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tiesto14
Let The Music Play
Registered: Oct 2001
Location: The Palladium New York City
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| quote: | Originally posted by wolverine16
Nevertheless, his administration actually did take steps against terrorism. |
Are you serious?
- 1993 - World Trade Center Bombing - Treated as a 'regular crime' with no foreign terrorist involvement. However, Blind Islamic Radical Sheik is convicted for conspiracy. Bin Laden named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in 1996. The same year he is offered to the Clinton Admin by Sudan and refused saying they don't have enough evidence to convict him. Clinton never visits site.
- 1993 - 18 Soldiers killed in Somalia in attack planned by bin Laden. Clinton pulls troops out of Somalia. Bin Laden claims victory and gains status with his followers as one who is able to make the Great Satan run. Battle of Mogadishu The body of one American was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu as the Somalian hordes cheered. Clinton responded by calling off the hunt for Mohammed Farrah Anidid and ordering our troops home.
- 1995 - OKC Bombing. 168 dead. Domestic terrorists blamed. Evidence linking foreign terrorists overlooked by the Clinton admin.
- 1995 - Operation Bojinka plot to destroy 11 airliners on January 21, 1995.flights from Asia (Phillipines, Tokyo, Korea, Hong Kong) to the US. Philippines authorities say that Bojinka was developed by Al-Qaida operatives Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed while they were in Manila, Philippines. The aircraft would have blown up over the Pacific Ocean simultaneously. Several thousand would have perished, and air travel would have been shut down worldwide for days, if not weeks, US govs estimate the prospective death toll to be about 4,000. The plot was abandoned after an apartment fire occurred in Manila. All evidence was found Yousef got 240 years along with his life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. Clinton did nothing.
- 1996 - TWA Flight 800. 230 dead. Mechanical Failure blamed. Hundreds of eyewitnesses ignored as they claim they saw a surface to air missile launch and destroy the plane. Clinton issues Executive Order 13039 to keep all involved in recovery process silent. Pilots Union claims FAA report on mechanical failure bogus. FBI tells witnesses what they saw was a single "fireworks"
- 1996 - Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 and injured 200 military personnel. Clinton did nothing.
- 1996 - Sudan offer to turn over bin Laden, Clinton blows off offer saying they don't have enough evidence to indict bin Laden.
- 1997 - UNOCAL brought members of the Taliban to the States to wine and dine them, show them their U.S. offices and take them to Washington to meet with the Clinton State Department. The fact they are harboring a wanted terrorist, bin Laden, is ignored.
- 1997 - Iraq refuses UN weapons inspectors to do their jobs, threatened to shoot down a US U2 spy plane. Clinton does nothing.
- 1998 - Aug 7 Bombing of the US embassies in Africa (Kenya/Tanzania) killed 224 injured 5,000, Clinton does nothing.
- 1998 - bin Laden issued his fatwa urging his followers to target the US and all Americans saying, "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able." War DECLARED on America..Clinton does NOTHING...
- 2000 - Bombing of the USS Cole 17 sailors killed bin Laden and the al Qaeda are the suspects. Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing. Clinton orders the remains of TWA Flight 800 destroyed ending any possible further investigation into the downing.
- 2001 - 9.11 attacks, Bush came into office telling his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, he was "tired of swatting flies" -he wanted to eliminate al Qaeda. 3,000 Americans were murdered on 9.11. Since then, Bush has won 2 wars against countries that harbored Muslim fanatics, captured Hussein, immobilized bin Laden, destroyed al Qaeda's base, disarmed Libya and began to create the only functioning democracy in the Middle East other than Israel. Democrats opposed it all - except their phony support for war with Afghanistan, and now they claim to be outraged that in the months before 9-11, Bush did not do everything Democrats opposed doing after 9-11. What a surprise...Bush did all this...WHAT THE HELL DID CLINTON DO? NOTHING.
Clinton greatest achievement was an act of brilliant passivity: And he takes personal credit for all the jobs created - a ridiculous assertion to make about the decade of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. His great failing was foreign policy. Clinton let a decade of unprecedented American prosperity and power go without doing anything about al Qaeda, Afghanistan or Iraq.
