Should Clinton say I told you so to the BUSH REGIME ?

Question

7-30-1996, WASHINGTON -- President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess.

"We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue," Clinton said during a White House news conference.

But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, doubted that the Senate would rush to action before they recess this weekend. The Senate needs to study all the options, he said, and trying to get it done in the next three days would be tough.

One key GOP senator was more critical, calling a proposed study of chemical markers in explosives "a phony issue."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, emerged from the meeting and said, "These are very controversial provisions that the White House wants. Some they're not going to get."

Hatch said the compromise bill would prevent international terrorist organizations from raising money in the United States and provide for the swift deportation of international terrorists.

The Republicans also dropped the additional wire-tap authority the Clinton administration wanted. U.S. Attorney general Janet Reno had asked for "multi-point" tapping of suspected terrorists, who may be using advanced technology to outpace authorities.

Rep. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said technology is giving criminals an advantage. "What the terrorists do is they take one cellular phone, use the number for a few days, throw it out and use a different phone with a different number," he said. "All we are saying is tap the person, not the phone number."

The measure, which the Senate passed overwhelmingly Wednesday evening, is a watered-down version of the White House's proposal. The Clinton administration has been critical of the bill, calling it too weak. AP

Note: The senate was controlled by the republicans in 1996. Trent Lott was the majority leader.
______________________________...
Clarke: Bush didn't see terrorism as 'urgent'
9/11 panel hears from Berger, Tenet
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Posted: 1:16 AM EDT (0516 GMT) CNN
A day of drama at the 9/11 Commission
Clarke: 'No sense of urgency'
Tenet admits 9/11 intelligence failings
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's former counterterrorism chief testified Wednesday that the administration did not consider terrorism an urgent priority before the September 11, 2001, attacks, despite his repeated warnings about Osama bin Laden's terror network.
"I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," Richard Clarke told a commission investigating the September 11 attacks.".
______________________________...
Rice Falsely Claims Bush’s Pre-9/11 Anti-Terror Efforts Were ‘At Least As Aggressive’ As Clinton’s
This morning, in the Fox-owned New York Post, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reacts angrily to President Clinton’s criticisms of how the Bush administration approached the terrorist threat during their first eight months in office. (The Post headlines the article “Rice Boils Over Bubba“) An excerpt:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making “flatly false” claims that the Bush administration didn’t lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks.
… “What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,” Rice added.
The 9/11 Commission Report contradicts Rice’s claims. On December 4, 1998, for example, the Clinton administration received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks.” Here’s how the Clinton administration reacted, according to the 9/11 Commission report:
The same day, [Counterterrorism Czar Richard] Clarke convened a meeting of his CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] to discuss both the hijacking concern and the antiaircraft missile threat. To address the hijacking warning, the group agreed that New York airports should go to maximum security starting that weekend. They agreed to boost security at other East coast airports. The CIA agreed to distribute versions of the report to the FBI and FAA to pass to the New York Police Department and the airlines. The FAA issued a security directive on December 8, with specific requirements for more intensive air carrier screening of passengers and more oversight of the screening process, at all three New York area airports. [pg. 128-30]
On August 6, 2001, the Bush administration received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.” Here’s how the Bush administration reacted, according to the 9/11 Commission report:
[President Bush] did not recall discussing the August 6 report with the Attorney General or whether Rice had done so.[p. 260]
We have found no indication of any further discussion before September 11 among the President and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an al Qaeda attack in the United States. DCI Tenet visited President Bush in Crawford, Texas, on August 17 and participated in the PDB briefings of the President between August 31 (after the President had returned to Washington) and September 10. But Tenet does not recall any discussions with the President of the domestic threat during this period. [p. 262

Answer 1

No, he should keep his mouth shut and tell his wife to do the same.

Answer 2

Yep, just like he did not have sex with that woman.
Clinton does not deserve the right to open his hole. He does not deserve the right to be called Mr President. He has done more to destroy this nation than any other man alive. The man had a red Chinese colonel in his advisory group when he was the Governor of Arkansas. Why do you think Wall Mart, a small retail chain in Ar, became the largest retailer in the world in just 10 years from the start of the Clinton Admin.
You liberal folks have bought into his modernistic approach in life. {{He has told you a lie loud enough, long enough and you have believed him}}
I feel sorry for you, it will not be long until you feel the wraith of those he so ardently supported.
The man was a joke as a leader. In all ways. Why do you think Pres. Bush sealed his presidential papers? Think about it.
Follow the Clinton trail from the time he was in Cambridge in England to Moscow to protest against the Vietnam war.
I could never understand how a people could vote into office such a traitor. I still cannot. If all he did detrimental to this nation was known, he would be tried for treason and hung.
I know, you are going to vote for Hillary,
Spout what you will. There are those of us who know the truth. We don't buy into your spam.

Answer 3

Excellent post but you forgot to mention that in the passdown from the Clinton Administration to Bush Administration all the infomration about Al Qaeda, Bin Laden etc. was given over and promptly ignored. So Bushies can't claim that Clinton's people didn't tell them anything. It was passed in meetings.

Answer 4

I believe history will in the end be much kinder to Clinton than it will be to the Bush Administration.

"The Administration of Lies and Corruption" should be the title of a book on BushCo.

Answer 5

I see the lie about Clinton not taking Bin Laden when he was offered him has surfaced again.
1. Clinton authorized an executive order to have Bin Laden assassinated
2. The Sudanese NEVER offered Bin Laden to Clinton. A Pakistani individual made this claim but the Sundanese government did not confirm it.
3. The Sudanese government DID offer to hand Bin Laden over to his home nation of Saudi Arabia, but Dubya's close friends the Saudi Princes did not want to play ball.

Answer 6

I don't have time to read your dissertation now, I'm busy racking up Yahoo answer points,
But I don't think politicians should throw anything back in another's face or Washington would be full of smiley grab handing back stabbing...oh wait.

Obama is my breath of fresh air.

Answer 7

Which Clinton? The one who refused to retaliate against attacks on our embassies and the USS Cole, and refused to take bin Laden into custody when offered; or the one who voted to authorize Bush's invasion of Iraq?

Answer 8

The only things Clinton should do are first, apologize for causing the embarrassment to the country with his impeachment and criminal activities and second he should tell his wife to go home, sit down and shut up.

Answer 9

You mean the same president that refused to accept Bin Laden when he was offered to him, already captured?

That person should say "I told you so?".

I think not.

Or the same person who strongly urged President Bush to go after Hussein, but is now taking it back?

Answer 10

Dude, You got way too much time on your hands to dwell so much on the past lets worry about the future.

Answer 11

By calling you an idiot I am guessing I will not get the Best Answer.