Another Unrecognized Bombshell in Clarke's testimony.

[Solomon]

Clinton was obsessed with Alqaeda. Clinton tried to bomb AlQaeda camps. Republicans accused Clinton of "wagging the dog" because of Monica Lewinsky. Clarke said that bombing the camps had absolutely nothing to do with distracting from the Lewinsky matter. Because of the negative criticism, Clinton did not resume the bombing.

How come it's okay to distract a sitting president with lawsuits from bimbos, depositions, etc., when Clinton is in office, but any criticism of Bush is despicable?

If I were the republicans, I would not have asked Clarke a single question. This guy could go on and on and on. He knows what he's talking about.

[BabsSong]

1. The impeachment cost 3,000 lives on 9/11 and 600 GI's to date, etc.

I reacted exactly as you to that part of the testimony when I heard about it. We thought the only damage done by the Repuke witch hunt was 70-80 million dollars of tax payer money; but in reality, their bloodthirst for power kept Clinton from more bombings and persuing al Qaeda. They screamed the "wag the dog" because it fit their ambitions. Now 3,000 people paid for their power lust and soldier after soldier is dying for it. Come on Dems--point that out to the American people. Apparently we have decided not to wade into this 9/11 thingiemajiggie and just sit in the corner. We don't seem to learn, do we????

[peacetalksforall]

5. And not just lives on US and Iraqi soil....we have to mention

the limbs, the minds, the eyesight, the hearing, the immune systems, the loss of benefits. Cheney and the cabal of planners, media, military, bankers, and intelligence agencies = The Ultimate Greed.

[ewagner]

7. Remember Cohen's testimony

He said something like he remembered being summoned by Newt Gingrich to a closed session of the House of Representatives at night and having to stand for three hours of questioning on whether the cruise missle attacks on Afghanistan were, in fact, using military action for political purposes.

The public must have a short memory. Clinton was neutered by Newt and his cabal in the house and the administration was virtually paralyzed by "all Monica, all the time" press coverage.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. And what of the losses in Afghanistan, the forgotten war?...

...200 or more U. S. military dead plus tens of thousands of Afghan civilians.

[Skidmore]

17. But, but, but, we gotta leader

sent from GOD, who is moral and bold and not afraid. Someone who says what he thinks and does what he says...sorta...

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. his grasp of the facts

is amazing Kind of reminiscent of Clinton , as a matter of fact!

[kentuck]

3. There's a line of thought that needs to be pursued further..

I agree with you.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1285603

[Cocoa]

4. the media, too

they were aiding and abetting the republicans all the way.

[kentuck]

8. Absolutely !

Willingly or unwillingly, they propagated the rightwing agenda. Without their assistance, it could never have "succeeded". They, the media, are as much in denial as the dittoheads.

[asjr]

12. And they still are.

I think the newscasters and pundits, commentators, etc. have tied their fortunes to the Republican party. I still hope their market crashes and they end up losing.

[seabeyond]

6. you are so right

this has to be digested also. all this stuff goes way back to what i was telling my male republican people and those in my community in the 90's. i mean when they finally open eyes and say can you believe bush did this, and what republicans did in the creation of it, with the clinton thing.

yes

i cant wait for this awareness to rear its head. this one is truly going to be fun for me. lol lol. as i sit with the junior league 'ers and holier than thous. all over a hate for bush

gosh just the difference in work ethic and honesty, even in clintons dishonesty.

[Ripley]

9. Exactly. It's disgusting.

They can't help themselves for blaming Clinton for all of this, yet they're the ones who kept him from doing his job! They want it both ways. First they say Clinton is at fault because he didn't catch OBL. Then Rummy says, it wouldn't have stopped 9/11 if we killed OBL. Which is it?

[billybob537]

10. Bushstappo Tactics

They don't care about the cost to the peasants. Just throw the rich another bone. Lives lost in the struggle to obtain absolute power are an unavoidable distraction from the goal. Bush hasn't attended one funeral for the soldiers he killed with his lies.

[peacetalksforall]

11. An important factor is their obsession in doing the opposite of Clinton...

I believe that that obsession came from someone other than Bush and he bought it hook, line, sinker. That is their downfall and that is probably Condi Rice's downfall in particular.

Anyone know if Jimmie the Greek is taking bets on the number of people who are going to require presidential pardons - or - the number of pleas for presidential pardons that will be submitted?

[kentuck]

14. I recall that Orrin Hatch led the opposition to Clinton's fight....

against terrorism? Who else led the fight?

[Solomon]

15. Kick

[Wapsie B]

16. I remember Wag the Dog charges being

shouted from the rooftops around here when Bill went after AQ. The rw's really think everyone's memory is that short.