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 Jan-14-2005 22:16 
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MisterOpus1
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Kansas City
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| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
the uranium purchase was a fact. |
You must know something that our intelligence officals do not. You care to cite specifically any intelligence info. pertaining to the purchase of uranium by Iraq from Niger?
From all intelligence reports I've read (specifically the Senate Intelligence and 9/11 Commission report), no purchase was made. A meeting had occurred between the two countries, but nothing came about that meeting in any way.
| quote: | Al Gore was convinced WMD's existed |
True, neither he nor Clinton decided to cherry-pick intelligence to bolster their case for an all-out invasion and post-war nation building afterwards. And yes, cherry-pickin' did occur:
| quote: | The Pentagon creates the Office of Special Plans "in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believed to be true-that Saddam Hussein had close ties to Al Qaeda, and that Iraq had an enormous arsenal of chemical, biological, and possibly even nuclear weapons that threatened the region and, potentially, the United States…The rising influence of the Office of Special Plans was accompanied by a decline in the influence of the C.I.A. and the D.I.A. bringing about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community." The office, hand-picked by the Administration, specifically "cherry-picked intelligence that supported its pre-existing position and ignoring all the rest" while officials deliberately "bypassed the government's customary procedures for vetting intelligence."
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2004/01/pollack.htm
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact |
| quote: | (snip):
"The review, prepared for President Bush in October 2002, summarized the findings of a classified, 90-page National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq's illicit weapons. Congressional officials said that notes taken by Senate staffers who were permitted to review the document show that it eliminated references to dissent within the government about the National Intelligence Estimate's conclusions.
"In determining what the president was told about the contents of the N.I.E. dealing with Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, qualifiers and all, there is nothing clearer than this single page," Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in a 10-page "additional view" that was published as an addendum to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Friday.
A separate white paper summarizing the National Intelligence Estimate was made public in October 2002. The Senate report criticized the white paper as having "misrepresented'' what the Senate committee described as a "more carefully worded assessment" in the classified intelligence estimate. For example, the white paper excluded information found in the National Intelligence Estimate, like the names of intelligence agencies that had dissented from some of the findings, most importantly on Iraq's nuclear weapons program. That approach, the Senate committee said, "provided readers with an incomplete picture of the nature and extent of the debate within the intelligence community regarding these issues."
Among the specific dissents excluded from the public white paper on Iraq's weapons was the view of the State Department's intelligence branch, spelled out in the classified version of the document, that Iraq's importation of aluminum tubes could not be conclusively tied to a continuing nuclear weapons program, as other intelligence agencies asserted. Also left out of the white paper was the view of Air Force intelligence that pilotless aerial vehicles being built by Iraq, seen by other intelligence agencies as designed to deliver chemical or biological weapons, were not suited for that purpose."
(/snip)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/p...print&position= |
Logically, one would believe Gore and Clinton had thought Saddam was well-enough contained. Well, guess who else thought Saddam was contained prior to invasion?:
| quote: | Clinton lied under oath to Congress.
get your facts straight. |
It's amazing how much money, some $65 million, was spent just to prove that Clinton lied about his sexual affairs in office. In hindsight, I really don't know which is more despicable - my former president lying about getting a blowjob on my taxpaying bill, or you ridiculous Conservatives making a fucking witchhunt and spending that much of my money on the whole debacle.
Oh yeah, Condoleeeeza Rice lied too. And our newly elect Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff also lied under oath:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/p...html?oref=login
Do they count?
___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
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Jan-14-2005 22:27 
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wolverine16
Pilgrim Pete
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Chicago, USA
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| quote: | Originally posted by tiesto14
Are you serious?
- 1993 - World Trade Center Bombing - Treated as a 'regular crime' with no foreign terrorist involvement. However, Blind Islamic Radical Sheik is convicted for conspiracy. Bin Laden named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in 1996. The same year he is offered to the Clinton Admin by Sudan and refused saying they don't have enough evidence to convict him. Clinton never visits site.
- 1993 - 18 Soldiers killed in Somalia in attack planned by bin Laden. Clinton pulls troops out of Somalia. Bin Laden claims victory and gains status with his followers as one who is able to make the Great Satan run. Battle of Mogadishu The body of one American was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu as the Somalian hordes cheered. Clinton responded by calling off the hunt for Mohammed Farrah Anidid and ordering our troops home.
