Clinton did nothing for 8 years.
Clinton: [Clarke] said we took vigorous action after the African embassies.
Factcheck: Clarke did give Clinton administration credit for being vigorous in responding to the embassy bombings.
Clinton: I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill [bin Laden].
Factcheck: indeed, CIA worked with tribal groups to try to get bin Laden.
Clinton: After the [attack on the USS] Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden.
Factcheck: Clinton did draw up plans as he described and was indeed frustrated by the reluctance of the CIA & FBI to pin blame for the attack squarely on bin Laden.
Clinton: I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.
Factcheck: Clinton probably came within hours of killing bin Laden on Aug 20, 1998 when the US attacked training camps in Afghanistan near Khost.
"Clinton did nothing for 8 years"
You're a fvcking moron raiders72001. Stick to whining about blacks not tipping and posting blogs about women carving themselves and blaming it on Obama.
Clinton: [Clarke] said we took vigorous action after the African embassies.
Factcheck: Clarke did give Clinton administration credit for being vigorous in responding to the embassy bombings.
Clinton: I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill [bin Laden].
Factcheck: indeed, CIA worked with tribal groups to try to get bin Laden.
Clinton: After the [attack on the USS] Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden.
Factcheck: Clinton did draw up plans as he described and was indeed frustrated by the reluctance of the CIA & FBI to pin blame for the attack squarely on bin Laden.
Clinton: I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.
Factcheck: Clinton probably came within hours of killing bin Laden on Aug 20, 1998 when the US attacked training camps in Afghanistan near Khost.
"Clinton did nothing for 8 years"
You're a fvcking moron raiders72001. Stick to whining about blacks not tipping and posting blogs about women carving themselves and blaming it on Obama.
According to the Sunday Times of London, Clinton himself said his refusal to accept the offer to hand over Bin Laden was the "Biggest Mistake" of his presidency.
According to anonymous sources in the CIA, Clinton did not want Bin Laden arrested.
The second offer the Times article details involved Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American who contributed to Clintons presidential campaign and served as a go-between for the administration and various powers in the Middle East. Ijaz presented an exchange of e-mails as evidence to prove that he had in fact met with Clinton officials and intelligence officers from the United Arab Emirates, who were offering to help to deliver bin Laden to the U.S. Ijaz says the deal was blown when Clinton sent his top counterterrorism adviser to meet the Arab leaders directly rather than continue to go through back channels.
The third offer, described as mysterious, was said to come from Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies. It was said to involve putting a tracking device in the luggage of bin Ladens mother during a visit to her son in Afghanistan, but it too was turned down. Richard Shelby, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence committee, said he was aware of a Saudi offer to help, but was not able to talk about the specifics.
According to anonymous sources in the CIA, Clinton did not want Bin Laden arrested.
The intelligence officials, both of whom were involved in secret negotiations between Washington and Khartoum to take bin Laden into custody, offered the damning accounts to New York's Village Voice.
A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, this week called the Clinton administration's decision to pass up a chance to arrest Osama bin Laden in 1996 a "disgrace," saying "somebody didn't want this to happen."
A second intelligence official, also speaking anonymously, corroborated the charge that there was a deliberate effort to let bin Laden escape from the Sudan to Afghanistan, saying "somebody let this slip up."
The second official lamented that the U.S. lost a treasure trove of intelligence on the elusive al-Qaeda chief when it let him slip away. "It was not a matter of arresting bin Laden but of access to information," he told the Voice.
The first instance they cite was Sudans offer to extradite bin Laden in 1996. The Clinton administration turned them down, saying there wasnt enough evidence to convict him in an American court. Originally this was denied by administration officials, but according to the Times, senior sources from within the administration now confirm it was true. In the January issue of Vanity Fair magazine, former ambassador to Sudan, Timothy Carney, confirmed it, saying it had serious implications regarding the U.S. embassy bombings in 1998, and that "the U.S. lost access to a mine of material on bin Laden and his organization." A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, this week called the Clinton administration's decision to pass up a chance to arrest Osama bin Laden in 1996 a "disgrace," saying "somebody didn't want this to happen."
A second intelligence official, also speaking anonymously, corroborated the charge that there was a deliberate effort to let bin Laden escape from the Sudan to Afghanistan, saying "somebody let this slip up."
The second official lamented that the U.S. lost a treasure trove of intelligence on the elusive al-Qaeda chief when it let him slip away. "It was not a matter of arresting bin Laden but of access to information," he told the Voice.
