Bush or Clinton to blame for 9/11 ? Why?

[kentuck]

Listening to Repub callers on C-SPAN this AM, one would think that Bill Clinton was the CiC on 9/11? He should have wiped out all the terrorists while he was in office, they say. He should have captured Osama bin Laden. Will George W Bush wipe out all the terrorists while he is in office? It's doubtful that he will even wipe out the one terrorist that attacked us, Osama bin Laden. So, who's to blame?

If we are to take the word of this Administration, no one is to blame. At least, no one has been held accountable. They did not wish to have a 9/11 commission to investigate. It happened. Just forget about placing any responsibility. It's not important.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. What the heck are they talking about when they say that Clinton

had bin Laden and let him get away?

[JHB]

9. It's the long-debunked claim that Sudan offered Osama to BC...

..."on a silver platter" back in '96, and Clinton turned them down.

The story originated with swindler (and FOX news "expert") Mansoor Ijaz (http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Mansoor_Ijaz&printable=yes), who's from the "Ahmad Chalabi School of Better Business Through Political Connections"

Among the problems with the claim: the Sudanese government offered him to the Saudis, not us, and also this was before bin Laden was actually wanted by US authorities.

[BlueEyedSon]

13. thx

[NewJeffCT]

19. It's long debunked - but

The debunking still hasn't made it in to the mainstream. Most have no idea it's not true. The RW has repeated the meme "Clinton was offered bin Laden's head on a platter" so many times that it has taken on a grain of truth.

Nobody remembers Mondale's response to Reagan saying that he would not make an issue of his opponent's youth & inexperience.

[shaolinmonkey]

2. In this new "ownership" society, I would say that Bush owns this

tragedy. He was asleep at the stick. I seem to remember Clinton actually working on vacation, actually reading newspapers and, oh yeah, foiling a bunch of millenium plots.

[apnu]

8. You're right, but I'd like to add...

... the inherent hypocrisy of our "ownership" society. In this society we see to it that everybody else "owns it" but we don't. And so this GOP goop is all about transferring "ownership" to a safe target. At least safe by GOP party line standards.

Its the blame game. Nobody wants to take responsibility, and as much as the GOP'ers bitch about frivolous lawsuits and accountability, the plain fact is that they do the blame game much more than we on the left do.

As my grandmother said: "When you point your finger at someone else you are also pointing 3 back at yourself."

The more the GOP blames Clinton the more they implicate themselves. What a bunch of silly pachyderms.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. And suppose that the first bombing

that happened just (7) seven IIIIIII, VII weeks or so into Clinton's term.. had brought the towers DOWN and started the ENTIRE city on fire.

Would we be as fired up to blame it on George I??? I doubt it, but then some repubs don't think all that much.

And I suppose Clinton created all the anti-American sentiment in the world.... you might want to go back a few terms for that one.... just a thought you repug lurkers.....

I see the FBI is visiting political activists homes... how quaint. If a dem were in office right now... they would be visiting an entirely different group of people.... can you see the irony in this??? The hypocrisy?? Ahhhhh the humanity!!!!

[CrispyQ]

4. Bush is to blame . . .

Who knows what Clinton could have done if the repug slim machine hadn't purposely distracted him & our entire political system with the Monica thing. That they were able to make that a national issue was an travesty & embarrassment. It was clearly only an issue between Bill & Hillary.

Bush is to blame for 9/11. He had warnings from the Clinton admin, ignored them, & sought only opinions that reinforced his desire to go after Hussein/Iraq.

[gratuitous]

5. The sentry on duty is to blame

See, Clinton's shift ended at noon on January 20, 2001. Lil George was mincing around in his little sentry outfit for the next eight months. So, when the bad guys snuck in and attacked, it was Lil George who was supposed to be on duty, but he was down in Texas, taking a well-earned month off after a grueling six months on the job.

[billybob537]

6. Yes I heard the Idiot you refer to

Clinton wanted to attack Afghanistan, but the PUKES in congress wouldn't let him. If these RW morans had a fact never mind all the facts they wouldn't be wing nuts at all. It's much easier for them to hate than to find the facts. Simpler to follow convenient LIES that let you blame others for your misfortune. The republican party sold racism for 100 yrs. They convinced white southerners that the blackman is their enemy. Their enemy is the republican party that uses their fears to exploit all the people. Until we get good education into rural areas we're stuck with stupid people. This is exactly why Bush* GUTS education reform. Intelligent people can't be expected to vote republican.

[zbdent]

22. Don't forget that Clinton was attacked for acting on information which

was HOURS old while "firing a million-dollar missile at a 10 dollar tent and hitting a camel's butt".

Bush went to war on information that was at least a decade old . . .

[gasperc]

7. the oppressive and wealth extracting methods of conservatives

I wouldn't place it on any one person. Although, I'm one to think that the Bush administrations appointments and choices leading up to 9/11 made the situation worse. UBL has had it in for us no matter who's prez, but conservatives are provocateurs. We can't play nice with UBL, but we can't ignore him and focus all our attention on Iraq. Stupid is as stupid does.

