Plenty to Blame for Terror (says) Republican Lawmaker

[baldguy]

link:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&e=5&u=/nm/20040321/us_nm/security_bush_critic_dc

snip

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said there were many to blame for the failures, going back to the Clinton administration in which Clarke also had a top role as counter-terrorism coordinator.

end snip

Clarke's 60 Min appearance must be very damaging, if they're putting this shit out beforehand. What are you going to be watching tonight?

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. The information is already out on the CBS webpage

And it doesn't look good for the Bush Administration. CBS has a witness to corroborate what Clarke said about comments made by Bush. What's more, Clinton did go to battle stations in 1999 and did stop an attack.

The Admin.'s best argument was that they thought the attacks would be overseas, but that's weak at best because Clinton stopped an attack from happening in L.A. in 1999. So it's not like there wasn't precedent.

[prodigal_green]

13. Also in New York

There was a plot to blow up the bridges and tunnels in simultaneous attacks. I believe that Ramsey Youssef and others were convicted on that evidence and the first WTC bombing.

Thanks to Clinton, we made it through the '90s without losing any more lives to terrorism.

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. Thats interesting...

I don't remember 9/11 happening on Clinton's watch.

I remember us stopping terrorist attacks on New Years.

[FarLeftRage]

3. arlen spector

is an a**h***!

Why not ask him about his "investigative" work for the Warren Commission??

I hope the good people of Pennsylvania vote his worthless ass out!!

[Rex]

4. The Hatchet sure does have a short term memory.

Just go back to Clinton and forget about Poppy and Raygun? No can do. It disgusts me that Specter is still a Senator after all the damage he's done to our country.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. Oh, here we go!

Get ready for repukes to try and shift the blame.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Clinton's in Newsweek's online Clarke story headline, with pic...

of Clinton with Bush:

Storm Warnings
Bin Laden was a threat, but Clinton never pushed it and Bush seemed more interested in Saddam. What went wrong

....For Kerry and the Democrats, the catch is that Bill Clinton did no better to tame the terrorist threat during his last years in office. As Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll recently showed in his book "Ghost Wars," those in the national-security bureaucracy under Clinton spent more time wringing their hands and squabbling with each other than going after Osama bin Laden. And Clinton never stepped in and ordered his troops to stop dickering and do the job.

The White House counterterror chief during the late ' 90s and through 9/11 was Dick Clarke. A career civil servant, Clarke was known for pounding the table to urge his counterparts at the CIA, FBI and Pentagon to do more about Al Qaeda. But he did not have much luck, in part because in both the Clinton and early Bush administrations, the top leadership did not back up Clarke and demand results.

Clarke does not absolve Clinton (or himself) of responsibility—the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa happened on Clinton's watch—but he saves his harshest criticism for Bush and his national-security team. In his new book, Clarke recounts how on Jan. 24, 2001, he recommended that the new president's national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, convene the president's top advisers to discuss the Qaeda threat. One week later, Bush did. But according to Clarke, the meeting had nothing to do with bin Laden. The topic was how to get rid of Saddam Hussein. "What does that tell you?" Clarke remarked to NEWSWEEK. "They thought there was something more urgent. It was Iraq. They came in there with their agenda, and (Al Qaeda) was not on it."...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4571338

[rustydog]

7. Mr. Spinchter, quit pointing everywhere but where the blame lies..

George Bush claims to be a President of Personal responsibility.
He and he alone decides whether this country does anything to thwart terror attacks. No matter what past president you try to blame, Bush was "on watch" when 9-11 occurred, period.

Bush is solely to blame. The buck Stops Here.

[Zorra]

8. Bu$h Went Golfing At Dawn The Day After The Aug 6th PDB!!!!

Blaming others for your mistakes is pitiful. What a bunch of weenie little schoolboys. Let's make one thing perfectly clear: George Bu$h had 9 months, after he assumed the role of pResident, to insure that our country was safe from terrorist attack. Bu$h in all probability was, (or at least he should have been when considering prior evidence and if he had been paying attention to intelligence, instead of playing golf!) fully aware that al Qaeda was possibly planning to use hijacked aircraft as a weapon against the US.

