Diemen said:
Funny, I seem to remember Bush getting an urgent memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack United States" and doing nothing about it, and Ms. Rice even publicly admitting as much. Richard Clarke also spoke of trying to pass on information about terrorist activity once the Bush administration took over, and essentially being brushed aside. Those seem like pretty large failures there.
Do you have any evidence to back up the claim that 9/11 is directly related to Clinton and his failures to do anything about it? Because that's not the kind of claim you can make without presenting some sort of evidence.
good source, Richard Clarke. Let's decipher the critiques he makes of the Clinton administration in his fine book about the lack of organization they used towards combatting al-Qaeda.
examples from his book for reference:
pg. 223 - it says that in late 2000, of the National Security Council convened — among them, the heads of the CIA, the FBI, the Attorney General, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the secretaries of State, Defense. It was just after al Qaeda’s attack on the USS Cole. But neither the FBI nor the CIA would say that al Qaeda was behind the bombing, and there was little support for a retaliatory strike.
Of course today we know Al Qaeda was behind it, for they have even admitted it publicly.
pg. 204 - Clarke vents his frustration at the CIA’s slow-walking on the question of killing bin Laden. Why could we not find a group of Afghans, Americans, third-country citizens, etc. to kill him?
pg. 210 - on the CIA's refusal to budget the money towards al-qaeda: “The formal, official CIA response was that there were [no funds],” Clarke writes. “Another way to say that was that everything they were doing was more important than fighting al Qaeda.”
pg. 217 - describes a colleague, Roger Cressey, who was frustrated after meeting with an FBI representative on the subject of terrorism. “That fucker is going to get some Americans killed,” Clarke reports Cressey saying. “He just sits there like a bump on a log.”
Clinton had the best opportunity to kill Bin Laden, take care of the movement that we see today, but he did nothing. The commander-in-chief, could not find the will to order the military into action against al Qaeda, and Bill Clinton, the head of the executive branch, could not find the will to order the CIA and FBI to act.
So, Mr. President Clinton, the next time you are on Fox dissing Bush, remember your history of leading our country during a time of terror. All of these relate directly to 9/11