- 1995 - OKC Bombing. 168 dead. Domestic terrorists blamed. Evidence linking foreign terrorists overlooked by the Clinton admin.
- 1995 - Operation Bojinka plot to destroy 11 airliners on January 21, 1995.flights from Asia (Phillipines, Tokyo, Korea, Hong Kong) to the US. Philippines authorities say that Bojinka was developed by Al-Qaida operatives Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed while they were in Manila, Philippines. The aircraft would have blown up over the Pacific Ocean simultaneously. Several thousand would have perished, and air travel would have been shut down worldwide for days, if not weeks, US govs estimate the prospective death toll to be about 4,000. The plot was abandoned after an apartment fire occurred in Manila. All evidence was found Yousef got 240 years along with his life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. Clinton did nothing.
- 1996 - TWA Flight 800. 230 dead. Mechanical Failure blamed. Hundreds of eyewitnesses ignored as they claim they saw a surface to air missile launch and destroy the plane. Clinton issues Executive Order 13039 to keep all involved in recovery process silent. Pilots Union claims FAA report on mechanical failure bogus. FBI tells witnesses what they saw was a single "fireworks"
- 1996 - Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 and injured 200 military personnel. Clinton did nothing.
- 1996 - Sudan offer to turn over bin Laden, Clinton blows off offer saying they don't have enough evidence to indict bin Laden.
- 1997 - UNOCAL brought members of the Taliban to the States to wine and dine them, show them their U.S. offices and take them to Washington to meet with the Clinton State Department. The fact they are harboring a wanted terrorist, bin Laden, is ignored.
- 1997 - Iraq refuses UN weapons inspectors to do their jobs, threatened to shoot down a US U2 spy plane. Clinton does nothing.
- 1998 - Aug 7 Bombing of the US embassies in Africa (Kenya/Tanzania) killed 224 injured 5,000, Clinton does nothing.
- 1998 - bin Laden issued his fatwa urging his followers to target the US and all Americans saying, "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able." War DECLARED on America..Clinton does NOTHING...
- 2000 - Bombing of the USS Cole 17 sailors killed bin Laden and the al Qaeda are the suspects. Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing. Clinton orders the remains of TWA Flight 800 destroyed ending any possible further investigation into the downing.
- 2001 - 9.11 attacks, Bush came into office telling his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, he was "tired of swatting flies" -he wanted to eliminate al Qaeda. 3,000 Americans were murdered on 9.11. Since then, Bush has won 2 wars against countries that harbored Muslim fanatics, captured Hussein, immobilized bin Laden, destroyed al Qaeda's base, disarmed Libya and began to create the only functioning democracy in the Middle East other than Israel. Democrats opposed it all - except their phony support for war with Afghanistan, and now they claim to be outraged that in the months before 9-11, Bush did not do everything Democrats opposed doing after 9-11. What a surprise...Bush did all this...WHAT THE HELL DID CLINTON DO? NOTHING.
Clinton greatest achievement was an act of brilliant passivity: And he takes personal credit for all the jobs created - a ridiculous assertion to make about the decade of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. His great failing was foreign policy. Clinton let a decade of unprecedented American prosperity and power go without doing anything about al Qaeda, Afghanistan or Iraq. |
What's the source on that? I remember Ann Coulter reciting much of that word for word. It's rather skewed and even suggests a conspiracy theory about the Oklahoma City Bombings as if Timothy McVeigh wasn't behind it. It also fails to mention the foiling of the Millenium bomb plot or Clinton's Homeland Security commission, which are unquestioned facts. And also you can credit the first world trade center bombing to Bush's dad if we're blaming Clinton for something that happend early in W.'s term. Otherwise, excatly what did Bush do that was so great compared to "swatting flies" in that gap between his election and 9/11? He just made that bold statement and then only held 1 cabinet meeting when terrorism and Al Qaeda was even mentioned?
Back to Iraq: HERE'S some info on why Karl Rove thought Iraq was a good idea early on.
