Clinton's Fault...NOT!

[SHRED]

Claim: The Clinton administration failed to track down the perpetrators of several terrorist attacks against Americans.

Status: False.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/clinton.htm

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When Republicans couldn't prevent executive action, President Clinton:

-- Developed the nation's first anti-terrorism policy, and appointed first national coordinator.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up 12 U.S. jetliners simultaneously.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up UN Headquarters.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up FBI Headquarters.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

--Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up Boston airport.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up Lincoln and Holland Tunnels in NY.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the George Washington Bridge.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the US Embassy in Albania.

-- Tried to kill Osama bin Laden and disrupt Al Qaeda through preemptive strikes (efforts denounced by the G.O.P.).

-- Brought perpetrators of first World Trade Center bombing and CIA killings to justice.

-- Did not blame Bush I administration for first World Trade Center bombing even though it occurred 38 days after they had left office. Instead, worked hard, even obsessively -- and successfully -- to stop future terrorist attacks.

-- Named the Hart-Rudman commission to report on nature of terrorist threats and major steps to be taken to combat terrorism.

-- Tripled the budget of the FBI for counterterrorism and doubled overall funding for counterterrorism.

-- Detected and destroyed cells of Al Qaeda in over 20 countries

-- Created a national stockpile of drugs and vaccines including 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine.

-- Robert Oakley, Reagan Counterterrorism Czar says of Clinton's efforts "Overall, I give them very high marks" and "The only major criticism I have is the obsession with Osama"

-- Paul Bremer, Bush's Administrator of Iraq disagrees slightly with Robert Oakley saying he believed the Clinton Administration had "correctly focused on bin Laden. "

-- Barton Gellman of the Washington Post put it best, "By any measure available, Clinton left office having given greater priority to terrorism than any president before him" and was the "first administration to undertake a systematic anti-terrorist effort."

Here, in stark contrast, is part of the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism record before September 11, 2001:

-- Backed off Clinton administration's anti-terrorism efforts.

-- Shelved the Hart-Rudman report.

-- Appointed new anti-terrorism task force under Dick Cheney. Group did not even meet before 9/11.

-- Called for cuts in anti-terrorism efforts by the Department of Defense.

-- Gave no priority to anti-terrorism efforts by Justice Department.

-- Ignored warnings from Sandy Berger, Louis Freeh, George Tennant, Paul Bremer, and Richard Clarke about the urgency of terrorist threats.

-- Halted Predator drone tracking of Osama bin Laden.

-- Did nothing in wake of August 6 C.I.A. report to president saying Al Qaeda attack by hijack of an airliner almost certain.

-- Bush - knowing about the terrorists' plans to attack in America, warned that terrorists were in flight schools in the US - took a four week vacation.

-- By failing to order any coordination of intelligence data, missed opportunity to stop the 9/11 plot as Clinton-Gore had stopped the millennium plots.

-- Blamed President Clinton for 9/11.

http://www.mikehersh.com/Clinton_vs_Terror_Republicans_vs_Clinton.shtml

[seabeyond]

1. blame clinton before allthe shit came down. bush has let bin laden

off the hook now. not searchin or even caring

is this odd?

it is odd to me that they are attacking clinton for not getting bin laden before he had done a lot or regarded as a threat. without republican support and republican attacking him for wag the dog. and bush, sittin during 911 and after now says he doesnt matter after killing 3000 americans

and these people want to be taken seriously

does not make sense

not tomentionthat is jsut bullshit anyway cause there is a documented record, of which you provide,... allclinton did anyway. not to mention our ability to show all bush didnt do

the absurdity of it all. and repugs get away with this time and time again, without being called on it

[justgamma]

2. And Clinton did all that

quietly. I think he thought that not only was it his job to make the US safer, but to make the people feel safe.
He didn't trumpet "terror" every chance he got. He did it on the QT.

[SHRED]

3. I agree

A fitting response I got, from another board, to this same post.
Very well put!

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Originally posted by SpeedBallBlues
Clinton was as on the ball as anybody. There were some screw ups in the machinery of the CIA and FBI but they were likely due to bush operatives left over from the TWELVE YEARS of bush in the whitehouse.

The republicans did two things during these dangerous times...waged a campaign of "political terrorism" against the president ending in impeachment for nothing (again the bush clan was running interference for the terrorists) and electing bush who stopped all anti terror operations out of the whitehouse. An honest "free press" would have been harping on these things and bush would have been imprisoned instead of getting re-elected. That's a fact!