NYT/IHT: Rancor Between Freeh and Clinton Over Terrorism Continues

[DeepModem Mom]

Rancor Between Freeh and Clinton Over Terrorism Continues
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
Published: October 16, 2005


WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 - The rancor between Louis Freeh and former President Bill Clinton, who appointed him director of the F.B.I. in 1993, was laid raw anew today as Mr. Freeh continued his assault on the Clinton administration's handling of terrorism, while a former presidential aide accused Mr. Freeh of an "astonishing string of failures that helped leave America vulnerable to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Mr. Freeh, appearing on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" to promote a book he has written, repeated his assertion that the Clinton administration had failed to grasp the scope and severity of the threat of terrorism and had botched the investigation of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, which took 19 American lives.

Mr. Freeh said the administration had failed to press Saudi Arabian leaders for F.B.I. access to suspects in the bombing and - when it appeared that Iran might be behind the attack - had mishandled a letter of protest to the Iranian president in a way that needlessly infuriated both the Saudis and the Iranians.

President Clinton's last chief of staff, John Podesta, sharply rejected Mr. Freeh's accusations, which he has been making in the last week in a series of interviews to promote his new book, "My F.B.I.: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton and Fighting the War on Terror."...

***

Responding to Mr. Freeh's criticisms that the Clinton administration never understood the terrorism threat, Mr. Podesta countered that under Mr. Freeh's leadership, the F.B.I. "stumbled from one blunder to the next, with little or no accountability."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/politics/16cnd-freeh.html?hp&ex=1129521600&en=f9a373a37ad275ce&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[rainy]

1. The fact that there is anything being written about Clinton's

not paying close enough attention now and NOTHING about Bush's complete blind eye to terror pre 9/11 is so sickening. How do these press people keep their jobs and the respect of anyone?

[acmavm]

3. It's just to direct attention from bush** & Company's endless list of

failures led by a bitter man who knows that the world considers him to belong to the legion of incompetents himself.

[struggle4progress]

6. Something important happening here: it's been hard to understand ..

.. why the FBI (perhaps the agency whose screw-ups contributed most to 9/11) has NOT been the target of major reform efforts.

Freeh launching charges, about what happened at a meeting he wasn't at, smells like part of another Republican diversion ...

[ET Awful]

2. So tell me Mr. Freeh . . . how is it that Clinton was lambasted

for focusing too much on terrorism throughout the latter half of his time in office?

How is it that he was attacked by the right for focusing too much on one man (namely bin Laden)?

How is it that when he warned the incoming administration that their greatest problem would be global terrorism, he was roundly criticized and ignored?

How is it that you're a lying sack of shit whose appointment was arguably one of the worst mistakes Clinton made?

[Voltaire99]

4. Why defend Clinton?

Or the feckless Freeh, for that matter? All Freeh brings to the table is the worthless bandaid of "preparedness," the lie that with enough police state action we could have prevented 9/11.

9/11 is a measure of the cost of imperialism. Whether it's Bush or Clinton backing despots in Muslim countries and despots in Israel, we all have paid a terrible price for their inconsiderate blindness.

To stop terror, end imperialism. It's our best defense. A few partisans around here will have to look beyond Clinton worship and understand: our enemies don't distinguish between which party is bombing, starving, or stealing from their people.

[Laelth]

5. Nicely said.

Nothing to add except, perhaps, that Western Civilization depends on Middle Eastern oil, for better or for worse. We are the West's imperial power, and we're not very good at the job. A better way, there must be. What that way is, I have no idea.

-Laelth