Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 1883 Editor's Choice: 20
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pantanal
[Read the article: National Review's new tough guy, Mark Hemingway]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Clinton's record on every single aspect of national security is overwhelmingly superior to that of the dunce-in-chief.
Of that the evidence leaves no doubt. Interestingly enough, the evidence also shows that Republicans have been very supportive about 'terrorism' - until they found themselves a political tool.
Clinton vs. Terror, Republicans vs. Clinton
President Clinton led the fight against terrorism over strong opposition from Republicans in Congress and the pro-Republican Media. Here's a partial - yet incredibly long - list of accomplishments against terrorism for which the Clinton Administration gets almost no credit or even recognition. President Clinton:
-- sent legislation to Congress to TIGHTEN AIRPORT SECURITY. (Remember, this is before 911) The legislation was defeated by the Republicans because of opposition from the airlines.
-- sent legislation to Congress to allow for BETTER TRACKING OF TERRORIST FUNDING. It was defeated by Republicans in the Senate because of opposition from banking interests.
-- sent legislation to Congress to add tagents to explosives, to allow for BETTER TRACKING OF EXPLOSIVES USED BY TERRORISTS. It was defeated by the Republicans because of opposition from the NRA.
When Republicans couldn't prevent executive action, President Clinton:
-- Developed the nation's first anti-terrorism policy, and appointed first national coordinator.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up 12 U.S. jetliners simultaneously.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up UN Headquarters.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up FBI Headquarters.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
--Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up Boston airport.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up Lincoln and Holland Tunnels in NY.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the George Washington Bridge.
-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the US Embassy in Albania.
-- Tried to kill Osama bin Laden and disrupt Al Qaeda through preemptive strikes (efforts denounced by the G.O.P.).
-- Brought perpetrators of first World Trade Center bombing and CIA killings to justice.
-- Did not blame Bush I administration for first World Trade Center bombing even though it occurred 38 days after they had left office. Instead, worked hard, even obsessively -- and successfully -- to stop future terrorist attacks.
-- Named the Hart-Rudman commission to report on nature of terrorist threats and major steps to be taken to combat terrorism.
-- Tripled the budget of the FBI for counterterrorism and doubled overall funding for counterterrorism.
-- Detected and destroyed cells of Al Qaeda in over 20 countries
-- Created a national stockpile of drugs and vaccines including 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine.
-- Robert Oakley, Reagan Counterterrorism Czar says of Clinton's efforts "Overall, I give them very high marks" and "The only major criticism I have is the obsession with Osama"
-- Paul Bremer, Bush's Administrator of Iraq disagrees slightly with Robert Oakley saying he believed the Clinton Administration had "correctly focused on bin Laden. "
-- Barton Gellman of the Washington Post put it best, "By any measure available, Clinton left office having given greater priority to terrorism than any president before him" and was the "first administration to undertake a systematic anti-terrorist effort."
Here, in stark contrast, is part of the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism record before September 11, 2001:
-- Backed off Clinton administration's anti-terrorism efforts.
-- Shelved the Hart-Rudman report.
-- Appointed new anti-terrorism task force under Dick Cheney. Group did not even meet before 9/11.
-- Called for cuts in anti-terrorism efforts by the Department of Defense.
-- Gave no priority to anti-terrorism efforts by Justice Department.
-- Ignored warnings from Sandy Berger, Louis Freeh, George Tennant, Paul Bremer, and Richard Clarke about the urgency of terrorist threats.
-- Halted Predator drone tracking of Osama bin Laden.
-- Did nothing in wake of August 6 C.I.A. report to president saying Al Qaeda attack by hijack of an airliner almost certain.
-- Bush - knowing about the terrorists' plans to attack in America, warned that terrorists were in flight schools in the US - took a four week vacation.
-- By failing to order any coordination of intelligence data, missed opportunity to stop the 9/11 plot as Clinton-Gore had stopped the millennium plots.
-- Blamed President Clinton for 9/11.
http://www.mikehersh.com/printer_Clinton_vs_Terror_Republicans_vs_Clinton.shtml
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Anonymous Wednesday, September 5, 2007 07:25 PM
[Read the article: National Review's new tough guy, Mark Hemingway]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think there's any need to debunk your old right-wing lies another hundred times.
Just answer me one question:
Can you name one thing Bush did to try to prevent the 9/11 attacks?
Anything?
Anything at all?
Oh, please, he must have done something.
Didn't he even try?
You could just admit the Bush administration abetted the attacks by suppressing and denying the warnings.
There's a lot of evidence for that.
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Hornet Driver
[Read the article: National Review's new tough guy, Mark Hemingway]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think there's any need to debunk your old right-wing lies another hundred times.
Just answer me one question:
Can you name one thing Bush did to try to prevent the 9/11 attacks?
Anything?
Anything at all?
Oh, please, he must have done something.
Didn't he even try?
Take your time. We'll wait.
You could just admit the Bush administration abetted the attacks by suppressing and denying the warnings.
There's a lot of evidence for that, and all of it is admissible.
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Hornet Driver
[Read the article: National Review's new tough guy, Mark Hemingway]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Waiting!
By the way. What was the strange thing Bush did to try to prevent the 9/11 attacks?
Bush did nothing to try to prevent the 9/11 attacks.
That's what was so strange.
We do know that Bushites were highly motivated to allow the attacks to occur, and we know this from Bushites:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/04/addington/
Oh, and you're attempting to blame Bush's failures on 9/11 on Clinton. Clinton wasn't president on 9/11. Bush was. Clinton hadn't been in office for months. Perhaps you were unaware of that. Or perhaps you're just trying to obfuscate that simple fact.
Find yourself another straw man, neocon.