As far as your uninformed parroting of the charge that Clinton ignored the terrorism threat before Sept. 11, you are just plain wrong. In fact, President Bill Clinton and his counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, took the threat very seriously, especially after the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000. By December, Clarke had prepared plans for a military operation to attack Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, go after terrorist financing and work with police officials around the world to take down the terrorist network. Because Clinton was to leave office in a few weeks, he decided against handing Bush a war in progress as he worked to put a new administration together.
Instead, Clarke briefed national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Cheney and others. He emphasized that time was short and action was urgent. The Bush administration sat on the report for months and months. The first high-level discussion took place on Sept. 4, 2001, just a week before the attacks. The actions taken by the Bush administration following Sept. 11 closely parallel actions recommended in Clarke's nine-month-old plan. So, who ignored the threat? Asleep at the wheel Bush. He read nursery rimes even after he knew that the second plane hit.
Too bad, them's the FACTS. Live with them.
Del |
