Why do republicans blame Clinton for 911.?

Question

I still hear many republicans say that 911 was because of Clinton not taking action on Al queda when there was intelligence they were planning attacks.Also there was a report that an unmanned drone plane saw a tall figure that "might be" Osama at a training camp in Afghan but didn't take the shot.

Lets look at some things shall we? Ok first off The attacks happened after Clinton left office.He can't stop something after he's gone.Lets also look at the fact that In the Ragean years they basically trained and supported Al Queda for the war with russia making them what they are today.Bush's once right hand man Powell said he personally trained Osama and his men at one point.Lets now look at Iraq who we had to go fight.Rumsfeld was once shaking Saddams hand and supporting him with chemical weapons in his war with Iran.Before 911 powell also helped approve 43 million in humanitarian aid to the taliban.Republicans created these people they are so gung ho to eradicate today.

Answer 1

I think it's only the deluded few republicans who have an almost messianic (or maniacal - take your pick) reverence for Bush who come up with this sort of rubbish.



Everyone knows Bush/Rice ignored Clinton's memos about the dangers posed by Al Queda when he left the office. Everyone knows that Al Queda is a product of republican foreign policy from the Reagan era. Everyone knows who benefits from the status quo.



Republicans have nothing and no one else to blame for all the problems they've caused, so they come up with the sort of nonsense that make them deserve all the name-calling we can muster. Worst president ever. Ever.



A democratic presidential candidate should make sure to clearly list all of the failures of the Bush presidency for the record so that those failures couldn't be used against him by the morons in the republican party when the democrats are in power as they always seem to do.

Answer 2

I'd really like to see any proof you have, where Powell ever said he personally trained osama.



Or even any proof you have that anyone connected to the US government ever trained osama, or ever funded osama.



Al quadea didn';t even exist until 1997, so just how did we train or support them?



We supported the mujaheddin during the soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the same people who helped us drive the Taliban out of power in 2001.



Whats the big deal about Rumsfield shaking Saddam's hand ? He was in Iraq to open diplomatic relations between their United States and Iraq.



Heck, there are pictures of Jimmy Cater shaking Kim Jung's hand. Do you really think that meant Carter supported Kim Jung ?



Yes, we provided 43 million to NGO's to provide food for the starving people in Afghanistan in 2000. We didn't give the Taliban the money.



You have a problem feeding starving people ?



The attacks occurred after Clinton left office ??



Remember the kobar towers bombing, the Nigeria embassy bombing, the USS Cole bombing, ?



And lets not forget, who allowed the 19 terrorist into the US ?



Who's justice dept ordered the CIA not to inform the FBI that a known terrorist had entered the US ?



EDIT:



Kermit, Abu Nidal was not arrested during the Clinton years.



He was assassinated in Baghdad in 2002.



Heck, clinton never even caught Eric Rudolph the 1996 Olymic bomber.

Answer 3

Does all and sundry blame Clinton for the 1993 WTC bombing? recover from it. 9/11 got here approximately too early in Bush's presidency for him to be held totally in charge for it. loads of the government became nonetheless engaged on Clinton's regulations, or maybe Obama admits those regulations offered "ambitious obstacles" to information sharing that would have introduced approximately detecting the 9/11 attack in time. undergo in strategies, the arrangements for 9/11 have been occurring out interior the open on Clinton's watch. i be attentive to, I observed between the 9/11 pilots myself at a flying college interior the summertime of 2000. so which you would be able to no longer deceive me, i be attentive to it became taking place and it became out interior the open. If there have been missed warnings of 9/11, Clinton is as plenty in charge as Bush. Assassinating OBL became no longer likely. extra probable, droop the pilot's licenses of the 9/11 pilots. From the guy I observed, he don't have had the license he already had, and he became going for an ATP score - the large kahuna. He became basically slightly qualified to be a private pilot. He somewhat raised eyebrows at my flying college. what's up with this guy??? The Clinton admin had extremely some time to advance his license and take a closer look. in case you blame Bush for missed warnings, then i be attentive to first hand that Clinton is merely as plenty in charge. i individually had a 5 foot 3 inch missed warning status good in front of me in 2000.

Answer 4

I really don't know. I had this argument yesterday with a good conservative friend of mine. It doesn't matter that Carlos the Jackal and Abu-Nidal were both apprehended in the Clinton Years and inicidentally were the terrorists we all heard about.



