September 26, 2006

Whacking a Bee-Hive with a stick (part II)

As I mentioned at the end of part I, this period was of significant importance in our response to terrorist organizations. This is, really, when we started to understand the true threat.

In 1994,, most of our terrorist attacks were homegrown and against abortion clinics.

In 1995, we had Oklahoma. While, initially, there were specters of outside groups, it soon became clear this was a domestic terrorist.

In 1996, we had the Olympic bombing, though a plot to bomb 11 US airplanes was discovered and foiled. This plot had links to Bin laden, but they were not discovered until later in the investigation.

1996 was also the time of the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia. This is probably the place where the criticism of Clinton has the most validity. However, much of the problems in dealing with Khobar was due to friction between Freeh at the FBI and the Clinton Whitehouse. the main criticism is that Clinton backed off of pressuring the Saudis to allow the FBI more access. (The Saudis investigated the bombing with the FBI, but often worked independently with the FBI ,and sometimes acted against the FBI wishes). Of course, it’s unlikely Bush II would have pressured them any more than Clinton did.

And, procedure aside, nothing in all this suggested that Clinton didn’t take the threat seriously As mentioned in Part I, in 1996 Clinton was pushing for broader terrorism tools, explosives tagging, and more money for the FBI..

In 1997, we (The US) had no major terrorist attacks at home or abroad..

In 1998, in August, there was another bombing of a US embassy. This attack is one of the first to directly implicate Bin Laden, and shed light on the breadth and depth of his network.

... Odeh told them bin Laden commands between 4,000 and 5,000 militant operatives from a number of different countries. He said they are often deployed in armed actions and that the network is highly organized. Operatives rarely know anything about actions in which they are not involved, he said.

…Odeh reportedly told the Pakistani authorities that bin Laden has a large cache of weapons stored throughout Afghanistan and that his network has full-time operations in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Odeh reportedly recounted some armed operations abroad in which he or others participated in with support from bin Laden, including an attack in Somalia in '93 that killed 18 U.S. troops.

Ironically, on September 11, 1998 – just about a month after the bombings, the Star report is made public, and the impeachment circus begins.

This bears repeating. Less than one month after the bombings, and less than a month after the true threat of Bin Laden was starting to be revealed, the Republican controlled congress sought to impeach the president over a lie he told about an extra-marital affair. It’s unclear exactly how much this impacted Clinton, but it is clear that any action he took from this point forward was tinged with ‘wag the dog’ rumors by the GOP.

After the terrorist attacks in 1998, Clinton responded by conducting cruise missile attacks on various terrorist targets. Wile critics focus on the Sudan Strike, Clinton struck multiple sites, including 3 in Afghanistan.

Still, some republicans criticized him for it.

" There's an obvious issue that will be raised internationally as to whether there is any diversionary motivation" Arlen Specter.

"The president has been consumed with matters regarding his personal life. It raises questions about whether or not he had the time to devote to this issue, or give the kind of judgment that needed to be given to this issue to call for military action."
Dan Coats

“There is a cloud over this presidency."
John Ashcroft

It should be noted, however, this criticism was not universal. Heavy hitters like Gingrich, Hatch, and McCain supported the strikes.


Also, in 1998, Clinton launched an air strike against Iraqi nuclear sites. Trent Lott criticized him for it.

While I have been assured by administration officials that there is no connection with the impeachment process in the House of Representatives, I cannot support this military action in the Persian Gulf at this time. Both the timing and the policy are subject to question.

Another Republican, Harold Solomon said “Never underestimate a desperate president”.

Still, Clinton continued on – and never seems to have let go of the terror issue.

In January 1999, less than 6 months after the attacks, Clinton announced he was seeking billions of dollars in anti-terrorist funding.

In an interview with The New York Times published Friday, Clinton said it is "highly likely" that a terrorist group would launch or threaten a germ or chemical attack on U.S. soil within the next few years.

Clinton said the threat that "keeps me awake at night" is the possibility of a biological attack.

That same day, The GOP house spent 5 hours on impeachment hearings Tom DeLay suggests the impeachment can be good for republicans.

No terrorist attacks took place in 1999, though several were foiled.

In March, 1999, the CIA announced they were adopting a new deterrence Strategy.

In April 1999, The GOP refused to support the US role in NATO’s Kosovo operation.

In June 1999, Clinton imposed sanctions on the Taliban and Afghanistan for harboring Bin Laden.

In September, 1999, Clinton addressed the UN and urged the UN to fight terrorism. A plea which was probably blunted by two issues. First, The GOP had been holding back the dues the US owed the UN. Second, his speech occurred at the same time US television stations aired his grand jury testimony in the Lewinski scandal.

Also in September, Bush attacked Clinton saying “the U.S. military is now overextended around the world” and promising “I will replace diffuse commitments with focused ones, I will replace uncertain missions with well-defined objectives”.

There may be a part III, but probably not today.

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Posted by Henry at 01:25 PM || Link to me || More Thoughts (0) || Track this post (0) || Category:: Bush and Co, Just Left On