The second offer the Times article details involved Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American who contributed to Clintons presidential campaign and served as a go-between for the administration and various powers in the Middle East. Ijaz presented an exchange of e-mails as evidence to prove that he had in fact met with Clinton officials and intelligence officers from the United Arab Emirates, who were offering to help to deliver bin Laden to the U.S. Ijaz says the deal was blown when Clinton sent his top counterterrorism adviser to meet the Arab leaders directly rather than continue to go through back channels.
The third offer, described as mysterious, was said to come from Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies. It was said to involve putting a tracking device in the luggage of bin Ladens mother during a visit to her son in Afghanistan, but it too was turned down. Richard Shelby, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence committee, said he was aware of a Saudi offer to help, but was not able to talk about the specifics.
Shortly after September 11th, articles by the AP and the Philadelphia Inquirer charged that the Clinton administration had chances to take out bin Laden, but refused to authorize it.
In the waning days of the Clinton presidency, senior officials received specific intelligence about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and weighed a military plan to strike the suspected terrorist mastermind's location. The administration ultimately opted against an attack.
The information spurred a high-level debate inside the White House in December 2000 about whether the classified information provided the last best chance for President Clinton to punish bin Laden before he left office, the officials said.
"There were a couple of points, including in December, where there was intelligence indicative of bin Laden's whereabouts. But I can categorically tell you that at no point was it ripe enough to act," former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told The Associated Press.
In May 1996, the Sudanese capitulated to U.S. pressure and asked Bin Laden to leave, despite their feeling that he could be monitored better in Sudan than elsewhere.
Another golden opportunity to eliminate Bin Laden was after he had been expelled from Sudan. He flew in a plane to Afghanistan and his plane could have easily been taken out.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic told the U.N. tribunal Tuesday that Osama bin Laden was in Albania in 2000 and that the Clinton Administration had discussed it with him.
The information spurred a high-level debate inside the White House in December 2000 about whether the classified information provided the last best chance for President Clinton to punish bin Laden before he left office, the officials said.
"There were a couple of points, including in December, where there was intelligence indicative of bin Laden's whereabouts. But I can categorically tell you that at no point was it ripe enough to act," former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told The Associated Press.
In May 1996, the Sudanese capitulated to U.S. pressure and asked Bin Laden to leave, despite their feeling that he could be monitored better in Sudan than elsewhere.
Another golden opportunity to eliminate Bin Laden was after he had been expelled from Sudan. He flew in a plane to Afghanistan and his plane could have easily been taken out.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic told the U.N. tribunal Tuesday that Osama bin Laden was in Albania in 2000 and that the Clinton Administration had discussed it with him.
On Aug. 20, 1998, three days after half-confessing to lying about Monica Lewinsky and the day she testified before a federal grand jury, former President Clinton declared bin Laden the world's most dangerous terrorist.
Bill Clinton has made a series of public statements claiming his administration came close to killing bin Laden during a cruise-missile raid in 1998.
Touring the rubble of lower Manhattan on September 13, Clinton said, "The best shot we had at him was when I bombed his training camps in 1998. We just missed him by a matter of hours, maybe even less than an hour."
A few days later, on NBC, Clinton said, "We had quite good intelligence that he and his top lieutenants would be in his training camp. So I ordered the cruise-missile attacks, and we didn't tell anybody, including the Pakistanis, whose airspace we had to travel over, until the last minute. And unfortunately we missed them, apparently not by very long....We never had another chance where the intelligence was as reliable to justify military action."
But one of Clinton's top military commanders, who was deeply involved in the Afghanistan operation, has a different recollection. In an interview with National Review Online, retired general Anthony Zinni, commander of U.S. forces in the region at the time, described the 1998 cruise-missile raid as a "million-to-one-shot."
"There was a possibility [bin Laden] could have been there," Zinni recalls. "My intelligence people did not put a lot of faith in that....As I was given this mission to do, I did not see that anyone had any degree of assurance or reliability that that was going to happen."
George W. Bush has made it clear he sees the action as a model of how not to strike back at terrorism. "When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt," Bush reportedly told a group of senators. "It's going to be decisive."
Refer to above for even more damaging facts that Clinton was offered Bin Laden on a platter silver platter at least three times and had several opportunities to take out Bin Laden and refused to do so.
Also, Clinton ordered the military to pump as many as 20 Tomahawk missiles into what he said was a chemical-weapons plant in Sudan financed by bin Laden. It turned out to be a pill plant owned by a Saudi businessman to whom the administration later had to pay $1 million in interest for seizing his plant.
The mission, which used some 80 missiles at a price of about $750,000 apiece.