Only Ollie North had ever heard of Osama...and that probably goes back to Iran-Contra days.



The bottom-line is that the attack occurred on Bush's watch. I'm not going to blame Bush for anything except not taking more of an interest in his security briefings. Bush screwed off way too much in his first year in office. The whole country ought to be outraged at that...but instead it seems easier to keep throwing darts at Bubba.



The saddest part of this blame Bubba mentality is that it comes from the folks who preach personal responsibility the loudest. Sometimes I wonder if being American automatically means we are all absolute, pathetic hypocrites...

Answer 5

Reagan did not support Osama, he supported Azaam, never were any weapons or training given to Osama. In fact, it is believed by some Osama killed Azaam. Cite your sources for Powell "training" Osama. And if Clinton signed the kill on Osama when he had the chance, signifigant leadership and training initiatives through his money would have been lost, delaying or stopping the attack. Alot but not all blame to Clinton.

Answer 6

And lets not forget, who allowed the 19 terrorist into the US ?



Who's justice dept ordered the CIA not to inform the FBI that a known terrorist had entered the US ?



EDIT:



Kermit, Abu Nidal was not arrested during the Clinton years.

Answer 7

Let's see ... wasn't it a Clinton assistant attorney general who set up the chinese wall that prevented our foreign and military intelligence services from sharing information with the FBI?



Mohammed Atta was ID'd as a terrorist by our foreign and military spooks but that didn't allow us to keep him out of the country? And they couldn't tip off the FBI that he was a bad actor who needed close watching?



Oh my.



Btw, Tom Clancy predicted a fuel laden airliner as a flying bomb in a book published in 1994. Clinton was President. What steps were taken to tighten air security?? {Afaik, none.}



***

Related comment: A President inherits the CIA his predecessor leaves him. As well as the military services left to him. There is no way for a President to remake the CIA in only one year after assuming office -- so if you believe that the CIA failed in its intelligence job, it was Clinton's CIA that failed.



And it was Clinton's military that arguably wasn't big enough to provide the forces on the ground needed to stabilize Iraq in 2004. [At least without stripping our forces from Germany and Korea and Okinawa -- all of which maybe should have been done -- who can know?]



Now -- going even further back; why did Al-Queda even exist?



Answer -- because the Russians clearly saw that President Carter was personally weak and would not directly oppose their push into Afghanistan.



Why does Iran have an oppressive theocratic dictatorship?



Same answer: President Carter. He jerked the rug out from under the Shah and almost single-handedly awarded the country to the theocrats -- who promptly murdered more of their own people in the first year than the Shah's secret police had killed in 30 years.





Seems like every time since President Kennedy that America made a big foreign policy blunder it was made by the Democrats who then tried to blame it on the Republicans.



{Who defunded the South Vietnamese government? The Democratic Congress. See what I mean?}





No, I guess you don't see.

Maybe you will when your wife, sister, and mother are all told they will wear the burqa, will not vote, will not drive a car, and will be respectful to every man; all on pain of instant beating in the streets by armed 'religious police'.

Answer 8

It is called prevention. How long was GWB in office before 911. Not a whole lot of time to prevent this since they had been planning it for 8-9 years. I don't blame Clinton. He could have had Bin Laden. His head was offered on a plate and Clinton turned it down. But I still don't blame him for 911. I think that we are all missing the point here. You have a group of terrorist nut jobs out there killing Innocent women, children, and the like, and a lot of people are blaming Bush or Clinton or whoever. Why don't we blame the people who are doing it! Why does the terrorist get off Scott free on this deal while we sit back and blame each other. Lets place blame for where blame is due. I wish I had a deal like the terrorists where I could do what I want and let others debate on who was to blame. Lets wake up and unite and kill those who are trying to take freedom away.



I can't take it anymore. You guys are driving me crazy!

Answer 9

Why? Because he legitimized terrorist activity by promoting Arafat as a peacemaker of some kind. By doing that, he taught these nuts that terrorism will work to get your aims if you stay at it long enough.



He also chose to use police activity to go after terrorists (on the rare occasions that he bothered with it) instead of seeing it as a larger attack, which left supporters of the "criminals" unpunished. In so doing, he built the cultural divide between our FBI and CIA so large that they were unable to effectively share information prior to the attack.



