Bill Clinton defends his record on terrorism

[SuperJerk 0]

 

Bill Clinton: I got closer to killing bin Laden

 

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a contentious taped interview that aired on "Fox News Sunday," former president Bill Clinton vigorously defended his efforts as president to capture and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

 

"I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him," Clinton said, referring to Afghanistan.

 

"We do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is one-seventh as important as Iraq," he added, referring to the approximately 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

 

In the interview, which was taped on Friday, Clinton also lashed out at Fox's Chris Wallace, accusing him of promising to discuss Clinton's initiative on climate change, then straying from the issue by asking why the former president didn't do more to "put bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business."

 

"So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me," he said to Wallace, occasionally tapping on Wallace's notes for emphasis. "I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of?

 

"And you've got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it," Clinton said.

 

Wallace said that the question was drawn from viewer e-mails.

 

Clinton asserted he had done more to try to kill bin Laden than "all the right-wingers who are attacking me now." In fact, Clinton said, conservatives routinely criticized him for "obsessing" over bin Laden while he was in office.

 

"They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed," he said.

 

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred about eight months after Bush took office.

 

The former president said he authorized the CIA to kill bin Laden and overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan after the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, but the action was never carried out. Clinton said that was because the United States could not establish a military base in Uzbekistan and because U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies refused to certify that bin Laden was behind the bombing.

 

"The entire military was against sending special forces into Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter. And no one thought we could do it otherwise, because we could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that al Qaeda was responsible while I was president."

 

Clinton also defended withdrawing U.S. forces from Somalia in 1993, after 18 servicemen were killed in Mogadishu when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down.

 

Bin Laden told CNN in a 1997 interview that his followers were involved in that attack, which occurred eight months after the first attack on the World Trade Center.

 

"There is not a living soul in the world who thought Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any attention to it," Clinton said.

 

In recent weeks, Clinton has responded to criticism of his administration's anti-terrorism efforts, sparked in part by the airing of an ABC docudrama miniseries called "The Path to 9/11."

 

The show, broadcast during the weekend before the fifth anniversary of the attacks, dramatized events leading up to the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11.

 

Former members of the Clinton administration protested in particular a scene that shows then-National Security Adviser Samuel Berger ducking a chance to have bin Laden killed or captured in a 1998 raid by CIA agents and Afghan guerrillas.

 

The scene contradicts the findings of the 9/11 Commission, upon which ABC had said the film was based.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/cli...aden/index.html

 

Good for him.

 

If you recall, here's how some Republican responded to Clinton's 1998 attempt to destroy Al Quaeda at the time:

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/08/20/strike.react/

 

 

More truth about Clinton's record: http://www.snopes.com/rumors/clinton.htm

[gWIL 0]

Good for Clinton.

[Slayer 0]

 

"I'm sending you a death ray"

[Ted the Poster 0]

"Does this bug you? I'm not touching you..."

[Vampiro69 0]

Damn Clinton has aged bad.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

That was funny, though I think people are overhyping it. I was expected a Howard Dean YEEARRGH moment. It seemed like any "Hardball" or "O'Reilly Factor" exchange.

 

The guy shoulda followed up by asking "When did you stop beating your wife?"

[LJSexay 0]

God, what I would give to have him back.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

Damn Clinton has aged bad.

 

He really, really has.

[CanadianChris 0]

Damn Clinton has aged bad.

 

He really, really has.

Don't most former Presidents, though?

[Steviekick 0]

Damn Clinton has aged bad.

 

He really, really has.

Don't most former Presidents, though?

 

Open heart surgery will also do that to you.

[dubq 0]

Youtube links:

Pt 1:

Pt 2:

[dubq 0]

Edit: (Stupid internet making with the double-posts!)

[Art Sandusky 0]

While losing his composure was begging for anything he said to be swept beneath the rug in favor of "Bill Clinton goes off on Fox interviewer," I'm glad he got indignant after every appearance I've seen him make has involved mostly quiet disagreements or off-hand remarks about his displeasure with how things are going. Fox was already running this as a major story last night around 6pm, complete with "analysts" to trumpet how much he had hurt his image with his performance.

 

Ah well, we all know it's evil to show emotion in politics.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Ah well, we all know it's evil to show emotion in politics.

 

 

Yeaaaaagggggh!!!

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Like a former president really has to be concerned about his image. It's not like he can run again.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Anything that makes him look bad makes Democrats look bad in the mind of Joe Blow on the street, and they're doing a perfectly good job of fucking up a sure election this year (yet AGAIN) on their own.

