Clinton Slams Rightwing Lies On Al Qaida in 1990's.
(* The clear facts are that it was Bush not CLinton who was AWOL on counter-terrorism. Plus it was Bush not Clinton who was warned about 9-11 and did nothing. Clinton tried. Bush didn't. Bush coddled the Saudis. Clinton tried to kill OBL. Bush let OBL go at Tora Bora. Clinton only tried to kill him.)
CW: When we announced that you were going to be on fox news Sunday, I got a lot of email from viewers, and I got to say I was surprised most of them
wanted me to ask you this question. Why didn’t you do more to put bin laden and al queda out of business when you were President. There’s a new book out which I suspect you’ve read called the looming tower. And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993 bin laden said I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of US troops. Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Afirca and the attack on the USS Cole.
WJC: ok…
CW: …may I just finish the question sir. And after the attack, the book says, bin laden separated his leaders because he expected an attack and
there was no response. I understand that heinsight is 20 20.
WJC: no let’s talk about…
CW: …but the question is why didn’t you do more, connect the dots and put
them out of business?
WJC: ok, let’s talk about it. I will answer all of those things on the merits but I want to talk about the context of which this…arises. I’m being asked this on the FOX network…ABC just had a right wing conservative on the Path to 9/11 falsely claim that it was falsely based on the 911 comission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 commission report. I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much. Same people.
They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in black hawk down and I refused to do it and stayed
6 months and had an orderly transfer to the UN. Ok, now let’s look at all the criticisms: Black hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Bin laden had anything to do with black hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even new al queda was a growing concern in October of 1993.
CW: …I understand…
WJC: No wait…no wait…Don’t tell me. You asked me why I didn’t do more to bin laden. There was not a living soul…allhe people who criticized me wanted to
leave the next day. You brought this up so you get an answer.
CW: I’m perfectly happy to. Bin Laden says…
WJC: And secondly…
CW: Bin Laden says…
WJC: Bin laden may have said that…
CW: Bin Laden says it showed the weakness of the US
WJC: It would have shown the weakness if we left right away but he wasn’t
involved in that. That’s just a bunch of bull. That was about mohammed adid,
a muslim war lord murdering..thousand Pakistani muslim troops. We were all
there on a humanitiarian mission. We had not mission – none – to establish a
certain kind of Somali governemtn or to keep anybody out. He was not a
religious fanatic.
CW: But Mr. President…
WJC: There was no Al Queda…
CW: …with respect if I may. Instead of going through 93.
WJC: You asked you. It you brought it up.
CW: May I ask a general question that you can answer. The 9/11 comission,
which you talk about, and this is what they did say, not what abc pretended
they said…
WJC: wait, wait…
CW: …they said about you and 43 and I quote, “The US government took the
threat seriously, not in the sense of mustering anything like that would
be….to confront an enemy of the first, second or third rank”
WJC: That’s not true with us and Bin Laden…
CW: …the 9/11 comission says…
WJC: Let’s look at what Richard Clarke says. You think Richard Clarke has a
vigorus attitude about Bin Laden?
CW: Yes I do
WJC: You do?
CW: I think he has a variety of opinions and loyalities but yes
WJC: He has a variety of opinion and loyalties now but let’s look at the
facts. He worked for Ronald Regan. He was loyal to him. He worked for GHWB
and he was loyal to him. He worked for me and he was loyal to me. He worked
for President Bush; he was loyal to him. They downgraded him and the
terrorist operation. Now, look what he said, read his book and read his
factual assertions – not opinions, assertions. He said we took vigorous
action after the African embassies. We probably nearly got Bin Laden.
CW: …
WJC: Now wait a minute…
CW: ,..cruise missles..
WJC: I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him. The CIA
was run by George Tennet who President Bush gave the medal of freedom to and
said he did a good job.. The country never had a comprehensive anti terror
operation until I came to office. If you can criticize me for one thing, you
can criticize me for this, after the Cole I had battle plans drawn to go
into Afhanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full scale attack
search for Bin Laden. But we needed baseing rights in Uzbekistan which we
got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin laden was
responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I
would have had to send a few hundred special forces in helicopters and
refuel at night. Even the 9/11 comission didn’t do that. Now the 9/11
commission was a political document too. All I’m asking is if anybody wants
to say I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book.
CW: Do you think you did enough sir?
WJC: No because I didn’t get him
CW: Right…
WJC: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including
all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for
trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t….. I tired. So I tried
and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and
the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… So you did fox’s bidding on this
show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to
know..