He also destroyed most of our human intelligence network in the middle east, leaving us nothing but electronic means to gather information, which is inadequate. It will take us decades to undo that damage.



Clinton set the table for the attack, which had been in the works for years before it happened. His weakness as a leader and his desire to just have people like him made him soft and opened the door for the attack. Had he a bit of backbone, things may have been different.



Finally, al queda didn't exist when the russians were fighting in Afghanistan. The Taliban hardly existed until the end of the war. Read the book "The Looming Tower" to get your facts straight. Yes, many disaffected men from a variety of nations fought with US support in Afghanistan and then went on to work for al queda when their countries wouldn't accept them back, but that doesn't mean we "trained al queda."

Answer 10

Osama's plans were becoming known LONG before G.W.Bush ever took office, and even the Arabs over there knew it. Clinton was offered Osama's location and yet he refused to act on it. The USA has long made decisions to support people who later turn out to be poor political partners - Castro who promised Democracy, and later after the liberation turned against that promise. Ortega in El Salvador....Osama in Afghanistan. Yes, we made partners with some shifty people, who promised then delivered otherwise. Maybe because Conservatives are optimists and see the glass half-full when promoting democracy, get blinded by political realities.

But, Liberals are really no different, how many calls have you heard for "dialogue" with Syria, the PLO, Hamas, Castro, et al ad nauseum? So they're the opposite, trying to engage a KNOWN enemy, when the Conservative side is trying to engage people who supposedly think and want independence like us, then use us? Totally different sides of the coin! Conservatives may be taken for fools, but at least they're NOT fools to deal with KNOWN enemies who won't play fair regardless.

As far as Clinton goes, he had 4 opportunities, and ignored them all. Whether history judges him partly responsible or not ( apparently NOT, by Libbies ) is not for us to say. But it IS amazing that G.W. is being held responsible for not having enough "foresight" to "know" what might happen in Iraq, yet Bill "Blue Dress" Clinton is not blamed at all for missing not one, not 2, but FOUR different opportunities to nab OBL, and passed on all 4? Well, hell. talk about your liberal Teflon President. Nothing sticks to him according to the Liberal media. Enough said.

Answer 11

Because if only Clinton had taken Osama into custody from Sudan, 9/11 would never have happened

Answer 12

He had his chance to kill Asama, and he was chicken, and did not take the opportunity when he had it.



His mind was not on the presidency, he was distracted by his womanizing, and MONICA LEWINSKY.



KUDOS for Hillary.. She was shamed beyond any description, and put through a lot of humiliation, and embarrassment. She behaved like a lady under excruciating difficult circumstances. She held head high.. I believe she is a great woman.



Even though I still will not vote for her if she wins the 2008 nomination. She behaved with finesse in her time when her personal dirty laundry was hung out for all the world to see, and "stood by her man".



Another important factor is, "behind any mans success is a women" He would never had become President without Hillary's encouragement and determination to 'SUPPORT HER MAN." She always new he had a roving eye. She never failed him. He failed her, and shamed the office of the Prisidency.

Answer 13

Because 100% percent of the planning was done shortly after 1994. Now heres my question to you. Who was President of the United States from 1993 to 2001? Correct answer gets you a cookie.

Answer 14

To completely blame anyone is wrong but I do believe that there was warning during the Clinton years. Whether it was enough to act, I don't know. I think there was more evidence to act after he left.



In all reality, it has been almost 6 years and to say it was anyone's fault isn't going to undo what was done. At this point we can only learn from it.

Answer 15

It's kind of strange to think that, according to the accounts, both administations apparently let Bin Laden and the gang get away.

Answer 16

The GOP is doing everything it can to shift the blame away from themselves. Clinton was closer to taking out Bin Laden than Bush ever was by using covert missile launches.

Answer 17

The Republicans are like little spoiled children , they never do anything ,somebody else is to blame. Haven't you heard children say, " I didn't do nothing , they did it, MOMMY, when all along it was them . Lay blame on a innocent person that is the Republican Party, 100 %. That's okay because they are bunch of has beens , never to be able to lay blame on anyone.again because their party is long gone.

Answer 18

Because that's what most conservatives do. The short sighted ones (unfortunately the majority of them) blame liberals for all their problems and take no blame for leaving the blinders on and their poor decisions.

Answer 19

they have to blame it on someone.