[Solomon]

18. What bothered me about it is that several of my democratic friends

were hollering about "wag the dog" too. I remember being pissed off about it. Not so much the right wing. But democrats were talking shit too.

[kentuck]

19. The "media" is capable of creating a "crowd mentality"...

amongst both Democrats and Republicans. They saw it on TV - it must be true.

[ProfessorPlum]

22. You know, the bitch of that "wag the dog" charge

is that the movie was made to show how Bush I decided to go after Saddam/Iraq the first time. The movie's maker wasn't trying to make a comment on Clinton, he was trying to show how Muricans fell into line behind Bush I.

Irony is dead.

[WilliamPitt]

20. Yup

Starting in 1995, Clinton took actions against terrorism that were unprecedented in American history. He poured billions and billions of dollars into counterterrorism activities across the entire spectrum of the intelligence community. He poured billions more into the protection of critical infrastructure. He ordered massive federal stockpiling of antidotes and vaccines to prepare for a possible bioterror attack. He order a reorganization of the intelligence community itself, ramming through reforms and new procedures to address the demonstrable threat. Within the National Security Council, "threat meetings" were held three times a week to assess looming conspiracies. His National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, prepared a voluminous dossier on al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, actively tracking them across the planet. Clinton raised the issue of terrorism in virtually every important speech he gave in the last three years of his tenure. In 1996, Clinton delivered a major address to the United Nations on the matter of international terrorism, calling it "The enemy of our generation."

Behind the scenes, he leaned vigorously on the leaders of nations within the terrorist sphere. In particular, he pushed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to assist him in dealing with the threat from neighboring Afghanistan and its favorite guest, Osama bin Laden. Before Sharif could be compelled to act, he was thrown out of office by his own army. His replacement, Pervez Musharraf, pointedly refused to do anything to assist Clinton in dealing with these threats. Despite these and other diplomatic setbacks, terrorist cell after terrorist cell were destroyed across the world, and bomb plots against American embassies were thwarted. Because of security concerns, these victories were never revealed to the American people until very recently.

In America, few people heard anything about this. Clinton's dire public warnings about the threat posed by terrorism, and the massive non-secret actions taken to thwart it, went completely unreported by the media, which was far more concerned with stained dresses and baseless Drudge Report rumors. When the administration did act militarily against bin Laden and his terrorist network, the actions were dismissed by partisans within the media and Congress as scandalous "wag the dog" tactics. The TV networks actually broadcast clips of the movie "Wag The Dog" to accentuate the idea that everything the administration was doing was contrived fakery.

The bombing of the Sundanese factory at al-Shifa, in particular, drew wide condemnation from these quarters, despite the fact that the CIA found and certified VX nerve agent precursor in the ground outside the factory, despite the fact that the factory was owned by Osama bin Laden's Military Industrial Corporation, and despite the fact that the manager of the factory lived in bin Laden's villa in Khartoum. The book "Age of Sacred Terror" quantifies the al-Shifa issue thusly: "The dismissal of the al-Shifa attack as a scandalous blunder had serious consequences, including the failure of the public to comprehend the nature of the al Qaeda threat."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101303A.shtml

[chookie]

21. Another tidbit the flying monkeys use

They blame Clinton for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, which occured a few months after he took office. "It happened on his watch!!!!" they scream.

They also blame Clinton for the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. It is irrelevant to them that it happened on their beloved pet monkey's watch. Instead, they see it as the inevitable consequence of Clinton's coddling of terrorists and his obsession with his erectile function above all other issues.

These positions are logically inconsistent. (Not that *that* ever matters to the flying monkeys.

So why doesn't anyone decry the preceeding 12 years of Republican rule in the US as a possible factor in the 1993 bombing, in the same way they claim that 8 years of Clinton led to Sept 11 2001?)

I am reading Clarke's book. Maybe I haven't gotten to the juicy bits yet, but it sure hasn't seemed to be a partisan attack on His Chimperial Highness. The analysis he gives is pretty comprehensive. Sorry, flying monkeys, but calling this book a partisan attack screed is false. Your attempts to character assassinate a man of impeccable character are service is going to backfire on you.

It's ALL too familiar a pattern. If they don't get told what they want to hear, they get rid of the guy, and only have ears for those who tell them exactly what they want to hear. This has been the pattern -- on education, on AIDS, on the environment, on foreign affairs, on the economy, and now, on national security.

I conclude that the reason that a respected expert like Clarke was dismissed for "not coming up with a plan" can be translated as "He did not try to tie Al Qaeda to Iraq, and thus start off the PNAC program to completely remake the Middle East, as His Chimperial Highness had asked us all to do."