March 20, 2004
HURRY SLOWLY:
Clinton Aides Plan to Tell Panel of Warning Bush Team on Qaeda (PHILIP SHENON, March 20, 2004, NY Times)
Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation — and how the new administration was slow to act.They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became Mr. Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Ms. Rice's deputy; and Philip D. Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others.
One official scheduled to testify, Richard A. Clarke, who was President Bill Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the warning about the Qaeda threat could not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led.
At the time of the briefings, there was extensive evidence tying Al Qaeda to the bombing in Yemen two months earlier of an American warship, the Cole, in which 17 sailors were killed.
Okay, we'll bite: why didn't they do anything about it, since it was still their watch? It can't have been both so urgent that something needed to be done immediately and something that could be put off while a new administration found its sea legs, can it? Posted by Orrin Judd at March 20, 2004 3:08 PM
I are confused. Over on Drudge Report, this Clarke guy is being called a former Bush advisor, and makes claims about what did or didn't happen in September of 2001. I didn't see any indication of when he became and why he was "former". I see why, now.
He was a holdover who hadn't yet been replaced. And what did he do during those eight months to prevent what he now claims was a preventable atrocity? And the big scandal is that the new admin didn't take seriously a man who the previous admin obviously didn't listen to, either? I get the feeling that the investigation isn't going to make this guy look good, and now, suddenly, he develops a taste for preemptive action.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 20, 2004 3:57 PMWell Clinton made regime change a national policy in 1998 and didn't do anything about that either. Perhaps he was counting on Gore to clean up the whole mess. Clinton was too busy in January writing presidential directives and pardons. He was despicable. Thank heavens for the little old ladies with blue hair in Florida; our angels in drag.
Posted by: Genecis at March 20, 2004 4:56 PMBut Sandy Berger said they never gave anything.
I think Condi's a marked woman. Not the 1st time blame put on her. Or, she really is somewhat incompetent.
Posted by: Sandy P. at March 20, 2004 4:59 PMThey didn't do anything about it after the Cole in 2000.
They didn't do anything about it after they intercepted the Millennium bombing plot in 1999.
They didn't do anything about it after the Kenya/Tanzania embasy bombings in 1998.
They didn't do anything about it after the Somalis offered the bin Laden's head on a plater in 1997
They didn't do anything about it after the Khobar Towers bombing in 1995.
They didn't do anything about it after the Sudanese offered them bin laden's head on a plater in 1994.
They didn't do anything about it after the first WTC bombing.
They didn't do anything about it after Mogodishu.
And they have the nerve to blame their succesors. Reminds of the man who murdered his parents and asked for mercy from the court because he was an orphan.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at March 20, 2004 5:26 PMCBS is flogging a 60 Minutes interview with an 'ex-advisor' claiming that GWB 'dropped the ball' to go to war in Iraq. This is making me wonder if it's the same guy.
Posted by: Chris B at March 20, 2004 6:02 PM"We WARNED the Bush administration of the dangers. Intel showed CLEARLY what these people were up to, and the ramifications of leaving them alone. It was NAIVE of the administration to hem and haw and backburner what they were told. Thousands of Americans are paying the price for their refusal to take action when they were told what the stakes were."
But enough about the run-up to the "illegal" Iraq war.
Please don't through us in that Briar Patch!
Boy, the Democrats just don't get it, do they? Saying that 9-11 is Bush's fault, or America's fault in any way, just isn't going to fly with any decent percentage of Americans. This is going to implode badly. Has no one told them that you're supposed to stop going after the crazy segment of your base once the primary process is over?
Posted by: brian at March 20, 2004 8:13 PMBrian, I just get the sense the Democrats are desperate, and are throwing everything they can as soon as they can.
Posted by: PapayaSF at March 20, 2004 9:55 PMThey are trying to inoculate themselves against the capture of Zawahiri or Bin Laden (if he is still alive). Anything to get the monkey off the back of the donkey - but it won't work. Clinton will always be identified with Mogadishu, Haiti, blowing up empty tents and aspirin factories, and a 15,000 ft. air war that was 4 years too late. And you can bet that Richard Holbrooke and Madam Albright are just as concerned about their reputations as Clinton is about his.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 20, 2004 10:03 PMNBC news has been running an investigative segment claiming that we could have taken out OBL if we had armed the Predator with Hellfire missles prior to 9/11. One Predator mission showed footage of a training camp in Afghanistan and a figure that was believed to be OBL. The reporter, Lisa Myers, tried to corner Condoleeza Rice in an interview by trying to get her to admit that they could have taken him out if they had made it a priority to arm the Predator.
Of course the question must be asked, why didn't Clinton arm the Predator before he left office? A new president taking office must establish his administration and begin to deal with the entrenched interests in all of the federal bureaus and departments. There was some major infighting within DOD that slowed down the effort to arm the Predator.
America was still wary about direct action, after the Sudan aspirin factory that was destroyed by Clinton, and the ineffective cruise missile attack against OBL that ended up destroying a mosque. This is all Monday morning quarterbacking at this point, I don't think that it will do much damage to GWB.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at March 21, 2004 12:14 PM