Please help me refute this moran

[BayouBengal07]

This was actually published in my newspaper this morning:

"It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people like Brian Denzer (author of a letter he's responding to -ed) forget that President Bush had only been in office less than nine months prior to 9/11, while President Clinton held office for the previous eight years. Yet Mr. Denzer singles out President Bush for taking vacations and implies that if President Bush had not been on vacation, the 9/11 plot would have been uncovered.
That plot wasn't hatched in just the nine months of President Bush's time in office. Mr. Denzer credits President Clinton for "shaking the trees" to uncover the millenium plot, while in fact it was an alert Customs official who did the uncovering. And if President Clinton was "shaking the trees," how come all that shaking didn't uncover the 9/11 plot?
What about the Twin Tower bombing in 1993? And the bombing of the Cole in 1996? And the embassy bombings? All under the watch of President Clinton, whose administration did nothing in response to these acts of terrorism. I suspect the only "shaking" actually taking place was under the desk of the Oval Office with an intern."



Ok, so far I got:

1.) Clinton pursued and jailed the 1993 WTC bombers
2.) The USS Cole bombing was in 2000, not 1996 (although what DID Clinton do in response?)
3.) Clinton tried to pass strong counterterror legislation in the wake of the OK City bombings, but the Republican Congress shot him down.

I'll also have to dust off my copy of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them for more info, but I'd love to get your input.

[Richardo]

1. USS Cole was not a proven Al Qaeda op until after the election

...and there was some concern about engaging in military action so close to the election, and in the period between the election and inauguration. They felt that that would be more appropriately handled by the incoming administration.

And remember all the "wag the dog" BS being thrown around at the time.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Aug 6 2001 PDB: "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States"

'nuf said.

[shoelace414]

3. Clinton was in office for 43 days

before the first WTC bombing. how many times did you hear someone blame Bush 41 for that? obviously this person blames clinton

[Warpy]

4. you answered #1

#2 Clinton did begin a rigorous investigation into who was responsible for the Cole bombing, had discovered it was a Yemeni cell trained by OBL, and was on the way to locating them for trial. Bush canceled the investigation!!! It was "history," you see, and we know that after 4 years as a legacy student supposedly majoring in history, Bush was bored with that subject.

#3 The major piece of legislation that would have slowed, maybe stopped, the 9/11 terrorists was legislation shutting down the conduits for things like offshore money laundering. This legislation was killed in committee by Phil Gramm, who called if "fascist." Interestingly enough, these were the conduits used both by the 9/11 pilots and by Enron, busily laundering shareholder money. Gramm sacrificed 3000 American lives to save Enron. And nobody is calling him on it.

Tell your "friend" that he'd better wake up quickly if he wants to slow down or stop future attacks against the people of the US. Bush doesn't give a rip about stopping it. He thinks 9/11 was a godsend ("won the trifecta"), consolidating his power and giving him an excuse to rob the treasury. He won't try to prevent any other attacks with anything but hot air.

[flordehinojos]

5. My question, or maybe statement is ...

1) Osama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaida people never directly attacked the U.S. mainland while Bill Clinton was at the helm.

A.) Did Bin Laden know that Clinton would stop him?
B.) Due to the Bush-Bin Laden History was Bin Laden wanting to
target the Bushes and their administration and not the Clinton
administration?
C.) Why did the people charged with protecting our nation from any
attack not communicate with each other until after all four
suicide planes had hit their target? Why did they keep silence
when they could have stopped the attack after the first plane
hit the first WTC tower?
D.) Is there anything to the theory that the Bushes knew but let it
happen to create a sort of Reichstag atmosphere by which they
could garner support for the Patriot Act and all of the
subsequent dismantling of our Civil Liberties?

2) Bill Clinton TOLD George Bush that Al Qaida was A VERY SERIOUS THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES. Clinton says (and writes in his Biography) that Bush never showed any interest in the statement nor asked any questions. Was the man a MORAN who did not understand the seriousness of what Clinton was telling him?

3). Aren't presidents supposed to know enough, and have a qualified enough team, so that they can DIRECT the ship, OWN the direction it takes, AND RESPOND to any crises once they take office?

A). Is THERE SUCH A THING AS PRESIDENT IN TRAINING? AND IF THERE IS, SHOULD NOT HAVE BUSH CONSULTED WITH THE PREVIOUS PRESIDENT ABOUT ANY DOUBTS OR QUESTIONS HE MAY HAVE HAD REGARDING THE PDB OF 8/6/04.

IS ARROGANCE EVER AN EXCUSE TO BLAME OTHERS FOR ONE'S OWN SHORTCOMINGS?

GIVEN THE FACT THAT POPPY BUSH STILL MEDDLES HIS HANDS IN CIA AFFAIRS WAS POPPY BUSH IN ANY WAY INVOLVED WITH LETTING OUR REICHSTAG HAPPEN?

:smoke:

[Murdock]

6. Here's a Link to Clinton Anti Terror Measures..

http://www.mikehersh.com/Clinton_vs_Terror_Republicans_vs_Clinton.shtml

Enjoy...

[Brotherjohn]

7. Go to this link on MSNBC, scroll to the graphic "The Reach of Al Qaeda"...

... and see who was more effective at fighting terrorism. And that was even before Bush's own State department released their figures showing terrorism has increased dramatically.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4738424

Note the amount of thwarted terror attacks during the Clinton Administration, and the prevalence of red (successful) terror attacks during Bush's term.

Also, regarding the Cole, it happened VERY late in Clinton's term and is what set into motion the plans that Richard Clarke writes about, and that Bush ignored until after 9-11. In the words of a senior Bush Administration official, the proposals amounted to "everything we've done since 9/11."

(http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,333835,00.html)

[On the Road]

8. As Far as "Shaking the Trees" Goes

'And if President Clinton was "shaking the trees," how come all that shaking didn't uncover the 9/11 plot?'

Remember what the whistleblower said: Her efforts were actively squashed at higher levels. The Clinton adminstration had its ears open; at the upper levels, the Bush administration was putting its fingers in its ears.