___________________
Download My Spring '08 Mix Here
Thurs May 15: Influence @ Tini Martini w/ Kris B. vs. Nosmo, Rikler & Mike Palmeri
Thurs June 5: Under the Influence @ Tini Martini w/Mathias Matthew, Jack Kim & more TBA
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Jan-14-2005 22:42
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MisterOpus1
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Kansas City
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I'll get to Tiesto14's claims of "Clinton did nothing" sometime this weekend. It amazes me how he can blame Clinton for all the wrongdoings occurred during the immediate post-cold War time. I suppose Clinton could be blamed for certain things such as underfunding intelligence and the military, but then again he was only following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Bush Sr. who cut funding much more drastically then Clinton did in 4 yrs. compared to his 8.
Oh, the 1993 WTC occured on Bush Sr's watch - and all men except 1 were caught and tried. How that is Clinton's fault is a bit of a stretch for you to make off the top of my head.
And then you blame the OK city bombing on Clinton's terrorist policy failures, and overlooking possible terrorist links? Well I suppose he could do so if he wanted to simply throw away the hefty weight of evidence pointing to the guy we just executed.
And the 1996 TWA "cover-up"? I didn't realize you wore my brand of tin-foil hats? It doesn't fit you conservatives very well.
One could easily state Clinton's accomplishments on terrorism in a positive light:
-Terrorists of 1993 WTC bombing caught and punished.
-Terrorists of 1995 OK city bombing caught and punished.
-Terrorists of 1996 Khobar Towars bombing caught and punished.
-Terrorists of 1998 Embassy bombings caught and punished.
-Signed Anti-terrorism legislation.
-Bombed Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.
-Thwarted attempt to blow up Holland tunnel.
-Thwarted attempt to blow up Lincoln Tunnel
-Thwarted attempt on life of Pope.
-Thwarted attempt to blow up LAX.
-Thwarted two attempts to plant bombs in cites in the Northeast and Northwest US.
-Thwarted al-Qaida’s efforts to establish a militant Islamist state in Bosnia.
-Signed airport security bill.
-Ordered Taliban money frozen.
See, fun huh?
Now you don't mind if I just happen to turn the tables on what Bush neglected to do prior to 9/11, do you?:
| quote: | 1999 –EXPLICIT WARNING THAT AL QAEDA HAD PLANS TO FLY AIRPLANES INTO BUILDINGS: A 1999 report prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council "warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon." The report specifically said, "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives…into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House." In response to the ominous warnings, the New York Times reports "under Janet Reno, the Justice Department's counterterrorism budget increased 13.6% in the fiscal year 1999, 7.1% in 2000 and 22.7% in 2001." During the Clinton Administration "the federal government had on several earlier occasions taken elaborate, secret measures to protect special events from just such an attack." [Source: CBS, 5/17/02; NY Times, 2/28/02; WSJ, 4/1/04]
EARLY 2001 – MAJOR SURGE IN AL QAEDA ACTIVITY: "In late spring 2001, a sudden surge in activity began among known Al Qaeda operatives…a reporter from Middle East Broadcasting visited bin Laden at a camp in Afghanistan and noted that his supporters were preparing for attacks against American 'interests.'"[Source: The Age of Sacred Terror, 2003]
EARLY 2001 – WHITE HOUSE DEPARTS FROM EFFORTS TO TRACK TERRORIST MONEY: The new Bush Treasury Department "disapproved of the Clinton Administration's approach to money laundering issues, which had been an important part of the drive to cut off the money flow to bin Laden." Specifically, the Bush Administration opposed Clinton Administration-backed efforts by the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that targeted countries with "loose banking regulations" being abused by terrorist financiers. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration provided "no funding for the new National Terrorist Asset Tracking Center." [Source: The Age of Sacred Terror, 2003]
