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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (392069)	4/14/2003 4:08:15 PM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 769667

>>He did fire 300 Cruise missiles at the guy Yeah I think he hit a shoe store! LOL!!

To: American Spirit who wrote (392069)	4/14/2003 4:08:59 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

The public does not hold Clinton responsible for bin laden. Only the right wingers blame him for that. They blame him for everything.

To: American Spirit who wrote (392069)	4/14/2003 5:28:07 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

He did fire 300 Cruise missiles at the guy. Fact check time again. Only 70 missles were fired in 1998, resulting in 20 deaths. A pretty pathetic response and hardly a disincentive to Bin Laden. 216.239.51.100 09/14/2001 - Updated 01:39 AM ET Clinton rejected military strike on bin Laden WASHINGTON (AP) — During President Clinton's final days in office, senior officials weighed a military strike against Osama bin Laden after receiving intelligence on his whereabouts. The plan was rejected over concerns the information was stale and could result in a miss or civilian casualties. The information spurred high-level discussion inside the White House in December 2000. Now, nine months later, officials are returning to the episode as bin Laden's name increasingly is being connected with Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington. "There were a couple of points, including in December, where there was intelligence indicative of bin Laden's whereabouts," former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told The Associated Press. "But I can categorically tell you that at no point was it ripe enough to act." Some in Congress have expressed anger that the United States has not been able to get to bin Laden in Afghanistan with military strikes after years of intelligence linking him to global acts of terrorism against Americans. "We should have put bin Laden on the defensive so he would be thinking about how we are going to get him rather than him plotting massive terrorist plots," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said. But Berger said military, intelligence and White House officials agreed that they should not proceed based on the December intelligence. "Everyone agreed this was not actionable," he said. Officials said the December discussion was the most pointed in a series of talks over several months. Several officials familiar with the debate said top military and national security officials convened in the White House to discuss the options. One individual familiar with the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting was prompted by "eyes-on intelligence" about bin Laden's whereabouts — a term indicating he was spotted by a person or satellite. But there were questions about the quality and currency of the data. According to officials: Military officials presented a possible military strike option, and the pros and cons were debated. Concerns were voiced that the intelligence might be already stale given bin Laden's tendency to move quickly and go into hiding. There also was discussion of the possibility such an attack might kill innocent civilians. Concerns were also stated that if the intelligence had already grown stale, the U.S. could strike and miss bin Laden — only further emboldening terrorists and embarrassing the United States. Ultimately, the president and aides decided not to strike. Berger and one other official said military officials never made a recommendation to proceed with the attack. "There was never a recommendation from the Pentagon," Berger said. Military strikes were aimed at bin Laden once before. After U.S. embassies were bombed in Africa three years ago, Washington retaliated with a missile attack in August 1998, sending more than 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles into eastern Afghanistan targeting training camps operated by bin Laden. The U.S. attacks killed about 20 followers but bin Laden escaped unhurt. Since then he has been forced by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to stop giving interviews and making statements. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.