Clinton responce to 1993 WTC Attack?

[DrCorday]

Hey all!

I keep getting hit with this stuff from Republicans about how Clinton didn't do anything about Al-Qaeda for 7 years or whatever. So the obvious question this provokes: What exactly did he do?

More specifically,

How did Clinton respond to the 1993 World Trade Center attack? Was it effective?

What did Clinton do to counter terrorist acts, like the USS Cole and 1998 embassy attacks (please, I need to find out more about the Repub's "aspirin factory")?

and How did the Clinton administration prevent significant attacks by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups that Bush ignored?

It'd be good to start getting this down in one place. I searched Google and Demopedia, most all I can find on the internet is Republican propaganda that really doesn't make any sense.

[Sparkly]

1. Use wikipedia

1993 World Trade Center bombing: On February 26, 1993, a minivan bomb planted by terrorists exploded in the underground garage of the north tower, opening a 30m hole through 4 sublevels of concrete. Six people were killed and over a thousand injured. Six Islamist extremist conspirators were convicted of the crime in 1997 and 1998 and given prison sentences of 240 years each.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center#1993_terrorist_attack

In response to these (1998)bombings, on August 20, 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on targets in Sudan and Afghanistan (see Operation Infinite Reach).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_U.S._embassy_bombings

Final culpability for the Cole was decided after Bush was in office, and his administration did nothing.

The Clinton administration took terrorism and counter-terrorism seriously -- see Richard Clarke, the 1996 Gore commission on airline security, and the Hart-Rudman report, all of which the Bush administration ignored.

[Capn Sunshine]

3. Short answer : he hunted down those responsible and they were convicted

Unlike the * administration, Clinton actually got after the perpetrators and put all of them in jail.

[TryingToWarnYou]

5. Not all. Missing one.

One still remains at large.

Thats ok though, its still a helluva lot more than Bush.

[DrCorday]

28. and it's not ok!

Haha, just noting how much our expectations have been lowered. Four years ago, I may have thought the fact that a major terrorist who helped attack Americans was still at large was appalling. Now I consider it "another day in the office."

Sad. Anyway, Bush is a pansy. Thanks, guys!

[radar]

2. A few links...

More than this administration without a patriot act or invading multiple countries; and not wasting billions of dollars.

March 1994, four of the Arab defendants – Nidal Ayyad, Mohammed Salameh, Ahmad Ajaj, and Mahmud Abouhalima – were convicted on all counts of conspiracy, explosives charges, and assault for the World Trade Center bombing. They would each receive a sentence of 240 years in prison with no possibility of parole.
1993 World Trade Center Bombing in New York
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac3/ContentServer?node=world/issues/terrordata&pagename=world/terror&appstat=detail&resulttype=attack&entityId=145&cache12=12

Terrorist Attacks (within the United States or against Americans abroad)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001454.html
Terror timeline between 1981-2001
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0212088/tertime.htm
US Army terrorism timeline
http://www.army.mil/terrorism/1999-1990/
Terrorism - War on Terrorism
War with Iraq - History of Terrorism
http://www.globalchange.com/terrorism.htm
Terrorism wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorist
False Patriots Timeline
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=152&printable=1

[DrCorday]

4. Re: A few links...

Were there defendants that weren't convicted?

I'm also discovering that Osama and al-Qaeda weren't really connected to 1993, despite Republican crap to the contrary. It turns out that while a couple of the terrorists were trained by al-Qaeda, I'm not sure if the attack was ordered by Osama and his crew.

CNS Report on the 1993 Attack
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/wtc93.htm

[radar]

13. Not sure...

...But, the article appears to account for all those arrested as being convicted of something - if not the 93 WTC bombing...

By the end of March, five suspects had been taken into custody
4 convicted, 5th pleads guilty

June 1993, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, using an informer, arrested eight more suspects
The arrests led to the detention in July 1993 of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a fundamentalist Egyptian cleric and suspected terrorist
10 convicted...
October 1995, Sheik Rahman and nine of his followers were convicted of plotting bombings and other acts of terror in New York. I

capture (in Pakistan) and subsequent extradition of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, wanted as the mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing since March 1993.
Yousef and three others convicted

another man, Mohammed Abouhalima, to eight years in prison for his role in helping his brother Mahmud, flee New York after the bombing.