APRIL 30, 2001 - BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAYS BIN LADEN FOCUS WAS "MISTAKE": The Bush Administration released the government's annual report on terrorism, but unlike previous Administrations, it decided to specifically omit an "extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. A senior State Department official told CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden." Similarly, AP reported in 2002 that the Bush Administration's "national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions." [Source: CNN, 4/30/01; AP, 6/29/01]
JULY 2001 –ANOTHER WARNING THAT AL QAEDA PLANNED TO USE PLANES AS MISSILES: The LA Times reported that U.S. and Italian officials were warned in July 2001 that "Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill President Bush and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations." [Source: LA Times, 9/27/01]
JULY 2001 – ASHCROFT STOPS FLYING COMMERCIAL BECAUSE OF "THREAT ASSESSMENT": Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines and instead began "traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines" because of "what the Justice Department called a 'threat assessment.'" That "threat assessment" has never been made public. [Source: CBS, 7/26/01]
AUGUST 2001 - PRESIDENT PERSONALLY WARNED OF AL QAEDA AIRPLANE PLOT: ABC News reported, Bush Administration "officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes." Dateline NBC reported that on August 6, 2001, the President personally "received a one-and-a-half page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American airplane." [Source: ABC News, 5/16/02; NBC, 9/10/02]
SEPTEMBER 2001 - PENTAGON OFFICIALS CHANGE FLIGHTS ON 9/11 BECAUSE OF SECURITY: Newsweek reported that on 9/10/01 "a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns." Newsweek also reported "that as many as 10 to 12 warnings" were issued before 9/11, and "more than two of the warnings specifically mentioned the possibility of hijackings." [Source: Newsweek, 9/24/01]
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 – RICE SPEECH ON SECURITY GOALS HAS NO MENTION OF TERRORISM: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to give a speech outlining "the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday." But instead of focusing on the new challenges, Rice instead was set to address Cold War-type challenges by "promoting missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy." The address "contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups." [Source: Wash Post, 4/1/04]
Beore 9/11: Reducing Counter-Terrorism
The federal government was rapidly increasing its counter-terrorism efforts at the time President Bush took office. As the New York Times reported, Attorney General Janet Reno ended her tenure as "perhaps the strongest advocate" of counterterrorism spending. Similarly, Newsweek and the Washington Post reported National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was "totally preoccupied" with the prospect of a domestic terror attack, telling his replacement that they need to be "spending more time on this issue" than on any other. The focus changed dramatically when the Bush Administration took office.
ADMINISTRATION SHIFTED LAW ENFORCEMENT'S FOCUS OFF OF COUNTER-TERRORISM: The New York Times reported that in the lead-up to 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft "said fighting terrorism was a top priority of his agency," yet upon entering office, "he identified more than a dozen other objectives for greater emphasis within the Justice Department before the attacks." On Aug. 9, the Administration distributed a strategic plan to the Justice Department highlighting its new goals from a list of Clinton Administration goals. The item that referred to intelligence and investigation of terrorists was left un-highlighted. [Source: NY Times, 2/28/02]
ASHCROFT OVERRULED EFFORTS FOCUSED ON COUNTER-TERROR: Newsweek reported that "in the spring of 2001, the attorney general had an extraordinary confrontation with the then FBI Director Louis Freeh at an annual meeting of special agents." The two talked before appearing, and Ashcroft laid out his priorities for Freeh: "basically violent crime and drugs," recalls one participant. Freeh replied bluntly that those were not his priorities, and began to talk about terror and counterterrorism. "Ashcroft didn't want to hear about it," says a former senior law-enforcement official." [Source: Newsweek, 5/27/02]
BUSH ADMINISTRATION TERMINATED PROGRAM THAT TRACKED AL QAEDA: "In the months before 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called 'Catcher's Mitt' to monitor Al Qaeda suspects in the United States." [Source: Newsweek, 3/21/04]
