john kerry accuses bush of letting bin laden go free at tora bora [View All]

[Gato Moteado]

if you saw kerry's appearance on hardball this week you undoubtedly saw tweety repeatedly try to cut kerry off at the end of the program after an audience member's question prompted a rant by the senator aimed at bush for knowingly letting bin laden and 1000 al qaeda members get away after 911. this is an incredible charge that, up until that point on msnbc, i had only seen in the alternative press. here's the link to the transcripts http://www.msnbc.com/news/983074.asp

the exchange i am talking about is this:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Senator, my name is Andy Lipinski (ph), I am a senior at Harvard College, and you said if elected president, you’d be more diplomatic and work through the United Nations, but the people who flew planes into our buildings on September 11, the only language they understand is force. So my question to you is, should we be speaking with these people, or should we just be smoking them out of their caves like President Bush says?
(APPLAUSE)
KERRY: Well, if the president had smoked them out of their caves when he had a chance, we’d be a lot better off. But he failed at Tora Bora, when he had 1,000 people, all al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden, in the mountains and he didn’t do it.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you. We’re out of time.
KERRY: My answer is, you have to do both.
MATTHEWS: OK, Senator, thank you very much.
KERRY: Btu you have to do it smart.
MATTHEWS: Thank you very much. It’s great to have you. Senator John Kerry. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
END