CW: Now wait a minute sir…
WJC:
CW: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?
WJC: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many
people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know
how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn’t you do
anything about the Cole. I want to know how many you asked why did you fire
Dick Clarke. I want to know…
CW: We asked..
WJC:
CW: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?
WJC: I don’t believe you ask them that.
CW: We ask plenty of questions of…
WJC: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth
CW: About the USS Cole?
WJC: tell the truth.
CW: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.
WJC: Did you ever ask that? You set this meeting up because you were going
to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going
to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on
Climate Change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d
spend half the time talking about…
CW: [laughs]
WJC: You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there
to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different
commitments. And you don’t care.
CW: But President Clinton…
WJC:
CW: We were going to ask half the question about it. I didn’t think this was
going to set you off on such a tear .
WJC: It set me off on such a tear because you didn’t formulate it in an
honest way and you people ask me questions you don’t ask the other side.
CW; Sir that is not true…
WJC: …and Richard Clarke…
CW: That is not true…
WJC: Richard Clarke made it clear in his testimony…
CW: Would you like to talk about the Clinton Global Initiative?
WJC: No I want to finish this.
CW: Alright,
WJC: All I’m saying is you falsely accuse me of giving aid and comfort to
bin laden because of what happened in Somalia. No one knew al queda existed
then…
CW: Ndid they know in 1996 when he declared war on the U.S. Did no one know
in 1998…
WJC: absolutely they did
CW: When they bombed the two embassies…
WJC:
CW: Or in 2000 when they hit the cole.
WJC: What did I do? I worked hard to try and kill him. I authorized a
finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I
got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still
president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I
never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you
know we do have a government that think Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as
Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Queda with that sort of dismissive
theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what
we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country
against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like
you’re so clever…
CW: [Laughs]
WJC: I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I
failed to get bin laden. I regret it but I did try. And I did everything I
thought I responsibly could. The entire military was against sending special
forces in to Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter and no one thought we
could do it otherwise…We could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that
Al Queda was responsible while I was President. Until I left office. And yet
I get asked about this all the time and they had three times as much time to
get him as I did and no one ever asks them about this. I think that’s
strange.
CW: Can I ask you about the Clinton Global Initiative?
WJC: You can.
CW: I always intended to sir.
WJC: No you intended to move your bones by doing this first. But I don’t
mind people asking me. I actually talked o the 9/11 commission for four
hours and I told them the mistakes I thought I made. And I urged them to
make those mistakes public because I thought none of us had been perfect.
But instead of anybody talking about those things. I always get these clever
little political…where they ask me one sided questions… It always comes from
one source. And so…
CW:…
WJC: And so…
CW: I just want to ask you about the Clinton Global Initiative but what’s
the source? You seem upset?
WJC: I am upset because..
CW: …and all I can say is I’m asking you in good faith because it’s on
people’s minds sir. And I wasn’t…
WJC: There’s a reason it’s on people’s minds. That’s the point I’m trying to
make. There’s a reason it’s on people’s minds because they’ve done a serious
disinformation campaign to create that impression. This country only has one
person who has worked…against terror…under regan…only one, Richard Clarke.
And all I’d say anybody who wonders whether we did wrong or right. Anybody
who wants to see what everybody else did, read his book. The people on my
politicial right who say I didn’t do enough spent the whole time I was
president saying why is he so obsessed with bin laden. And that was wag the
dog when he tried to kill him. My Republican sec of defense – and I think
I’m the only person since WW2 to have a sec of defense from the opposite
party – Richard Clarke, and all the intellegince people said that I ordered
a vigorus attempt to get Osama Bin Laden and came closer apparently than
anybody has since.
CW: alright…
WJC: And you guys try to create the opposite impression when all you have to
do is read Richard Clarke’s findings and you know it’s not true. It’s just
not true. And all this business about Somalia – the same people who
criticized me about Somalia were demanding I leave the next day. Same exact
crowd..
CW: one of the…
WJC: …So if you’re going to do this for gods sake follow the same standards
for everybody.
CW: I think we do sir
WJC: …be fair.
CW: I think we do. One of the main parts of the global initiative this year
is religious reconciliation. President Bush says that the fight against
Islamic extremism is the central conflict of the century and his answer is
promoting democracy and reform. Do you think he has that right?
WJC: Sure. To advocate democracy and reform in the muslim world? Absolutely.
