion hypocrisy, or the environmental hypocrisy of his ongoing profiteering from a polluting zinc mine, or ... enough already!!!

How many reasons do you need? If over 100 won't convince you this person is bad for you, your family, and all of America, nothing will.

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Special note of thanks to columnist Jeff Jacoby for the idea and much of the above, with columnists Mona Charen, Thomas Jipping, Dan Frisa, David Limbaugh, Debra J. Saunders, Linda Bowles, Paul Sperry, and David Keene making additional contributions. Plus quotes from the LA Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, and NY Times. And a special acknowledgement, of course, to Al Gore for providing so much source material.
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PKM,

I sent the following email to "hannity" yesterday.

Subject: Gore Rebukes War on Terror BUT Look at Gore and USS Cole Bombing........BUSH Caught the Masterminds. THIS WEEK...not Clinton/Gore

In reading the following foreign affairs analysis of Clinton/Gore's response to the Cole bombing, remember that just this last week it was the BUSH team that captured the ringleader of the Cole Bombing. Clinton/Gore attacked nothing, accomplished nothing, captured nothing. They were impotent.

{WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is weighing whether to try suspected Sept. 11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh by a military tribunal rather than a civilian court, but the decision will take a backseat to initial efforts to interrogate him about al-Qaida and future planned attacks, officials said Monday......The growing focus on one of the biggest prizes of the U.S.-led war on terror came as government officials confirmed two more captures, including the brother of a top al-Qaida lieutenant believed to have masterminded the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen......Though not a member of bin Laden's inner top leadership, Binalshibh is believed to have been a long serving and determined al-Qaida operative with roles in attacks like the USS Cole bombing and the Sept. 11 attacks.}

US Handling Of Response To USS Cole Attack Seen As Critical To US Strategic Projection, Domestic Pol

Foreign Affairs Opinion (Published)

Source: Defense Foreign Affairs Daily

Published: October 16, 2000 Author: Gregory R. Copley

Posted on 10/16/2000 05:37:14 PDT by Stand Watch Listen

US Handling Of Response To USS Cole Attack Seen As Critical To US Strategic Projection, Domestic Political Situation

The actual and perceived response by the United States Government to the terrorist attack on the Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer USS Cole (DDG-67) in the port of Aden on October 12, 2000, is now seen as a critical milestone in US strategic credibility worldwide, and to the US domestic attitude toward the incumbent Clinton-Gore Administration.2

The changing nature of international terrorism, in which there is now greater masking of the specific — but not the general — perpetrators of the terrorist acts increases the difficulty of formulating decisive responses and thereby increases the perception of impotence of the target government. The sense of impotence and frustration is only increased when the victim threatens strong retaliatory action and then cannot deliver.

US Secretary of Defense William Cohen, shortly after the Cole attack (but after a sufficient timelag as to already indicate a lack of preparedness), made a statement which was almost identical to the US leadership statements following all recent incidents: "If ... we determine that terrorists attacked our ship and killed our sailors, then we will not rest until we have tracked down those who are responsible for this vicious and cowardly act."

Despite (or perhaps because of) numerous recent visits to Yemen by senior US defense personnel, the US defense and intelligence community clearly failed to adequately assess the threat to visiting US warships and defense personnel. That is not to say that all terrorist acts can be prevented by good intelligence, but rather that terrorist acts can often be deterred through good physical security and better contextual intelligence.

In the case of Yemen, it should have been clear that there was a heightened need for security, given Yemen's background, and particularly given the fact that some Yemeni and Islamist factions alike — and particularly the South Yemenis who fought a civil war in 1994 against North Yemen after national unification in 1990 — have a strong interest in embarrassing the Yemen Republic's (northern) President, Lt.-Gen. Ali Abdallah Salih.

Those who follow the "global jihad" theory can make the case that the Cole incident was almost totally a response to the present Islamist war against Israel and (according to the fatwa issued by London-based Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed of the UK Shari'a Court) the United States.

Those who have spent years following the South Yemeni revolt against the British colonialization of Aden, the overthrow of the traditional rulers, the earlier resentment of the Turkish and Egyptian overlords, and so on, and the more recent bitter South Yemeni guerilla war against Oman, can point — particularly following the relatively forced union of South Yemen (the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, an extreme marxist state) with North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) — to the entrenched nature of guerilla warfare in Aden. There are many surviving members of the British Royal Marines, the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force who can attest to the fact that the Aden station was one of the toughest combat zones during the 1960s. And the people there continued their fighting after the UK withdrew from "East of Suez" in 1960.

The reality is that the heightened threat to US naval transits through Aden was the culmination of a number of factors, which include the Bin Laden-led/coordinated jihad as well as the local factors. For many of the combatants, the jihad merely lent a new fervor to their xenophobia and their ongoing wars.

What, then, does this mean in terms of the security of US warships transiting Aden? The refueling and transit arrangements were meant not only to assist the US Navy in its deployments, but also to signify and cement relations between the US and the Yemen Republic, controlled from the old northern capital, Sana'a' by the former YAR President (now Yemen Republic President), Gen. Salih. For the US to cease such visits now, after only a year, would clearly indicate weakness and fear on the part of the US, as far as regional observers are concerned. How, then, should the US secure its position without incurring major human and financial costs?

