Clinton defends record on terrorism
WASHINGTON – Former President Bill Clinton angrily defended his administration’s counterterrorism record during a Fox News interview to be aired today, while accusing “President Bush’s neocons” and other Republicans of ignoring Osama bin Laden until the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He had planned to discuss his climate change initiative during his appearance on Fox News, but turned combative after host Chris Wallace asked why he hadn’t “put bin Laden and al-Qaida out of business.”
Clinton shot back that “all the conservative Republicans” who now criticize him for inattention to bin Laden used to criticize him for overattention to bin Laden.
Clinton said he authorized the CIA to kill bin Laden, and even “contracted with people to kill him.” He also said he had a plan to attack Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban and hunt for bin Laden after the attack on the USS Cole, but the CIA and FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible, and Uzbekistan refused to allow the United States to set up a base. By contrast, Clinton said, the Bush administration’s neoconservatives “had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months,” believing he had been “too obsessed with bin Laden.”
“At least I tried,” Clinton said. “That’s the difference (between) me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, (Richard) Clarke, who got demoted.”
Clinton seemed particularly irked by Wallace’s reference to his decision to pull troops out of Somalia in 1993, a move bin Laden later described as a sign of American weakness. Clinton argued that even though many Republicans demanded a withdrawal from Somalia the day after the downing of a Black Hawk helicopter, he kept a U.S. presence there for six more months to ensure an orderly transition to United Nations forces.
Clinton attacked Wallace for failing to ask Bush administration officials why Clarke was demoted from his counterterrorism job: “Tell the truth, Chris. Tell the truth, Chris. Did you ever ask that?” He also complained that Wallace had lured him to the interview “under false pretenses,” but when Wallace offered to discuss his climate change project, he replied: “No, I want to finish this now.”
And so he did, attacking President Bush for focusing on Iraq instead of Afghanistan, urging Americans to read Clarke’s book, and accusing Republicans of “a serious disinformation campaign” to blame the Clinton administration for losing bin Laden.
“I got closer to killing him than anybody’s gotten since,” Clinton said. “And if I were still president, we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. … You got that little smirk on your face and you think you’re so clever, but I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried, and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it, but I did try, and I did everything I thought I responsibly could.”