Bill Clinton has made a series of public statements claiming his administration came close to killing bin Laden during a cruise-missile raid in 1998.
Touring the rubble of lower Manhattan on September 13, Clinton said, "The best shot we had at him was when I bombed his training camps in 1998. We just missed him by a matter of hours, maybe even less than an hour."
A few days later, on NBC, Clinton said, "We had quite good intelligence that he and his top lieutenants would be in his training camp. So I ordered the cruise-missile attacks, and we didn't tell anybody, including the Pakistanis, whose airspace we had to travel over, until the last minute. And unfortunately we missed them, apparently not by very long....We never had another chance where the intelligence was as reliable to justify military action."
But one of Clinton's top military commanders, who was deeply involved in the Afghanistan operation, has a different recollection. In an interview with National Review Online, retired general Anthony Zinni, commander of U.S. forces in the region at the time, described the 1998 cruise-missile raid as a "million-to-one-shot."
"There was a possibility [bin Laden] could have been there," Zinni recalls. "My intelligence people did not put a lot of faith in that....As I was given this mission to do, I did not see that anyone had any degree of assurance or reliability that that was going to happen."
George W. Bush has made it clear he sees the action as a model of how not to strike back at terrorism. "When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt," Bush reportedly told a group of senators. "It's going to be decisive."
Refer to above for even more damaging facts that Clinton was offered Bin Laden on a platter silver platter at least three times and had several opportunities to take out Bin Laden and refused to do so.
Also, Clinton ordered the military to pump as many as 20 Tomahawk missiles into what he said was a chemical-weapons plant in Sudan financed by bin Laden. It turned out to be a pill plant owned by a Saudi businessman to whom the administration later had to pay $1 million in interest for seizing his plant.
Intelligence officials at the time expressed reservations about including the plant on the target list. Clinton picked the target himself.
"Clinton knew it wouldn't work in Afghanistan. It was a public-affairs move," the Pentagon official said, arguing that bombing is an extremely unreliable way to destroy a terrorist cell or assassinate its leader. "If he hit him [bin Laden], he would have been lucky." The mission, which used some 80 missiles at a price of about $750,000 apiece.
Under Clinton, we found that he supported Bin Laden and his network.
Bill Clinton's IRS pursued his personal enemies with great enthusiasm - auditing Billy Dale, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and dozens more - America's enemies, it seems, got a free pass from the same agency.
Under Clinton, Warnings about terrorist attacks were ignored. At least 16 U.S.-based non-profit entities have been linked financially to bin Laden.
The Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), has been directly linked to earlier attacks on U.S. interests by bin Laden.
IARA reportedly transferred money to Mercy International, another non-profit Muslim organization that purchased vehicles used by Osama bin Laden to bomb the U.S. embassies in both Kenya and Tanzania on August 8, 1998.
The Clinton State Department showered the IARA with $4.2 million in grants.
The Clinton administration shut down a 1995 investigation of Islamic charities, concerned that a public probe would expose Saudi Arabia's suspected ties to a global money-laundering operation that raised millions for anti-Israel terrorists, federal officials told The Washington Times.
Bill Clinton's abuse of the military that included bombing Yugoslavia to distract from the scandals, China-gate and the rape of Juanita Broaddrick, strengthened Bin Ladens terrorist movement and its position in the Balkans and actually involved the U.S. allying itself with Bin Laden's KLA, which is a faction of Al Qaeda. The Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), has been directly linked to earlier attacks on U.S. interests by bin Laden.
IARA reportedly transferred money to Mercy International, another non-profit Muslim organization that purchased vehicles used by Osama bin Laden to bomb the U.S. embassies in both Kenya and Tanzania on August 8, 1998.
The Clinton State Department showered the IARA with $4.2 million in grants.
The Clinton administration shut down a 1995 investigation of Islamic charities, concerned that a public probe would expose Saudi Arabia's suspected ties to a global money-laundering operation that raised millions for anti-Israel terrorists, federal officials told The Washington Times.
A story by Jerry Seper in the Washington Times on May 4, 1999, reported, "Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Ladenwho is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans."
Seper said that newly obtained intelligence reports showed that the KLA had enlisted Islamic terrorists in its conflict with Serbia and that bin Laden's organization, known as al-Qaeda, had both trained and financially supported the KLA, which had been labeled a terrorist group by a Clinton State Department official.