I think the question is what’s the best way to do it. I think also the
question is how do you educate people about democracy. Democracy is about
way more than majority rule. Democracy is about minority rights, individual
rights, restraints on power. And there’s more than one way to advance
democracy but do I think on balance that in the end after several bouts of
instability do I think it would be better if we had more freedom and
democracy? Sure I do. …The president has a right to do it? Sure I do. But I
don’t think that’s all we can do in the muslim world. I think they have to
see us try to get a just and righteous peace in the middle east. They have
to see us as willing to talk to people who see the world differently than we
do.
CW: Last year at this conference you got 2.5 bil in commitments, pledges,
how did you do this year?
WJC: Well this year we had 7.3 bil as of this morning.
CW: 7..excuse me…
WJC: 7.3 billion as of this morning. 3 billion of that is. That’s over a
multi-year. These are at most 10 year commitments. That came from Richard
Branson’s commitment to give all his transportation profits to clean energy
investments. But still that’s over 4 bil. And we will have another 100
commitments and probably raise another billion dollars. We have a lot of
commitments still in process.
CW: When you look at the 3 bil from branson plus billions that gates is
giving and warren buffest, what do you make of this age of philanthropy?
WJC: I think that for one thing really rich people have always given money
away. They’ve endowed libraries and things like that. The unique thing about
this age is first of all you have a lot of people like bill gates and warren
buffest who are interested in issues around the world that grow out of the
nature of the 21st century and its inequalities – the income inequalities,
the education inequalities, the health care inequalities. You get a guy like
gates who built Microsoft and he actually believes that he can help overcome
all of the health disparities in the world. That’s the first thing. Second
thing…there are a lot of people with average incomes who are joinging me
because of the internet. Take the tsuami for example we had 1.3 billion
dollars given….by households. The third things you have all these ngo that
you can partner with along with the government. So all these thigns together
mean that people with real money in ways that help people that before would
have been only the object of government grants and loans.
CW: I know we’re over but can I ask you two political questions. Let’s talk
some politics. In that same nyer articiel you say you’re tired of Karl
Rove’s BS. I’ m cleaning up what you said.
WJC: I also say I’m not tired of Karl Rove. I don’t blame Karl Rove. If
you’ve got a deal that works you just keep on doing it.
CW: So what is the BS?
WJC: well every even number year right before an election they come up with
some security issue. In 2000 right before the election …In 2002 our party
supported them in undertaking weapon inspections in Iraq and were 100%
behind them in Afghanistan and they didn’t have any way to make us look like
we didn’t care about terror. And so they decided they would…the homeland
security bill that they opposed and they put some pill in it that we
wouldn’t pass like taking the job rights away from 170,000 people and then
say that we were weak on terror if we weren’t for it… This year I think they
wanted to make the question of prisoner treatment and intercepted
communications the same sort of issue until John Warner came and Lindsey
Graham got in there and it turns out there were some Repbulicans who believe
in the consitution and their convictions…some ideas about how best to fight
terror.
As long as the American people believe that we take this seriously and we
may have our differences over Iraq but I think we’ll do fine this election.
Even if they agree with us about the Iraq war we could be hurt by Karl
Rove’s new foray if we don’t make it clear that we care about the security
of this country. We want to implement the 9/11 comission rec which they
haven’t in four years. We want to…Afghanistan against bin laden. We want to
make America more energy independent. If they want to talk about Iraq say
what they really want about Iraq.
But Rove is good and why I honor him…I’ve always been amused by how good he
is. But on the other hand this is perfectly predictable. We’re going to win
a lot of seats if the American people aren’t afraid. If they’re afraid and
we get divided again then we’ll only win a few seats.
CW: Do you think the Wh and the republicans want to make the American people
afraid.
WJC: Of course they do. They wan another homeland security bill and they
want to make it not about iraq but some other security issue. Where if we
disagree with them we are by definition endangering the security of the
country. And it’s a big load of hueey. WE’ve got 9 iraq war veterans running
for house seats. President Reagan’s sec of the navy is the dem candidate for
senate in Virginia. A Three star admiral who was on my NSC staff – who also
fought terror by the way – is running for the seat of kurt Weldin’s in penn.
We’ve got a huge military presence in this campaign and you can’t let them
have some rhetorical device that puts us in a box that we don’t belong in.
That’s their job. Their job is to beat us. But our job is to not let them
get away with it and if we don;’t we’ll be fine.
CW: Mr. President thank you for one of the more unusual interviews.
WJC: I promise you I was not trying to the who |
