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Al Qaeda absent from final Clinton report Washington Times 4/06/04 James G. Lakely Posted on 04/05/2004 10:19:46 PM PDT by kattracks The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress 45,000 words long makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times. The scarce references to bin Laden and his terror network undercut claims by former White House terrorism analyst Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda an urgent threat, while President Bushs national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, ignored it. The Clinton document, titled A National Security Strategy for a Global Age, is dated December 2000 and is the final official assessment of national security policy and strategy by the Clinton team. The document is publicly available, though no United States media outlets have examined it in the context of Mr. Miss Rice, who will testify publicly Thursday before the commission investigating the Bush and Clinton administrations actions before the September 11 attacks, was criticized last week for planning a speech for September 11, 2001, that called a national missile-defense system a leading security priority. President Bush yesterday denied the accusation that his administration had made dealing with al Qaeda a low priority. Let me just be very clear about this: Had we had the information that was necessary to stop an attack, Id have stopped the attack, Mr. Bush said, adding that after September 11, the stakes had changed. This country immediately went on war footing, and we went to war against al Qaeda. Once I determined al Qaeda did it, I said, Were going to go get them. And we have, and were going to keep after them until theyre brought to justice and America is secure. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will meet with the commission in the coming weeks behind closed doors, but a date has not been set. Meanwhile, the president said he looks forward to hearing Miss Rice defend the administration in a public forum. Shes a very smart, capable person who knows exactly what took place and will lay out the facts. The Clinton administrations final national-security report stated that its reaction to terrorist strikes was to neither forget the crime, nor ever give up on bringing the perpetrators to justice. The document boasted of a dozen terrorist fugitives who had been captured abroad and handed over to the United States to answer for their crimes. Those perpetrators included the men responsible for the first attack on the World Trade Center, which the intelligence community largely thought by late 2000 to be the work of operatives with links to al Qaeda. Listed among those brought to justice was a man who killed two persons outside CIA headquarters in 1993, and an attack on a Pan Am flight more than 18 years ago. Several high-ranking Bush administration officials, and the president himself, have faulted the Clinton administration for treating global terrorism as a law enforcement issue and not recognizing that bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1998. Bush often notes that about two-thirds of al Qaedas thousands of members including many key leaders have been either captured or killed since the attacks, and that 44 of the 55 top Iraqi officials under Saddam Hussein in a deck of cards have been taken care of. Clarkes criticism of the Bush administration by publishing a timeline of statements that it says proves the current White House national security team did not make fighting al Qaeda a priority before the attacks. If they were developing some big strategy of fighting terrorism, its not reflected in their words, said John Halpin, director of research for the center. We wanted to go back and document all the public statements, given some of the discrepancies of what happened before 9/11 and some of the recent news from Richard Clarke, Mr. Clarkes best-selling book Against All Enemies, he writes that during a transitional briefing in January 2001, Miss Rices facial expression gave me the impression that shed never heard the term al Qaeda before. But the Clinton administrations final national security document, written while Mr. Clarke was a high-level national security adviser, never mentions al Qaeda. Clarke was on the job as terrorism czar at that point, said a senior Bush administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. High-ranking Bush administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Bush wanted to stop swatting at flies and take a more aggressive approach to terror. The Bush administration official noted that the planning of the September 11 attacks happened while Mr. Clinton was in power, and said the commissions probe has turned into a search for blame. Its a shame we are not focused more on moving forward, instead of about who was concerned more, he said. The official said he found the lack of bin Laden and al Qaeda references in the final Clinton terror assessment interesting, but downplayed such word-counting games. We dont measure progress or response to terrorism by how many speeches, words, utterances or meetings were held on a particular issue, but by action taken, he said.
It may be that the 911 commission has caused troubles for Bushs reelection campaign, but he will prevail but it has certainly brought the legacy of Clinton out into the open. Soon even the main-stream media will have to connect the dots between the Lewinsky affair and the Clintons inept handling of the terrorist threat. ScaniaBoy 4 posted on 04/05/2004 10:24:19 PM PDT by ScaniaBoy Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine Post Reply Private Reply To 1 View Replies To: ScaniaBoy Maybe dots should be drops!
Semper Fi 11 posted on 04/05/2004 10:49:15 PM PDT by river rat You may turn the other cheek - but I prefer to look into my enemys vacant dead eyes. Post Reply Private Reply To 1 View Replies To: ScaniaBoy It may be that the 911 commission has caused troubles for Bushs reelection campaign, but he will prevail but it has certainly brought the legacy of Clinton out into the open. That is why they should enjoy the brief damage they have inflicted upon President Bush.
THIS IS THE STORY, from my perspective, of how al Qaeda developed and attacked the United States on September 11, Richard Clarke begins Against All Enemies: Inside Americas War on Terror, his new book that has been widely ballyhooed as the bomb that will destroy President Bushs reelection campaign. In fact, only in his preface and the books final sixty-five pages does Clarkes partisanship boil over into the invective, vitriol, and spite that have transformed this career national-security hawk into the anti-Bush Democrats American Idol. The rest of the book, Clarkes unwitting indictment of the Clinton administrations terrorism policy, ought to make the whole of the nation vote for four more years of Bush.
Post Reply Private Reply To 1 View Replies To: PhiKapMom Maybe you can stop the blame game, but those of us who lived through Clinton will NEVER let him off the hook for putting us in a weakened position on defense and intelligence. He does not get a pass with this Republican Conservative and never will. Clintons foreign policy gets a lot of blame, there is no doubt about it. But in the end, proving this to the country, will not help us prevent new terror attacks, and will actually leave us preoccupied with something that defeats the purpose of doing such things to prevent new terrorism inside our borders. Bin Laden is just one guy in a sea of terrorists resulting from militant Islam. We need to work on getting better prepared to face militant Islam.
Post Reply Private Reply To 21 View Replies To: kayak I can just see a publisher offering Clarke a bigger advance and a higher percentage if he agreed to a few things. First, write a new preface and concluding chapter that portray a scathing indictment of the Bush Administrations handling of terror. Second, get it done quickly so publication can coincide with the 9-11 Commission hearings. I dont believe Clarkes book was even available to the public when Commission members referred to as the bible on ter...
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