Posted on 08/05/2002 10:01:27 AM PDT by Vets_Husband_and_Wife
Bush Admin. Defends al-Qaida Review
WASHINGTON- Bush administration officials say they moved as quickly as possible to assemble a plan for eliminating the al-Qaida terror network, defending a review that took eight months and was completed only a 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-Qaida.
But aides to President Bush took issue Sunday with a report in this week's Time magazine that the current administration's review of its predecessor's briefings became bogged down in bureaucracy.
The Bush White House denied receiving any firm plans for dealing with al-Qaida, which has been tied to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
The Clinton administration did not present an aggressive new plan to topple al-Qaida during the transition, said White House spokesman Sean McCormack.
"We were briefed on the al-Qaida threat and what the Clinton administration was doing about it," he said. "These efforts against al-Qaida were continued in the Bush administration."
According to Time, Clinton's anti-terror czar, Richard Clarke, offered detailed proposals: arresting al-Qaida personnel, choking off the group's financing, aiding nations fighting the organization and increasing covert action in Afghanistan to deny al-Qaida 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 new administration decided a rollback was inadequate, and began planning for eliminating al-Qaida entirely, 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.
A few days after Bush took office in January 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice asked for proposals for major presidential policy review and, based on a response from Clark, ordered a review of policy toward al-Qaida, the senior official said.
Top administration officials approved the "comprehensive strategy to eliminate al-Qaida" exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks, McCormack said.
Questions about the administration's planning against al-Qaida come on top of disclosures that U.S. 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.
The Clinton administration did not present an aggressive new plan to topple al-Qaida during the transition, said White House spokesman Sean McCormack.
But a senior Bush administration official said Sunday
I'd LOVE to know who is trying to put this all out there. Personally, I think it is the Clinton administration in light of the fact that Sandy Berger just testified to Congress, AND... is having to explain the Clinton admins policies!!
Talk about SPIN!!! Who really IS our enemy? al-Qaida? OR the PRESS? The Clintonites? America better wake up and smell the coffee. FAST!
| Bush and Clinton and 911- some facts... | ||||||
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... and FWIW, Rush was really hammering this first thing on his show- I suspect other hosts will, too. It's just going to make the clintophilliacs look dishonest, petty, and carping. |
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IMHO, Osama bil Clinton is much more dangerous to the future of America than bin Laden could ever hope to be, and the Vast, LeftWing Medyuh Whore'd needs to be recognized by American Patriots as the HateAmericaFirsters they have been since the 60's!!
CRUSH them all...MUD
Yep...and now Rush just announced that we bombed Southern Iraq earlier today...MUD
To: NativeNewYorker
This reminds me of a movie clip that was making the rounds on the net a while back. I don't know how many folks saw this clip, so I am including links below. I highly recommend showing this clip to any democrats that try to lie/claim/insinuate that Bush was asleep at the wheel while Clinton took terrorists seriously.
I performed several searches and only found two sites that still have this clip online. Since I have no way to view Quicktime files at the moment, I am not 100% these are the same clip that I remember, but I am over 95% sure.
WARNINGS:
A) This is a large file (16MB)
B) MAJOR BARF ALERT!!!
http://www.method.cx/~method/funstuff/president-clinton-final-days.mov
http://bulgier.net/vids/president-clinton-final-days.mov
45 posted on 8/5/02 4:14 AM Eastern by InfraRed
[
Pass it on... and tell me about it-- my old 486 will never load a 16mb file unless I stay online day & night!
It's that video that the Clinton Folks released trying to portray the BalkanButcher and WacoMassMurderer as a self-effacing POTUS with nothing to do as he cruises around the White House in the last days of his Presidency. While others who are less-informed of all the evil Clinton committed while President might think the bit humorous, it just makes me loathe the cretin even more!!
FReegards...MUD
FReegards...MUD
I may just keep adding to that old post of links.
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