Sen. Clinton Fires Back At Rice
N.Y. Democrat Defends Husband, Slams Secretary Rice Over Pre-9/11 Actions
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Play CBS Video Video The Politics Of Terror In an effort to counter critics who insist the Iraq war has made the country less safe, President Bush released more of a classified intelligence review to try to make his case. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Video True Believer Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talks to Katie Couric about her childhood experiences with homegrown terrorism and offers a rare glimpse into her personal life.
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Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., responded to recent criticism of her husband, former President Bill Clinton. (AP)
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied former President Clinton's claim that the Bush administration did not aggressively pursue al Qaeda before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
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Former President Bill Clinton responds to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. (AP/Fox News Sunday)
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Interactive Bin Laden & Al Qaeda Where al Qaeda operates, who's been caught, how they're financed and a timeline of attacks on Americans.
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Photo Essay Clinton's 8 Years The former president's travels abroad, and triumphs and troubles at home.
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Interactive Bush Presidency The president's agenda, plus facts, figures, major events and key personalities.
Sen. Clinton took aim at President Bush and Rice over their roles in 2001 before the attacks, part of a growing argument that ignited after former President Clinton gave a combative interview on "Fox News Sunday" in which he defended his efforts to kill Osama bin Laden.
"I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks," Hillary Clinton said Tuesday. "I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled 'Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States' he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team."
The senator was referring to a classified brief given to Mr. Bush in August 2001, one that Democrats say showed the Bush administration did not do enough to combat the growing threat from al Qaeda.
When the brief was delivered, Rice was the president's national security adviser, and Clinton's response was clearly designed to implicate her in the same criticisms that have been made of Mr. Bush.
Clinton's response came a day after Rice denied President Clinton's claim in the television interview that the Bush administration had not aggressively pursued al Qaeda before the attacks of 2001.
"What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years," Rice said during a meeting with editors and reporters at the New York Post. "The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false, and I think the 9/11 commission understood that."
Rice also took exception to Mr. Clinton's statement that he "left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy" for incoming officials when he left office.
"We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda," she told the newspaper, which is owned by News Corp., the company that owns Fox News Channel.
President Bush declined to comment on the controversy when asked about it Tuesday. "I don't have enough time to finger point," he said at the White House.
Mr. Clinton was angered during the television interview when asked by Fox News' Chris Wallace why he didn't do more to fight al Qaeda.
"That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Mr. Clinton said in the interview. "They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try."
The war of words has sparked a firestorm online, and led some to speculate that Mr. Clinton, in the Fox interview, was trying to demonstrate that the Democrats are tough on terror.Public Eye: The Clinton-Fox News Tussle
Calculated Strategy or Genuine Outrage? What Do You Think?
Sen. Joe Biden, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, doesn’t think that was his motivation.
"I think he's frustrated and angry," Biden, D-Del., told Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "I don't think he went onto the show to say I am going to help the Democrats. I think it was, look, I am going to make my case."
Asked about Sen. Hillary Clinton's comments, Biden said, "I don't think it will have any impact. She's also a powerful figure in our party, a very capable senator, but look, the Clintons are in a class by themselves. They are the best known people in the country, if not the world and anything they say or do is going to be hyped.
"They have a very long record dealing with those on the right. And, you know, I don't blame them for their frustration. I don't think it has much impact," Biden said.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Public Eye: The Clinton-Fox News Tussle
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See all 91 CommentsWould you rather have a $350k scandal over a private real-estate deal or a $300B (that's billion) scandal over a public real-estate deal masquaraded as a War on Terror with innocent people dying daily and private campaign contributors reaping extreme amounts of money?
Would you rather have a person show his lack of morals by failing his matrimonial vows with his wife or have a person show his TOTAL lack of morals by failing his oath of office (which states to Protect and Uphold the Constitution of the United States... it never says protect the American People) by conjuring lies and inuendos to strong-arm Congress into allowing him to arrange an invasion of a sovereign country.
Speaking of distractions, Pres Bush would possibly not go down in the history books as the biggest failure had he not had such distractions (web-of-lies) on his mind.
When it comes to the US Constitution, failure is not an option and that is exactly what Dubya has done... failed the cornerstone document of our democracy. Read it sometimes... I have a copy within hands reach nearly 24/7.
Sometimes I think both-sides of the aisle need to read that document (some probably for the first time)... and get rid of the NRCC and DRCC and all the rest of the political party PACs. They are not serving the Constitution or the People in any way, shape or form... they are only feeding "The Machine"...
RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/08/rice.transcript/
snip
The January 25, 2001, memo, recently released to the National Security Archive by the National Security Council, bears a declassification stamp of April 7, 2004, one day prior to Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission on April 8, 2004. Responding to claims that she ignored the al-Qaeda threat before September 11, Rice stated in a March 22, 2004 Washington Post op-ed, "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration."
Two days after Rice's March 22 op-ed, Clarke told the 9/11 Commission, "there's a lot of debate about whether it's a plan or a strategy or a series of options -- but all of the things we recommended back in January were those things on the table in September. They were done. They were done after September 11th. They were all done. I didn't really understand why they couldn't have been done in February."
snip
Clarke asked on several occasions for early principals meetings on these issues, and was frustrated that no early meeting was scheduled. No principals committee meetings on Al Qaida were held until September 4th, 2001.
snip
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/index.htm
Even if every Democrat voted no on the authorization to use military force against our terrorist threats, they would have lost that vote. Most Democrats, if not all, want to destroy terroism. Who wouldn't?
Then the war in Iraq was lumped in with the "war on terror", so the authorization was already in place for those who were advocates of attacking.
Having that said, many Dems did vote for the use of military force, and did so without knowing that the "truths" they were being fed by the MAJORITY were UNTRUE.
Lestb35, we are not on the same page.
Take off the GOP goggles.
They are blinding you to the facts.
What part of the Republican majority throughout our government don't you understand?
With the MAJORITIES the GOP/Republicans hold over Congress, they get to control everything!
Dems couldn't win a vote on anything without Republicans giving up votes, but the Republicans, with their majorities, can pass laws without a single vote from the Democrats side of the aisle. That means every law passed and every WAR resolution made in Congress, is mostly cooked up by the GOP/Republicans.
So now that you know, what do you think of your GOP/Republican friends now?
What makes them so special?
People are dead and I never accepted Vincent Fosters so called suicide. Look into it yourself and you will come away , like me, with more questions then answers. Go to Google, type in Whitewater scandal, get the facts and make up your own mind.
The Monica Lewinsky thing was just bad for the country because the man presented all of us as not having any morals. The whole world was saying "well, thats the Americans for you" I was not proud at that moment, it hert, and, although I forgave him, I never forgot.
Do the two above items drag down all the good he did? Probably not, but he could have been a much better President if they were not on his mind and the distraction they must have been.
How are we supposed to take the networks seriously?
BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/08/rice.transcript/
snip
The January 25, 2001, memo, recently released to the National Security Archive by the National Security Council, bears a declassification stamp of April 7, 2004, one day prior to Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission on April 8, 2004. Responding to claims that she ignored the al-Qaeda threat before September 11, Rice stated in a March 22, 2004 Washington Post op-ed, "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration."
Two days after Rice's March 22 op-ed, Clarke told the 9/11 Commission, "there's a lot of debate about whether it's a plan or a strategy or a series of options -- but all of the things we recommended back in January were those things on the table in September. They were done. They were done after September 11th. They were all done. I didn't really understand why they couldn't have been done in February."
snip
Clarke asked on several occasions for early principals meetings on these issues, and was frustrated that no early meeting was scheduled. No principals committee meetings on Al Qaida were held until September 4th, 2001.
snip
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/index.htm
As the days roll on the the Vote, we have to
know that the Disinformation will be coming to
us, and no Statements, seem to be able to be
called ' Ture Facts'. The tail is told and the
Truth is as Powerfull now as it always is. The
Dubble Speak, and the Anouncement to counter
an advantage, is to, come to the Absurd. This
is to stand in the Absud, where in order to be
asked for Explaination, you the questioner,
become the thing which you wish to Counter.
My Dear Friends, War fare in the world of the
Washington, crowd is not to be any thing which
will help the Problems we as a Nation have.
This is the a Process, to make Our Position,
less value able, and to create a Population,
not able to cope with the Un-speak-able, the
Absurd, and most of all the very Process used
to Control this Population.
So friends sit back and relax, enjoy the
Show. The fact that we are doing just that
and not what we should, is in the Number's.
You have to Vote, and when you do You take on
this response ability for the Choice. Chose.
Put Your hand to the Page, and sign the Document
and say I am going to put My Name on this Act of the Nation, To War again, and give up all
the Knowledge, understanding I had and render
my self, as I was a Human in the Stone age.
The Club, is a great way to keep your self
at a distance from all that suff you don't
like.
Yours Truly,
Michael Trager
TO LOOK AT THE FUTURE, LET US TURN TO PREDICTIONS MADE BY NOSTRADAMUS:
http://www.nostradamus101.com/prophecies/part4/P1/
LET US ALL UNITE...& PRAY FOR PRESIDENT BUSH.
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