[snuffbox 0]

I guess I just don't see the problem here. Maybe I just missed the part wear he bites the head off a chicken or something, from the way some people are viewing this.

 

He looks old? He's 60, overweight for years, and had a recent heart surgery...was he supposed to look like he's 30?

 

Why do people still give a shit about anything on Fox?

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

Hey, he said he tried and failed.

When will the current admins admit defeat?

[snuffbox 0]

Decembuary 86th.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Anything that makes him look bad makes Democrats look bad in the mind of Joe Blow on the street, and they're doing a perfectly good job of fucking up a sure election this year (yet AGAIN) on their own.

 

I don't see how this makes Clinton look bad. He finally spoke up and snapped back at things that many Americans, not necessarily just democrats, have been thinking for a long time. The Bush administration is full of shit, and it's high time that more people call them out on it on national television.

[the max 0]

Decembuary 86th.

 

Smarch 4th.

[CanadianChris 0]

Decembuary 86th.

 

Smarch 4th.

 

April 31st.

[Guest]

"They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed," he said.

I, unlike many right wingers do not hate Clinton, but this is a stupid fucking thing to say.

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

I forget, did we catch ol' OBL yet?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

"They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed," he said.

I, unlike many right wingers do not hate Clinton, but this is a stupid fucking thing to say.

 

Why? Seems pretty straightforward to me.

[SuperJerk 0]

"They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed," he said.

I, unlike many right wingers do not hate Clinton, but this is a stupid fucking thing to say.

Its not like he can claim he suceeded. I think the point was that he even tried, which is more than his critics give him credit for. The press barely covered his anti-terrorism policies because they were too busy chasing the Lewinsky scandal. Most Americans are oblivious to how much attention Clinton gave Bin Laden prior to the USS Cole attack. Thus, the situation is ripe for right-wing pundits, 527s, and certain former U.S. Attorney Generals to lie their asses off and claim Clinton never did anything about terrorism.

 

How often have you heard the charge that Clinton never retaliated against bin Laden for the USS Cole bombing, when the investigation into the bombing didn't name Al Quaeda as the guilty party until AFTER Clinton left office? How often was it charged that Clinton did nothing about the first WTC attack when the guilty parties are TODAY sitting in a U.S. prison? Criticism of Clinton's record on terrorism are nothing but a smoke-screen to hide pre-9/11 Republican incompetence.

 

What's going to hurt Clinton's legacy more...letting accusations he did nothing about terrorism go unchallenged, or getting mad at a news interviewer nobody's ever heard of?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Clinton should get mad. It reflects how most Americans really are angry about a lot of things right now.

[Skywarp! 0]

"I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him," Clinton said, referring to Afghanistan.

 

"We do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is one-seventh as important as Iraq," he added, referring to the approximately 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

 

 

::Applauding vigorously::

[Guest]

"They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed," he said.

I, unlike many right wingers do not hate Clinton, but this is a stupid fucking thing to say.

Its not like he can claim he suceeded. I think the point was that he even tried, which is more than his critics give him credit for. The press barely covered his anti-terrorism policies because they were too busy chasing the Lewinsky scandal. Most Americans are oblivious to how much attention Clinton gave Bin Laden prior to the USS Cole attack. Thus, the situation is ripe for right-wing pundits, 527s, and certain former U.S. Attorney Generals to lie their asses off and claim Clinton never did anything about terrorism.

 

How often have you heard the charge that Clinton never retaliated against bin Laden for the USS Cole bombing, when the investigation into the bombing didn't name Al Quaeda as the guilty party until AFTER Clinton left office? How often was it charged that Clinton did nothing about the first WTC attack when the guilty parties are TODAY sitting in a U.S. prison? Criticism of Clinton's record on terrorism are nothing but a smoke-screen to hide pre-9/11 Republican incompetence.

 

What's going to hurt Clinton's legacy more...letting accusations he did nothing about terrorism go unchallenged, or getting mad at a news interviewer nobody's ever heard of?

I have zero problem with him saying that he tried, but then to turn around and make a claim that this administration did not try when they were only in office for 8 months, that's a little much. I hate the blame game, myself, in almost all of these type of situations.

[SuperJerk 0]

Does it matter to you at all that Clinton's claims are retaliatory, after he was blamed for 9/11 by the Bush Administration? Does it matter to you at all that there may actually be some truth to his claims that he came closer than Bush has?

 

It may seem school-yardish to point this stuff out, but the original charge made by Ashcroft and others is the main reason the Democrats have suffered such heavy political losses between 2002 and now.