President Clinton incubated the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for at least three years, despite the fact that it was harboring Osama bin Laden, was responsible for growing 60 percent of the world's heroin and denied basic human rights to the nation.Seper said that newly obtained intelligence reports showed that the KLA had enlisted Islamic terrorists in its conflict with Serbia and that bin Laden's organization, known as al-Qaeda, had both trained and financially supported the KLA, which had been labeled a terrorist group by a Clinton State Department official.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., says he was belittled, stonewalled and ridiculed for three years for asserting the congressional oversight role in the formulation of foreign policy toward Afghanistan during the last term of the Clinton administration.
Using his seat on the House International Affairs Committee, Rohrabacher attempted, he says, for several years to secure communiqués, cables and other State Department documents that would reveal what was behind U.S. policy toward Kabul. He says he and his committee were "stonewalled" and "belittled" in all their attempts.
According to Rohrabacher, the Clinton administration played a role in creating the Taliban by giving a 'green light' to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other gulf states to fund, direct, and organize the Taliban.
Rohrabacher said at one point on the house floor in a Sept. 17th [1999] speech that the Clinton administration promised Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that it wouldnt overthrow the Taliban according to the UPI.
Robin Raphel, Clinton's assistant secretary of state for south Asia affairs until mid-1997, is believed to be instrumental in the rise of the Taliban.
One report suggested that several Islamic states expressed the belief that Raphel and other U.S. officials along with Afghans in the U.S. were on the payroll of Unocal's payroll. They cite that she provided a fiery defense of Unocal and especially the Taliban in negotiations with the Afghanistan government.
During such an encounter, Raphel's words -- in effect asking the government to 'give it up."
Read more about Clinton being Pro-Taliban here.
A secret deal between the Clinton administration and terrorists linked with Osama bin Laden led directly to the senseless slaughter of some 70 West European tourists and the wounding of hundreds, according to a book written by a former congressional terrorism expert. Using his seat on the House International Affairs Committee, Rohrabacher attempted, he says, for several years to secure communiqués, cables and other State Department documents that would reveal what was behind U.S. policy toward Kabul. He says he and his committee were "stonewalled" and "belittled" in all their attempts.
According to Rohrabacher, the Clinton administration played a role in creating the Taliban by giving a 'green light' to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other gulf states to fund, direct, and organize the Taliban.
Rohrabacher said at one point on the house floor in a Sept. 17th [1999] speech that the Clinton administration promised Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that it wouldnt overthrow the Taliban according to the UPI.
Robin Raphel, Clinton's assistant secretary of state for south Asia affairs until mid-1997, is believed to be instrumental in the rise of the Taliban.
One report suggested that several Islamic states expressed the belief that Raphel and other U.S. officials along with Afghans in the U.S. were on the payroll of Unocal's payroll. They cite that she provided a fiery defense of Unocal and especially the Taliban in negotiations with the Afghanistan government.
During such an encounter, Raphel's words -- in effect asking the government to 'give it up."
Read more about Clinton being Pro-Taliban here.
According to Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America," a Central Intelligence Agency operative dealing with Islamic terrorists on matters of security for the U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina led them to believe President Clinton would look the other way at attempts to overthrow Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.
"If senior Islamicist terrorist leaders are to be believed, the Clinton administration was willing to tolerate the overthrow of the Mubarak government in Egypt and the establishment of an Islamist state in its stead as an acceptable price for reducing the terrorist threat to U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina," states the 1999 book, which has been rushed into a new printing.
The tradeoff was reportedly raised in discussions between Egyptian terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri Osama bin Laden's right-hand man and an Arab-American, Abu-Umar al-Amriki, known as a CIA emissary.
In that attack, terrorists wielding machine guns and knives massacred nearly 70 tourists, most of them Swiss. For about 45 minutes, the attackers mowed down unarmed, unsuspecting tourists in an attempt to show the world that visitors were not safe in Mubarak's Egypt.
In addition to leading to the attack on the tourists, Bodansky writes, the secret deal between the Clinton administration and the bin Laden terrorist cell drove Mubarak into de facto cooperation with the Islamist terror-sponsoring states against the United States. Shortly afterwards, early in 1998, Egypt withheld support for the use of force by the U.S. against Iraq.
The Clinton-Reno Justice Department refused to allow two veteran FBI agents assigned to the anti-terrorist probe to investigate a key figure tied to Osama bin Laden."If senior Islamicist terrorist leaders are to be believed, the Clinton administration was willing to tolerate the overthrow of the Mubarak government in Egypt and the establishment of an Islamist state in its stead as an acceptable price for reducing the terrorist threat to U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina," states the 1999 book, which has been rushed into a new printing.