* Whatever the number of successful convictions (low or high) it's more than this present administration - 2 overturned by a judge
...And Clinton's admin. didn't need to ignore the defendants civil rights to get 'em!

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2004/ashcroft_false_terror_arrests.html

U.S. Seeks to Dismiss Terror Convictions in Detroit
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/9/1/103343.shtml
US judge throws out Detroit terrorist “sleeper cell” convictions
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/detr-s03.shtml
Terror Case Collapse Blow to Bush
Adds to List of High-Profile Losses
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0907-04.htm

[blm]

25. Al Qaeda wasn't really going until 1997-98 in Afghanistan.

.

[TryingToWarnYou]

6. Another thing...

The Cole was attacked with only like 4 months left of Clintons term..what exactly could they have done in that time? Ask them.

Additionally, you can bring up the terrorist attacks under Reagan and compare body counts if you want to really piss them off.

The "aspirin factory" was an unfortunate event. It was indeed a factory for medication. I love how they are upset over erroneously bombing a building, but see nothing wrong with erroneously bombing an entire country and killing tens of thousands.

Here are some links just to get you going:

http://www.mikehersh.com/Republicans_sabotaged_Clintons_Anti-Terror_Efforts.shtml

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/terror.htm

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.journal08jun08,1,1654844.column?ctrack=1&cset=true

http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2002/national-reporting/works/100301a.html

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/clinton.htm (Great link)

http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.01/ (talks about the pharmaceutical company that was attacked...note: In 1998 Saddam did indeed have chemical weapons..this is not a secret)

http://www.mikehersh.com/Clinton_vs_Terror_Republicans_vs_Clinton.shtml (Great comparison of Clinton anti terror efforts vs. Bush/Cheney efforts)

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandDefense/EM410.cfm

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020812/story.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/21/terror/main607659.shtml

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/inside/

[Guaranteed]

8. Not only with such a short time left in his term (3 months, actually),

but the election was being held in just a matter of about three weeks.

And he went ahead and told Bush that he needed to do something about Al Qaeda.

[Skittles]

7. HERE YA GO DOC

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

[marcologico]

9. Basically, he rounded up the mountain of intelligence that Dumbya ignored.

The more you think about it, the more you have to wonder if Cheney or somebody didn't do the math and decide, "Whatever happens, it can only help with the Iraq plan and the '04 election, so why should we bust our asses bothering our Saudi pals?"

Call it MBA thinking.

[slor]

10. Your questions beg an even BIGGER question...

and one that I have wanted the answer to, since February 1993. What did g.h.w.bush's CIA know in the closing months of his administration? We have all now heard of the "chatter" in the months preceding 9/11. Are we to believe, that there was not a similar increase, prior to the WTC attack of 1993? Was bush Sr. so upset by his loss, that he chose NOT to divulge this information? I guess the liberal media does not want to know.

[robbedvoter]

14. After Rabi Kahane's murder, FBI came in possesssion of documents

that during Poppy's 'leadership" stayed untranslated for years. After the 93' attack, they eventually got to them and discovered that the plans were right there, under their noses. The FBI guy (Freeh was it?) got his priority right and inmmediately dispatched agents on the dangerous tail of....Clinton.

[DrCorday]

19. Yeah, that's a good one.

In my unbelieveably short American memory, I forget how little the 1993 had to do with Clinton.

I mean, seriously: there were 9 months between Bush's inauguration and 9/11, there was 1 between Clinton's and the 1993 attack. How can they get away with blaming 9/11 on Clinton and still hold Clinton accountable for 1993? Absurd.

Either way, I was still wondering about the "series of actionable items" that Clinton left for the Bushies. What all was that and what happened to it?

[Horse with no Name]

21. Great thought

That is something I had never thought of.

