doc mercer

Measures taken by the Clinton administration to thwart international terrorism and bin Laden's network were historic, unprecedented and, sadly, not followed up on. Consider the steps offered by Clinton's 1996 omnibus anti-terror legislation, the pricetag for which stood at $1.097 billion. The following is a partial list of the initiatives offered by the Clinton anti-terrorism bill:

* Screen Checked Baggage: $91.1 million
* Screen Carry-On Baggage: $37.8 million
* Passenger Profiling: $10 million
* Screener Training: $5.3 million
* Screen Passengers (portals) and Document Scanners: $1 million
* Deploying Existing Technology to Inspect International Air Cargo: $31.4
million
* Provide Additional Air/Counterterrorism Security: $26.6 million
* Explosives Detection Training: $1.8 million
* Augment FAA Security Research: $20 million
* Customs Service: Explosives and Radiation Detection Equipment at Ports: $2.2 million
* Anti-Terrorism Assistance to Foreign Governments: $2 million
* Capacity to Collect and Assemble Explosives Data: $2.1 million
* Improve Domestic Intelligence: $38.9 million
* Critical Incident Response Teams for Post-Blast Deployment: $7.2 million
* Additional Security for Federal Facilities: $6.7 million
* Firefighter/Emergency Services Financial Assistance: $2.7 million
* Public Building and Museum Security: $7.3 million
* Improve Technology to Prevent Nuclear Smuggling: $8 million
* Critical Incident Response Facility: $2 million
* Counter-Terrorism Fund: $35 million
* Explosives Intelligence and Support Systems: $14.2 million
* Office of Emergency Preparedness: $5.8 million

The Clinton administration poured more than a billion dollars into counterterrorism activities across the entire spectrum of the intelligence community, into the protection of critical infrastructure, into massive federal stockpiling of antidotes and vaccines to prepare for a possible bioterror attack, into a reorganization of the intelligence community itself. 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.

Clinton's dire public warnings about the threat posed by terrorism, and the 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 news networks actually broadcast clips of the movie "Wag the Dog" while reporting on his warnings, to accentuate the idea that everything the administration said was contrived fakery.

In Congress, Clinton was thwarted by the reactionary conservative majority in virtually every attempt he made to pass legislation that would attack al-Qaeda and terrorism. His 1996 omnibus terror bill, which included many of the anti-terror measures we now take for granted after September 11, was withered almost to the point of uselessness by attacks from the right; Senators Jesse Helms and Trent Lott were openly dismissive of the threats Clinton spoke of.

Specifically, Clinton wanted to attack the financial underpinnings of the al-Qaeda network by banning American companies and individuals from dealing with foreign banks and financial institutions that al-Qaeda was using for its money-laundering operations. Texas Senator Phil Gramm, chairman of the Banking Committee, gutted the portions of Clinton's bill dealing with this matter, calling them "totalitarian."

In fact, Gramm was compelled to kill the bill because his most devoted patrons, the Enron Corporation and its criminal executives in Houston, were using those same terrorist financial networks to launder their own dirty money and rip off the Enron stockholders. It should also be noted that Gramm's wife, Wendy, sat on the Enron Board of Directors.

Just before departing office, Clinton managed to make a deal with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to have some twenty nations close tax havens used by al-Qaeda. His term ended before the deal was sealed, and the incoming Bush administration acted immediately to destroy the agreement.

Nik00117

I must say, Bush has just been owned.

And this is exactly the kinda action that will make cliton a succesful president after historians review his term.

bry623

All that great and wonderful stuff and only 7 1/2 months after he left, we get hit harder than we have in our history, now that's what I call being prepared. If he was so prepared, then 9/11 wouldn't have happened...... unless he with held info on purpose........

Nik00117

Or bush ignored his warning, because he wanted 9/11 to happen to give a excuse to get relected since he knew if he kept his pace up he'd be a one term wonder.

BUsh needed a war to win the election.

yustr

I gotta disagree with you Nik. Bush's agenda was set back in the mid-1990's by the guys controlling the puppet strings to this day. Read up on "The Project for The New American Century" HERE and you'll have a much better understanding of who and what Bush is all about. And who's really running things...

I don't think PNAC "wanted" 9-11 to happen but they sure jumped at the chance to exploit it to push their preestablished agenda. That's why they invaded Iraq when they knew there were no terrorists there. It's what he was supposed to do all along. Tying it to 9-11 was just smoke and mirrors to placate the comfortably numb and the sheep.

Kalim

Well done yustr

War on Terrorism ? - Evil Sheep?

- George Seldes, journalist:
" Everything most people have ever been taught about America has at least been based on a partial lie controlled by the press - going back to the country's beginning. It is bizarre to read this for the first time, but true. It portrays the truth of the hierarchy of the powers-that-currently-be on this planet, although still it continues to be grossly ignored in this current generation. "

- David Rockefeller:
" We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries. "

- Bush I in his State of the Union Address, January 29, 1991:
" NAFTA is a major stepping stone to the New World Order. "

- Bush addressing the General Assembly of the U.N., February 1,1992:
" The world can therefore seize the opportunity (the Persian Gulf crisis) to fulfill the long held promise of a New World Order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind. "

- Henry Kissinger when campaigning for the passage of NAFTA:
" Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order. "

- Mikhail Gorbachev, in an address at the United Nations, December 1988:
" In the example above, this would be as if a cancer would be allowed to spread and disable the functioning, anti-communist, creative mind of the West. Freedom and any remaining 'free market' economies would suffer a paralysis world-wide. "

- Adolph Hitler:
" The great masses of people will more easily fall victims to a big lie rather than a small one, especially if it is repeated over and over. "

- From The National Educator, K.M. Heaton:
" One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order. "

Bush addressing the General Assembly of the U.N., February 1, 1992:
- " The world can therefore seize the opportunity (the Persian Gulf crisis) to fulfill the long held promise of a New World Order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind. "

- George Bush Sr. in a speech to Congress on the AM of SEPTEMBER 11, 1990:
"[The war in Iraq is] a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times... a New World Order can emerge."

RedScott

Good call yustr.

Check out Dr. Paul dissecting the PNAC movement here.

Chode

At least one short memory at work here. Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies made it pretty clear that Wubbya chose to ignore the threat Bin Laden represented. Woodward's Plan of Attack helps make it clear that Iraq was a much higher item on the agenda from the time George took office.

Certainly, I'm sure there are some well reasoned and soundly researched Bushie rebuttals in print. Personally, I'd like to read 'em, if somebody would be so kind as to toss out a few.

Bry, I have to agree that it is really horrific how only 7 1/2 months of neglect for an immediate, well documented threat can damage national security. I suppose if 9/11 had happened "only" 2 years into Bush's term it would still be Clinton's fault. Strange, but in all the management jobs I've held, when you leave after thoroughly briefing your replacement, he's in charge and responsible. Too bad the phrase "Bush's responsibility" might be considered an oxymoron.