SO LITTLE CONCERN FOR COUNTER-TERROR THAT A WHITE HOUSE TASK FORCE NEVER MET: In January of 2001, the U.S. Government's bipartisan Commission on National Security gave the White House a report that warned of an attack on the homeland and urged the new Administration to implement its specific "recommendations to prevent acts of domestic terrorism. The Administration rejected the Commission's report, "preferring to put aside the recommendations." Instead, the Administration waited until May of 2001 to appoint Vice President Cheney to head a task force "to combat terrorist attacks on the United States." But according to the Washington Post, neither "Cheney's review nor Bush's took place." Meanwhile, Newsweek reported that when senators "sent a copy of draft legislation on counterterrorism and homeland defense to Cheney's office on July 20," they were told by Cheney's top aide "that it might be another six months before he would be able to review the material." [Source: Salon, 9/12/04; White House release, 5/8/01; Washington Post, 1/20/02; Newsweek, 5/27/02]
WHITE HOUSE BEGAN EFFORT TO CUT COUNTER-TERRORISM PROGRAMS: The New York Times reported that in its final 2003 budget request, the Administration "called for spending increases in 68 programs, none of which directly involved counterterrorism...In his Sept. 10 submission to the budget office, Ashcroft did not endorse FBI requests for $58 million for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators. Ashcroft proposed a $65 million cut for a program that gives states and localities counterterrorism grants for equipment, including radios and decontamination suits and training." By comparison, "Under Janet Reno, the department's counterterrorism budget increased 13.6% in the fiscal year 1999, 7.1% in 2000 and 22.7% in 2001." [Source: NY Times, 2/28/02]
ADMINISTRATION LEFT "GAPS" IN MILITARY'S REQUEST FOR COUNTER-TERROR FUNDS: The Washington Post reported that in its first budget, the White House left "gaps" between "what military commanders said they needed to combat terrorists and what they got." Newsweek noted that, among other things, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld elected not to re-launch a Predator drone that had been tracking bin Laden. When the Senate Armed Services Committee tried to fill those gaps, "Rumsfeld said he would recommend a veto" on September 9. [Source: Washington Post, 1/20/02; Newsweek, 5/27/02; NY Times, 2/28/02]
ADMINISTRATION STOPPED PREDATOR FLIGHTS TRACKING AL QAEDA IN AFGHANISTAN: AP reported "though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times in late 2000, the Bush administration did not fly the unmanned planes over Afghanistan during its first eight months." Additionally, "the military successfully tested an armed Predator throughout the first half of 2001" but the White House "failed to resolve a debate over whether the CIA or Pentagon should operate the armed Predators" and the armed Predator never got off the ground before 9/11. [Source: AP, 6/25/03]
WHILE CUTTING COUNTER-TERROR, THE WHITE HOUSE SENT FUNDING TO THE TALIBAN: At the same time the White House was trying to cut counter-terrorism funding, it gave "$43 million in drought aid to Afghanistan after the Taliban began a campaign against poppy growers." As the 5/29/01 edition of Newsday noted, the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan "are a decidedly odd choice for an outright gift of $43 million from the Bush Administration. This is the same government against which the United Nation imposes sanctions, at the behest of the United States, for refusing to turn over the terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden." [Washington Post, 9/23/01; Newsday, 5/29/01] |
-and after 9/11:
| quote: | After 9/11: White House Refuses to Protect the Homeland
For months after 9/11, the Bush Administration opposed the creation of a Department of Homeland Security to better coordinate efforts to protect America. Now, even after the White House was forced to support the proposal, it has continued to drastically underfund basic homeland security, with many experts saying the department's budget is at least $14 billion short of what it needs. The White House itself virtually acknowledged its negligence: the New York Times reported in 2003 the Administration admitted that it is "not providing enough money to protect against terrorist attacks on American soil" and that "domestic counterterrorism programs have been shortchanged." As a result, a recent GAO report concludes the White House is not adequately "addressing all of the elements of resources, investments and risk management" to protect America.