Please read this, and notice the caption and date. I apologize for the right wing news source, but it makes this info that much better. Scroll down to read the excerpt.

Bush Golfs, Doesn't Miss Washington
8/7/2001 5:16 PM
President Bush rolled out of his ranch at dawn Tuesday for golf and talk, saying he is thoroughly at home amid the outdoor play and work of his Texas vacation. "I'm the kind of person who likes to be outdoors; it keeps my mind and my spirits up and it keeps me a balanced person," Bush told reporters moments before he teed off at Ridgewood Golf Club on a hill overlooking Lake Waco.

http://www.teamgop.com/archive.php3?m=08&y=2001

So: Did he read the AUG. 6 PDB, and then nonchalantly go golfing the next morning? If so, why didn't he do anything to protect us? Or did he not even read it?

Our intelligence agencies are not stupid,ignorant, or negligent, as the republicans would have us believe. For example:

Washington Post
Friday 25 July 2003

With respect to Bush, the congressional panel indicated that it tried to determine "to what extent the President received threat-specific warnings during this period" -- but obtained only limited information.

Among the only clues cited in the report about Bush's knowledge of al Qaeda's intentions against the United States is an Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Briefing (PDB) -- described in the report only as a "closely-held intelligence report" -- that included information "acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of Bin Laden supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives."

The PDB also said "that Bin Laden had wanted to conduct attacks in the United States for years and that the group apparently maintained a support base here." It cited "FBI judgments about patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks," according to the report.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/072603A.shtml

As far as I can recall, Bu$h never accepted any responsibility or offered the nation any apologies for his negligence in failing to prevent the attacks. Instead, he chose to allow his spincronies to blame his predecessor, who had been out of office for almost 9 months. If Bu$h had been CEO of a corporation and said to his Board of Directors and Shareholders "Well, yeah, we lost a couple hundred million dollars but it wasn't my fault, it was the previous CEO's fault" he would get his pink slip right then and there.

Blaming former President Clinton just isn't going to fly, and Senator Specter should be ashamed of himself for using this lame excuse to cover-up for Bu$h's negligence in failing to defend our country. I am disgusted.

Mature adults admit when they make mistakes, and other adults respect them when they admit their mistakes. Arrrrgh. We should have nothing but contempt for so-called leaders that blame others for their failures.

We can rest assured that the buck will never stop here:

[0007]

9. I'm watching 60 minutes tonight and this is juicy information

but indeed nothing surprising about this crime cabal. More will be coming out in time.

[Ilsa]

10. Clarke on 60 Minutes tonight:

Clinton went to "battlestations" and prevented an attack on LAX. Bush ignored Clarke's calls for action.

[displacedvermoter]

12. Clinton also responded by an attack on Iraq's military intelligence

building when they found out about Iraqi efforts to kill Bush I. Clark pointed out that that was a very effctive warning to Saddam, and we had not terrorist threats from Iraq until we invaded.

I thought that was an important point.

Leslie tried to whore for Bush of course. But it was too damning to blow off. She seemed stunned!

[Eurobabe]

11. Hey Arlen, try reading about the groundwork laid by Raygun/Bush I

I am reading House of Bush/House of Saud, and am so sick of these damn Republicans trying to pin the blame on Clinton, as if he created OBL & Islamic fanatics.

Come on America, and yes YOU Arlen -- open your eyes to what happened in the 80s when Bush I sent millions of $$ to OBL to ensnare the Russians in Afghanistan. We funneled $$, weapons, etc. The Cold War ended, but Raygun/Bush I swapped one enemy for another and enabled the Muslim extremists, NOT Clinton.

Why can't we make THIS a talking point??