The tradeoff was reportedly raised in discussions between Egyptian terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri Osama bin Laden's right-hand man and an Arab-American, Abu-Umar al-Amriki, known as a CIA emissary.
In that attack, terrorists wielding machine guns and knives massacred nearly 70 tourists, most of them Swiss. For about 45 minutes, the attackers mowed down unarmed, unsuspecting tourists in an attempt to show the world that visitors were not safe in Mubarak's Egypt.
In addition to leading to the attack on the tourists, Bodansky writes, the secret deal between the Clinton administration and the bin Laden terrorist cell drove Mubarak into de facto cooperation with the Islamist terror-sponsoring states against the United States. Shortly afterwards, early in 1998, Egypt withheld support for the use of force by the U.S. against Iraq.
According to ABC News correspondent Brian Ross today, the two agents told him they were ordered to stop investigations into a suspected terror cell linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the Sept. 11 attacks.
FBI special agents Robert Wright and John Vincent told Ross they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists linked to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. U.S. officials say al-Qaeda was responsible for the embassy attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
"September the 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that," Wright said. "You can't know the things I know and not go public."
Noting that, with growing terrorism in the Middle East in the mid-1990s, Wright and Vincent, then based in Chicago, were assigned to track a connection to a suspected terrorist cell that would later lead them to a link with Osama bin Laden. Wright told Ross that when he pressed for authorization to open a criminal investigation into the money trail, his supervisor stopped him.
Represented by Judicial Watch and former lead House impeachment counsel David Schippers, agents Wright and Vincent have filed suit against the Justice Department over the episode.
FBI special agents Robert Wright and John Vincent told Ross they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists linked to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. U.S. officials say al-Qaeda was responsible for the embassy attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
"September the 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that," Wright said. "You can't know the things I know and not go public."
Noting that, with growing terrorism in the Middle East in the mid-1990s, Wright and Vincent, then based in Chicago, were assigned to track a connection to a suspected terrorist cell that would later lead them to a link with Osama bin Laden. Wright told Ross that when he pressed for authorization to open a criminal investigation into the money trail, his supervisor stopped him.
Represented by Judicial Watch and former lead House impeachment counsel David Schippers, agents Wright and Vincent have filed suit against the Justice Department over the episode.
CIA Director George Tenet refused on Wednesday to permit the House-Senate Select Committee probe into the 9/11 attacks to release information about intelligence briefings to the White House on terrorist activities, including whether the president was briefed on plots to use hijacked airliners as weapons.
Tenet's directive would cover whatever President Clinton was told about a 1998 plan to load an airliner with explosives and crash it into the World Trade Center.
"The director of central intelligence has declined to declassify two issues of particular importance to this inquiry," Eleanor Hill, staff director for the committee, told the panel.
"References to the intelligence community providing information to the president or White House" would remain classified, Hill testified during Wednesday's open hearing.
"According to [Tenet], the president's knowledge of intelligence information relevant to this inquiry remains classified even when the substance of intelligence information has been declassified," she explained.
The identity of and information on a key al-Qaeda leader involved in the Sept. 11 attacks would also stay classified, the committee director said.
The classified information would include news of whether then-President Clinton was tipped off about the 1998 plot involving what Hill said was a "group of unidentified Arabs [who] planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center."
The hijacking tip was given to the Federal Aviation Administration and FBI. Neither agency acted on it. The mysterious Arab group may now be linked to bin Laden, Hill said.
The 1998 terrorist plot to use airliners as flying bombs was one of 12 similar plans outlined by Hill that were uncovered by investigators from 1994 through 2001.
"The director of central intelligence has declined to declassify two issues of particular importance to this inquiry," Eleanor Hill, staff director for the committee, told the panel.
"References to the intelligence community providing information to the president or White House" would remain classified, Hill testified during Wednesday's open hearing.
"According to [Tenet], the president's knowledge of intelligence information relevant to this inquiry remains classified even when the substance of intelligence information has been declassified," she explained.
The identity of and information on a key al-Qaeda leader involved in the Sept. 11 attacks would also stay classified, the committee director said.
The classified information would include news of whether then-President Clinton was tipped off about the 1998 plot involving what Hill said was a "group of unidentified Arabs [who] planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center."
The hijacking tip was given to the Federal Aviation Administration and FBI. Neither agency acted on it. The mysterious Arab group may now be linked to bin Laden, Hill said.
The 1998 terrorist plot to use airliners as flying bombs was one of 12 similar plans outlined by Hill that were uncovered by investigators from 1994 through 2001.