[napi21]

10. Actually, all America deserves some of the blame.

I know I wasn't thinking about any terrorist attack. I listened to the Hart/Rudman report, and I really thought they were overstating the problem. Each administration from Reagan on talked about how the cold war was over so we didn't need to put all this $$ into the military and intelligence groups. We all thought it was a great idea, and we could use all that money here!

The one major fault I find with shrub and his crowd is that they hated Clinton sooo much, I believe they completely dismissed any advice or warnings they got from him or anyone who worked for him. Had they at least listened a little bit, maybe some of those PDB's might have sparked more interest and immediate attention.

I personally am to blame for really believing all these problems always happen somewhere else, not here! I remember asking why in the world would people stay in Israel with all that crazy stuff going on every day. Man, I don't know where I'd go, but I'd sure get out of there! Our complacency was part of the problem too.

[kentuck]

12. But "we" didn't have control of the military or the intelligence system...

So we did not have the tools to counter the attacks that "someone" else may have had at his disposal.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Neither.

The GOP controlled House that failed to enact precautionary airline security measures in the 1990's.

[JHB]

14. Terrorism: Clinton priority, Bush back-burner issue

No matter what you think of Clinton's anti-terrorism efforts, the one inescapable fact is that Bush lowered their priority and reduced them. Money and personnel were redirected elsewhere, military reaction forces were pulled away, intelligence efforts were curtailed. Instead of taking a firm line with the Taliban, Bush played footsie with them, giving them tens of millions for "anti-drug efforts". Condie complained that there was a structural impediment to the FBI and CIA sharing information without knowing a "bridge" already exists... it's called the "National Security Advisor". Antiterrorism plans which already existed were treated as if they "had cooties" because Democrats had worked on them, not anyone in this administration, and the effort to put "Bush/Cheney" fingerprints on a plan were treated as a "when we get around to it" item.

Bush is to blame because his administration's priorities reduced our ability to detect and prevent actions from the al Queda network.

Clinton's people stopped the Millenium bombings by making counterterroism a priority. We can never say if Gore's people could have stopped the 9/11 plot, but we CAN say that if he followed the pattern set by Clinton the possibility of foiling the plot was MUCH HIGHER.

[kentuck]

15. Well stated, JHB...

As usual.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

17. Money and personnel were redirected elsewhere,

And our Mr. Ashcroft... where were his priorities?? Remember the list that was presented at the hearings??? Not even on the list.... not even there.

Here is what he was concerned with... the "really" important stuff.... even after Sandy Berger and co warned them that Al Qaida was going to be JOB NUMERO UNO whilst they were in office. Richard Clarke is right "your government failed you".... how succinct.

http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=7789

>>One reason, the FBI explains, that it didn't respond last summer to an agent's warnings about suspicious activities at flight schools by Middle Eastern men was a lack of resources. Yet there were enough FBI agents to eavesdrop on New Orleans hookers and their clients.

That certainly reflected Attorney General John Ashcroft's priorities. This was an attorney general selected as a cultural warrior.

Remarkably, as the Sept. 11 debate, and the delicious dueling leaks, focuses on FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Chief George Tenet, there has been little criticism of Mr. Ashcroft. Yet on that tragic day, Mr. Mueller had been in office seven days, his boss, the attorney general, had served more than seven months. George Tenet spent that summer warning about the terrorism threat; the attorney general considered counterterrorism a low priority.<<

[Catherine Vincent]

16. Definitely Bush is to blame. But so are those rabid republicans

during the Clinton administration. The tragedy happened on Bush's watch and he was caught off guard. Republicans will never admit it, though.

[LynnTheDem]

18. RWWs are idiots.

The RWWs blame Clinton for the first WTC attack (Feb 26, 1993), which happened 6 weeks after he took office...and they also blame Clinton for 911, which happened 8 months after bush took office.

The next attack will also be blamed on Clinton, regardless what year it happens.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

20. I heard that they have

an opening for anything that happens in 2020 for Bill.... how accomodating!!!

[JHB]

21. Hell, they blame Clinton for Ruby Ridge...

...and he was still "Governor Clinton" (not "President", not even "President-elect") when that happened.

[Ravy]

23. Neither, OBL is to blame.

But Bush is to blame for his actions following the attacks...

Failure to deal effectively with the event as it was happening.

Failure to capitalize on the global good-will towards the US in dealing with Al-Quaeda.

His sleight-of-hand in accomplishing his neo-con goals based on this horrific event.

His inability to capture OBL *THREE YEARS* after the attack. Now, he says he doesn't care if he gets him or not.

His unwillingless to reform government agencies/culture to prevent future attacks.

His promotion of the terrorist agenda by allowing government agencies to promote terror among US citizens.

His continued use of the attacks to further his own political gain.

I am sure there are more failues of the Bush administration that could be listed. They certainly outnumber the successes by a wide margin at this point.