Sorry for the length of this post ... but I have been trying to educate myself this Sunday morning.
The lie is that the Clinton
Administration consistently failed to act on evidence of a growing
threat from terrorist activity, particularly on US soil ... but, as my
favorite candidate for the Presidency of the United States in next
year's election, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean might say,
"that turned out not to be true." :-)
It's very interesting to hear many Republicans trying to insinuate
that the current foreign affairs "situation" is the result of the
failure of the Clinton Administration to deal adequately with
terrorists. That's really preposterous. Throughout Clinton's
Administration, there were numerous attempts made to "wage war on
terrorists". Most failed for lack of support from the Republican-led
Congress.
Just for fun, do a Google search for the keywords "Clinton
Counterterrorism". Far from doing nothing about terrorism, it would
appear that, at times, Clinton was portrayed as an alarmist for saying
that the threat of terrorist attack on US soil was highly likely.
This from early 1999:
ABCNEWS, January 22, 1999 - President Clinton painted a
nightmarish scenario this week of terrorists using chemical
and biological weapons capable of killing thousands in the
21st century. He also warned that "cyber terrorism" could
bring computer networks throughout the nation to a standstill.
"This is not a cause for panic. It is a cause for serious,
deliberate, disciplined, long-term concern," Clinton said
during a speech at the National Academy of Sciences on
Friday. "If we prepare to defend against these emerging
threats, we will show terrorists that assaults on America
will accomplish nothing but their own downfall."
Aiming to protect the nation from such attacks, he
reiterated a request that Congress set aside $2.8 billion
for a variety of national defense programs.
[....]
Clinton's request would double the spending for protection
against chemical and biological weapons defense over two
years. The $2.8 billion would be in addition to Clinton's
$7.2 billion request for conventional counterterrorism
security programs.
http//abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/clinton_terrorists990122.html
And, can you guess who prevented Clinton's counter-terrorism measures
from becoming law? You guessed it ... many of the same Republicans
who now claim that they are having to deal with the inattention and
inaction of the eight-year Clinton Administration.
Probably one of the most important things Clinton attempted to do to
deal with terrorism was to stem their funding, or at least find out
where they were getting money ... in other words, follow the money
trail to both the source and the destination. Clinton offered
legislation that would give the Treasury Department broad powers to
expose and investigate money-laundering schemes. Most importantly,
Clinton's plan called for restrictions to be placed on the activities
of foreign banks in the United States if they would not open their
activities to scrutiny by the US investigations of terror-funding.
The legislation was defeated largely through the actions of one man,
Texas Senator Phil Gramm, who has strong ties to Enron, a company that
since been found to have much to lose by opening its accounting
records ... this from the NY Times:
THE PAPER TRAIL
Roadblocks Cited in Efforts to Trace bin Laden's Money
By TIM WEINER and DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/business/20MONE.html
A six-year struggle to uncover Osama bin Laden's financial
network failed because American officials did not skillfully
use the legal tools they had, did not realize they needed
stronger weapons, and faced resistance at home and abroad,
officials involved in the effort say.
Federal officials say they have not persuaded foreign banks to
open their books to investigators and that in this country, a law
that would have allowed the United States to penalize foreign
banks that did not cooperate was blocked last year by a single
United States senator.
[...]
Congress is now reviving a proposal killed last year by Senator
Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who was then chairman of the
Senate Banking Committee. The bill, introduced by the Clinton
administration, would give the Treasury secretary broad power to
bar foreign countries and banks from access to the American
financial market unless they cooperated with money-laundering
investigations. It was strongly opposed by the banking industry
and Mr. Gramm.
"I was right then and I am right now" in opposing the bill, Mr.
Gramm said yesterday. He called the bill "totalitarian" and
added, "The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and
kill them."
But the bill is gathering support from both parties. "I would be
amazed if there is not a sea change," said Senator John Kerry,
the Massachusetts Democrat, who is sponsoring the bill with
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. He said the
opposition was based on "ridiculously phony" arguments.
Incidentally, Senator Gramm's wife sat on the Board of Directors of
Enron (who we now know did not want a federal examination of its
books) at that time (http://www.apfn.org/enron/gramm.htm)
Another group that might also have an interest in keeping its
financial dealings secret is the Carlyle Group, which has done
business for years with the now-famous Saudi Arabian family called the
"bin Ladens":
Among its far-flung business interests, the well-heeled
Saudi Arabian clan - which says it is estranged from
Osama - is an investor in a fund established by Carlyle
Group, a well-connected Washington merchant bank
specializing in buyouts of defense and aerospace
companies.
Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty,
the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of
the biggest names in the Republican Party. In recent
years, former U.S. President George [Herbert Walker]
Bush, ex-Secretary of State James Baker and ex-Secretary
of Defense Frank Carlucci have made the pilgrimage to
the bin Laden family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia. Mr. Bush makes speeches on behalf of Carlyle
Group and is senior adviser to its Asian Partners fund,
while Mr. Baker is its senior counselor. Mr. Carlucci
is the group's chairman.
http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-t...den-Carlyle.htm
Let none us EVER forget (like Bush Administration has chosen to,
apparently) that 15 of the 19 Sept 11 hijackers carried Saudi
passports and the funding for that attack came from a member of the
afore-mentioned Saudi family, Osama bin Laden.
Please note, I did not write this, but I wanted to post it..
[ October 12, 2003, 06:46 PM: Message edited by: p2insdca ]