UNDERFUNDING BORDER SECURITY: Because of underfunding, the Justice Department reported in March of 2004 "the United States remains vulnerable to infiltration by known criminals and terrorists because of chronic delays in making millions of FBI fingerprints available to the Border Patrol." The nation is still about four years away from an integrated system between the FBI and Border Patrol that would "allow for a quick, automated check of fingerprints for the roughly 1 million illegal immigrants who are caught each year...That means thousands who could be prosecuted for crimes or detained as security risks will be simply returned to their home countries, free to try to re-enter the United States, the report found." [Source: AP, 3/4/04]
UNDERFUNDING PORT SECURITY: The San Antonio Express-News noted critics point out that the White House "has skirted port security in budget requests, including a plea by the Coast Guard for $1 billion this year to secure ports on American coasts." Currently, there are "fewer than 100 inspectors assigned to overseas ports" to inspect cargo containers headed to the U.S. That means that "of the 7 million cargo containers that arrive at US ports yearly, only a small percentage have been physically or mechanically inspected." Experts say these containers can be "shipped into a U.S. port with virtually no oversight, and remain a huge risk for importation of biological and radiological weapons." [Source: San Antonio Express-News, 4/1/03; Knight-Ridder, 2/29/04]
UNDERFUNDING AVIATION SECURITY: According to the Century Foundation, "The Transportation Security Administration estimates there is a 35% to 65% chance that terrorists are planning to place a bomb in the cargo of a U.S. passenger plane. Yet, only about 5% of air cargo is screened, even if it is transported on passenger planes." Furthermore, the measures controlling general civil aviation continue to be voluntary and it remains unclear which ones have been instituted and by whom. [Source: The Century Foundation]
UNDERFUNDING FIRST RESPONDERS: In a landmark report, former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-NH) said "the United States is drastically underfunding local emergency responders and remains dangerously unprepared to handle a catastrophic attack on American soil, particularly one involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-impact conventional weapons. If the nation does not take immediate steps to better identify and address the urgent needs of emergency responders, the next terrorist incident could be even more devastating than 9/11." The White House has refused to address this problem: less than a year after 9/11 the President threatened to veto additional first responder funding. And just this year, top police and firefighters organizations noted that the Administration proposed "a reduction of $1.57 billion, or 31.9%" in funding for first responders in 2005 alone. [Source: Rudman Report, 6/29/03; Washington Times, 3/4/04]
CUTTING FUNDING TO SECURE LOOSE WMD: Despite President Bush's rhetorical support for non-proliferation efforts, the Center for Defense Information reports the Administration has requested a $41.6 million (9.3%) decrease in funding for the Pentagon's Cooperative Threat Reduction program – the government's chief program to secure loose nuclear material that could be obtained by terrorists. The Administration also proposes in 2005 to cut $21 million (8%) out of Energy Department programs aimed at securing nuclear material in Russia. [Source: CDI, 2/20/04; Arms Control Association, 3/04]
IGNORING RAIL SECURITY: With concerns raised after the Madrid train attack, Asa Hutchinson, the Bush Administration's own Undersecretary for Homeland Security, said much can be done to improve security in the U.S. rail system. However, he also said that "we have to recognize that it has been historically an open system, very difficult to add layers of security." [Source: USA Today, 5/16/04]
IGNORING POSTAL SECURITY: Despite anthrax and ricin attacks through the mail, Congressional Quarterly reported that "the president's $37 million budget request in 2005 for the U.S. Postal Service does not include $779 million for biodetection technology the agency had sought to safeguard against anthrax-like attacks." [Source: Congressional Quarterly, 2/2/04]
http://www.americanprogress.org/sit...JRJ8OVF&b=43926 |
This is grand ol' fun!
Oops, I guess I addressed it now. Sorry.
___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
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Jan-14-2005 22:44
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Q5echo
asymetrical scepticism
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: Dallas
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| quote: | Originally posted by MisterOpus1
You must know something that our intelligence officals do not. You care to cite specifically any intelligence info. pertaining to the purchase of uranium by Iraq from Niger?
From all intelligence reports I've read (specifically the Senate Intelligence and 9/11 Commission report), no purchase was made. A meeting had occurred between the two countries, but nothing came about that meeting in any way.
True, neither he nor Clinton decided to cherry-pick intelligence to bolster their case for an all-out invasion and post-war nation building afterwards. And yes, cherry-pickin' did occur:
Logically, one would believe Gore and Clinton had thought Saddam was well-enough contained. Well, guess who else thought Saddam was contained prior to invasion?:
It's amazing how much money, some $65 million, was spent just to prove that Clinton lied about his sexual affairs in office. In hindsight, I really don't know which is more despicable - my former president lying about getting a blowjob on my taxpaying bill, or you ridiculous Conservatives making a fucking witchhunt and spending that much of my money on the whole debacle.
Oh yeah, Condoleeeeza Rice lied too. And our newly elect Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff also lied under oath:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/p...html?oref=login
Do they count? |
don't fuckin start with me dude. i didn't want to be here in the first place. it's friday, and i have chicken wings to eat with my beer, not red herring
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Jan-14-2005 22:51
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