Novak-How Clinton team blew chance to hit bin Laden

[joanski01]

The C-Span host read the first paragraph of this article this morning. I had to go find it and see what you all think.


http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak01.html



How Clinton team blew chance to hit bin Laden

September 1, 2003

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement

On Oct. 12, 2000, the day of the devastating terrorist attack on the USS Cole, President Bill Clinton's highest-level national security team met to determine what to do. Counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke wanted to hit Afghanistan, aiming at Osama bin Laden's complex and the terrorist leader himself. But Clarke was all alone. There was no support for a retaliatory strike that, if successful, might have prevented the 9/11 carnage.

This startling story is told for the first time in a book by Brussels-based investigative reporter Richard Miniter to be published this week. Losing bin Laden relates that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Attorney General Janet Reno and CIA Director George Tenet all said no to the attack. I have contacted enough people attending the meeting to confirm what Miniter reports. Indeed, his account is based on direct, on-the-record quotes from participants.

... more ...

[LittleApple81]

1. The book by Richard Miniter is discussed in DU at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=256056

He is not only an investigative reporter from Brussels but also appears to teach at the World Journalism Institute which has "a registered program with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU)" and describes its administrators as "the men and women whom God has given responsibility for the management of the World Journalism Institute"


And they also have his picture at the WJI faculty page.

[joanski01]

6. Thanks for this information.

WOW! He looks like somebody I would believe - NOT.

[Skittles]

2. Back to blaming Clinton, are we Novakula??

What an ass. How about this question - Bush had the support of the American MILITARY *AND* the American people and he STILL hasn't found Osama.

[joanski01]

5. Now, that's an

effing good question, Skittles. I love it. And how about if monkeyass whistleass has read the report in August 2001 instead of going on vacation. The repukes are really getting desperate.

[Grins]

10. ...and the answer is!

Ahem...

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!" - George W. Bush, September 13, 2001

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea, and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." - George W. Bush, March 13, 2002

(B. Rehak, August 15, 2003)

:crazy:

[Cha]

3. bush had a Chance to get bin laden, too! And the FBI was told

to lay off! Now this better get out in the news!

Dueling stories of who should have gotten bin laden when they had a chance!

I hope Clinton counteracts this!

[Cocoa]

4. so many things wrong with this

"might have prevented Sept. 11" what a crock. :eyes:

we'll see if this stupid episode gets more than a footnote in the Sept. 11 commission's report.

[Champion Jack]

7. Would this be the same Novak who outed a CIA agent?

[joanski01]

8. Man, what an ugly

picture of an ugly bastard!!!

[sfwriter]

9. Sandy Berger says...

They passed this info along to Bush and said, "Here's an easy win for you." The plan lay on Condi's desk until 9/11.

-Sandy

[sfwriter]

11. Just emailed this off...

Dear Sun-Times,

I read Robert Novak's Labor Day piece blaming Clinton with some amusement. Don't people ever get tired o this sport of blaming Clinton. In reality, I think the Bush administration may be doing its best to stay in that peculiar blind spot of the American right.

With Bush's policy of ABC (Anything But Clinton) and the reversal of practically every policy of the previous administration, it makes you wonder why Bush did nothing to stop 9/11 himself. As Sandy Berger has said, when they briefed Condi and the rest of the Bush team, they thought they were giving the new administration a "freebie" in the strike on Osama Bin Laden and the data from the Cole investigation.

That little memo lay on Condi's desk until 9/11.

Also, isn't the assertion that this single set of strikes against Osama would have prevented 9/11 a little far fetched? I mean we overran Afghanistan and global terrorism hasn't stopped. For that matter, Osama hasn't turned up either.

The war on terror isn't about overrunning third-world countries that can't defend themselves and "smoking out" terrorists. It is about investigation, evidence, intelligence, and data. Something the FBI's Louis Freeh and the CIA's George Tenet failed to give two administrations.

-Sandy Clark

[Warren Stuart]

12. To this garbarge I have a two word response

Tora Bora.

We had Osama cornered, but let him go.