To begin with, proper attention needs to be paid to routine security during refueling stops. This was clearly not the case with the Cole stopover, despite the reluctance of Washington to assign blame for the incident to the ship's captain. Aden was obviously a very risky stop-over, and as such, advance security precautions should have been taken to ensure that a secure arrangement was in place for refueling. That would have meant, for one thing, putting one or more of the Cole's tenders into the water for mooring procedures, and using the Cole's tender to collect any pilot or refueling officials who might have been needed from shoreside.

That there was "advance intelligence" on the Cole's visit should have been obvious. Not specifically that the USS Cole was going to visit, or that a US warship would visit on a specific date. But, rather, it was known that the US Navy was using Aden, as it had done a dozen or so times during the previous year, to refuel. The modus operandi was, or could easily be, known by observation, and during the past year there was ample time to penetrate the local infrastructure to put in place an attack which merely — as all ambushes do — awaited the arrival of the victim. The fact that the attack occurred when it did indicated that the perpetrators wished to link it with the escalated jihad against Israel and the US.

Why, then, was the Cole's handling procedure so lax in the face of an obvious security threat?

......(snip) But the US political response to the incident is of more urgent importance for Washington. The United States on Friday, October 13, 2000, ordered its embassies and consulates in Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa to close until the following week, amid fears of anti-US violence after the attack on the USS Cole and continuing clashes between Israel and the Palestinians. US missions in 13 Arab and seven African nations had also been shut and remain closed to the public until Monday, October 16, 2000, a State Department spokesman said.

The move to close — even temporarily — the most heavily-guarded embassies and diplomatic missions in the world is a clear victory for not only the group which undertook the attack, but for the entire Islamist coalition. It is a clear defeat for the US and for the moderate Muslim leaders who had thrown in their lot with the West.

The missions affected in the Middle East include those in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In Africa, missions closed under the order include the embassies in Djibouti, Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Tanzania. In Nigeria, the closure affected both the embassy in Abuja and consulate in Lagos, and in South Africa the order affected three missions: the embassy in Pretoria and consulates in Cape Town and Durban.

The response to the attack by the US Defense Department and White House made the US Administration appear confused and paralyzed: impotent. The closure of the diplomatic missions looked like fear and weakness. It was as though the Clinton Administration had learned nothing from the earlier attacks on US interests by terrorist groups. There was not even any real appearance that the US Government understood who had actually initiated the attack, although clearly, behind the scenes, there was intense intelligence community activity focused on the matter.

What has been clear is that Yemen, despite the apparent desire of Pres. Salih to work with the US, has become an increasing focus for radical activities, some Islamist, some merely nationalistic or anti-Western. It is not surprising that Osama Bin Laden's family comes from the Hadramaut region of what was South Yemen; nor that there is a strong connection through London between Bin Laden, Yemeni groups and the pro-Bin Laden Islamist leadership in the UK. And what is occurring very rapidly is a fusion of interests between the Islamists, the anti-Western xenophobes/nationalists in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries with the traditionally moderate Muslim communities, who feel that they have nowhere else to go.

The Islamist objective of driving a wedge between the non-Muslim world and the Muslim world is increasingly succeeding, much to the consternation of moderate Muslims and non-Muslims alike. There appears to be no recognition within either the political levels of the Clinton Administration in the US, nor the Blair Administration in the UK (where much of the radical Islamist coordination takes place), as to how to deal with the matter.

Notes:

1. Gregory Copley's specializations include more than 30 years' involvement in psychological strategy studies, on which he has written and lectured extensively.

2. A Yemeni group, the Army of Aden-Abyan, sometimes known as the Army of Mohammed, claimed responsibility for the attack on the USS Cole. Details of this organization, and the background to Yemeni insurrections and rivalries, can be found in the Yemen section of GIS. The Army of Aden-Abyan allegedly advised a UK-based, Syrian-born Islamist leader, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, that it had undertaken the attack on USS Cole, and this organization would, by virtue of its roots in Aden, certainly have been well-placed to undertake the attack. It is credited also with numerous other kidnappings and murders in Yemen in recent years. Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, and the Army of Aden-Abyan, have known links to international Islamist leader Osama Bin Laden. Bakri, who uses the title "Amir of Al-Muhajiroun" (literally, "prince of the emigrants"), also calls himself "the eyes and ears of Bin Laden". Bakri's connection with the Army of Aden-Abyan highlights the UK-Yemen connection in recent radical, criminal and Islamist terrorist activities. Another Yemeni Islamist based in London is Abu Hamza al-Masiri, who heads an organization known as the "Servants of Shari'a" (SOS) lost both hands and eyes fighting in Afghanistan; his son is presently imprisoned in Yemen. Bakri, who welcomed the attack on the Cole, is a judge in the UK Shari'a Court, a non-governmental organization in the UK. He has routinely called for terrorist action against Israel and the US and issued a key fatwa calling for attacks on all governments which support Israel or the US. This could be taken to also include Yemen's Government, which has a military agreement with the US. One of his recent "rulings" included the section: "To ally or seek assistance of non-Muslim states is prohibited, a sin and a grave crime not to mention a betrayal of Allah (swt), His Messenger and all the believers. Hence whosoever amount you all his country to become a base for American, Jewish or other kufr forces or conspires and makes Muslim land a passage for any non-Muslim forces whether it be via sea, land or air, assisting directly or indirectly, an attack against Muslims in any part of the world will be at war with Allah (swt) and His Messenger. He will be humiliating himself before Alllah (swt) and before the whole Ummah who will never forgive this ugly crime even if the perpetrator erects barriers to hide behind."

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