[baldguy]

11. The GOP whined "Wag The Dog" while Clinton was attacking our enemies.

[hector459]

12. Kick!

Hope the Freepers read it all!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

15. 28 of the perps captured/arrested, tried & found guilty are in prison!

the blind mullah remember him...where is he IN PRISON!

where is Osama????

[holiday]

16. read al fraken's book.. lies and the lying liars who tell them

clinton did a lot!!!

[DrCorday]

26. !! the problem with the conviction count...

The conservative idiots tend to respond to this by reading off a Taliban death toll. Sometimes they even refer to the Gitmos as points for Bush's "war on terror," pretending the Gitmos are convictions or something.

Either way, we do have to deal with the fact bin Laden was still at large when Clinton left office - but honestly, it's not like the Repukes were demanding we go after him at the time. They seemed way more concerned about whether or not Clinton was into some sort of extracirricular activities.

Anyone got any information on the "walls" Clinton established between the CIA, FBI and etcetera? Often Repukes say he "pussified" the various agencies by somehow "passing laws." (They forget the President can't pass laws - only their Republican congress can do that.) Anyway, what are they talking about??

[ElsewheresDaughter]

31. read Forbidden Truth...chapter 1 talks about John O'Neil and everything

Clinton DID do to get Osama but was stopped by the State Department in Yemen ...Bodine is the bitches name!

[salin]

17. Let's see... they prevented the Millenium attacks

on US ground? Rather than ignoring mounting evidence that something might be in the works?

[never cry wolf]

18. Will Pitt did a nice synopsis

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

snip-----------

The two great myths that have settled across the nation, beyond the Hussein-9/11 connection, are that Clinton did not do enough during his tenure to stop the spread of radical terrorist organizations like al Qaeda, and that the attacks themselves could not have been anticipated or stopped. Blumenthal's insider perspective on these matters bursts the myths entirely, and reveals a level of complicity regarding the attacks within the journalistic realm and the conservative political ranks that is infuriating and disturbing.

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.

end snip-------

[Horse with no Name]

20. delete--dupe

Didn't refresh while I was looking it up,lol.
:)

[Dr Fate]

22. Ask them what Republicans did, besides investigating Clinton's cock.

Ask them what the Republican controlled congress did to adress terror while they were too busy obsessing over Clintons sex life...

Clinton did plenty as others have posted- so now ask them what Republicans did.

[Sparkly]

24. I believe they also accused him of wagging the dog,

being "obsessed" with bin Laden, and "inventing terrorist bogeymen."

They also said he over-stretched the military (hah!), relied too much on intel agencies and international law in dealing with terrorism (as opposed to invading other countries, I guess), and involved the military in too many non-combat or "nation-building" activities.

So you see, when it comes to making accusations, particularly the hypocritical sort, Republicans kept very busy all through the 90's.

[blm]

29. They also BLOCKED most of his Anti-terror legislation in 1996.

.

[fob]

30. Yeah, look up the 1996 legislation and include Orrin Hatch and taggants

in your search.

I wonder if "they" needed to have the taggants legislation scuttled because of the 9/11 operation and the need to topple the towers with a little extra explosive help?

It's a little on the tin-hatty side but what if "they" did use explosives to bring down the towers AND the taggants legislation were in effect? I suppose given the level of the "plan", "they" could get around that too, but it would add yet another obstacle.

[blm]

23. USS Cole traced to BinLaden in Jan.2001. The option to respond was Bush's.

He conveniently forgets that whenever it's brought up, and his propaganda spreaders always use it to blame Clinton.

They also conveniently forget that the USS Cole was supposed to be refueling, and it was Dick Cheney's Halliburton who were in charge of the refueling and THEY are the ones who bear a great deal of responsibility.

Clinton also put together a bi-partisan team to examine global terror. They put in TWO AND A HALF YEARS of worldwide study. It was completed in Jan.2001.

Bush was handed the completed report on Jan.30, 2001. He refused to read it. He deemed it UNIMPORTANT ENOUGH TO READ. As did Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice.

I am SHOCKED that any Democrat is so unaware of this that they couldn't formulate a response on their own.

[DrCorday]

27. it's always worse than i thought.

Unimportant enough to read? God damn. That in the 9/11 commission report?