Responding to Rice

September 27, 2006

Just to follow up briefly on yesterday’s item, Condoleezza Rice “hammered” the Clinton administration this week, responding to the former president’s Fox News interview by arguing that the Clinton White House had not fully prepared the Bush team for the terrorist threat, particularly that posed by al Qaeda.

Raw Story responded with excerpts from a memo Rice received shortly after becoming National Security Advisor in 2001, which appeared to “directly contradict” her more recent claims.

I’ve obtained a full copy of the declassified document and have posted it as a .pdf. Reading it, you can really get the sense that Richard Clarke was practically pleading with Rice to take al Qaeda seriously.

Apparently, it didn’t matter. By June 2001, the Bush White House’s focus was on missile defense, not counter-terrorism.

Why the Bush gang wants to have this fight all over again is still a mystery to me.

Sure would be nice if the Democrats could hammer this into the big public narrative: they misjudged the threat, tragically and egregiously, more than five years, and have only dug the hole deeper since then.

Young Congressman Ryan of Ohio obviously Gets It; anyone else?

  • Why can’t everyone just agree that the entire US Government and its web of bureaucrats let us down, across several different administrations — both GOP and Dem, therefore everyone/both parties are equally at fault. This crap of both sides trying prove “they were worser” is a ridiculous exercise.

    I wish both sides would focus their efforts at the threat at hand and what they will do to combat it vs. constantly looking over their shoulders and pointing fingers. This all seems like a game of mutual destruction to me, with both parties ending up looking like losers.

  • Rice, she is the one who demoted Clarke. She’s the one who could not ‘imagine’ terrorists using planes as missiles, even though that is exactly the plot of a major work of fiction (what, she doesn’t read Tom Clancey?).

    Rice is nothing but a scholar of a defunct political entity (the Soviet Union) who, from her disregard of the un-democratization of Russia, seems to want it back.

    And yes, for the first eight months of the Bushite regime she thought that rogue nations with nuclear warheads and ICBMs were a more immediate threat than al Qaeda.

    Her statements and opinions are not worth the air she consumes to express them.

  • “therefore everyone/both parties are equally at fault.” – JRS Jr.

    Because the Clintonistas handed the baton of counter-terrorism off cleanly, and Rice dropped it. Therefore, the majority of the fault lies with her.

    That’s why we do not accept that the blame should be shared equally. You have a fascinating notion of fairness there.

  • I gotta say I’m encouraged…the post Labor Day/Very Special Path to 9/11 Fifth Anniversary Product Role Out with yet another Bush coronation as Defender of the Homeland has been effectively scuttled by Bill Clinton’s bitchslap of Chris Wallace, the rejection of the “Path to 9/11” propaganda, and the intelligence community’s leak of the NIE…

    What I see instead is a product role out of righteous anger on the part of the Dems – and this time the press is willing to report it and abet it to some degree: witness Keith Olbermann’s editorial the other day and Linda Greenhouse of the NYTimes standing her ground after making comments critical of the Administration at a public speech.

    And the thing is, this rage (although largely unorchestrated) is right out of the Rovian playbook – it goes after Bush’s supposed strength…

    And the timing is just about right because it’s hard to sustain that kind of rage much longer than a month or so…it will have just about crested by Election Day (and I’m hoping for a leak of the second NIE about that time) if we’re lucky…

  • Now we know why Bush wanted Rice’s Soviet Union expertise. He wanted to know how ‘to do that here.’ Gulag, he could say. Archipelago gave him a little more trouble.

  • “Because the Clintonistas handed the baton of counter-terrorism off cleanly, and Rice dropped it. Therefore, the majority of the fault lies with her.”

    I’m sorry, Lance but I seem to remember The WTC first being attacked in Clinton’s first year of office, and then a long list of terrorist events during the Clintonista regime. So, let’s be real did he “hand off the baton cleanly”, or perhaps PASS THE BUCK?

    Richard Minter lays it out pretty clearly in today’s WSJ
    http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009001

    Now, I’m not saying the Bushies did a better job either… I’m just saying the whole damn government is at fault and this finger pointing is fruitless.

  • Well I learned one interesting thing from that memo thanks CB.

    First off the stated goal of Al Quida apparently is to remove us from the middle east and turn the midle east into a muslim version of a Gilly Graham revival. One big happy Iran, if you will. Funny thing here is that I swear the POTUS claims Al Quida’s stated goal it to destroy America.

    I also learned something interesting from the Clinton FOX interview the other day. The plans to overthrow the Taliban were drawn up under Clinton and meant to be a response to the USS Cole bombing. Clinton never got confirmation that it was Al Queda from FBI and CIA so he never invaded. So if we want to open this discussion up to involve Clinton we can give a lot of credit to Clinton for the biggest success in the war on global Islamofacism – the removal of the Taliban. After following the Clinton plan and succeeding, Bush then move to Iraq to create the world’s largest quagmire while leaving Afghanistan to slide back into extremist hands.

    JRS Jr, the reason we care and blame is that responsibility involves consequences. Both parties are not at fault in this. If Clinton had not spent 1/2 of his presidency dealing with Ken (is that a stain) Starr and a full on frothy Republican congress the world might have been rid of Bin Laden in 1999!

  • JRS Jr.

    Richard Minter lays it out pretty clearly in today’s WSJ

    Richard Minter is hardly an objective source for this kind of analysis. Would you accept Michael Moore as a reliable source if he wrote an Op-Ed in Mother Jones that detailed out how Bush 41 really passed the buck to Clinton?

    C’mon.

  • “I seem to remember The WTC first being attacked in Clinton’s first year of office” – JRS Jr

    And you know what, we actually put the guy who was directly responsible for that attack in jail. Where he is still today. Actually convicted in an American court of law.

    Is KSM in a prison actually convicted of the crime of 9/11/01 in a U.S. court of law? Nope. We’ve had him for five years but we’ve been so busy torturing him that we couldn’t find the time to actually put him on trial.

    Nor, I note, has Boy George II caught Osama.

    “So, let’s be real did he “hand off the baton cleanly”, or perhaps PASS THE BUCK?” – JRS Jr.

    What the F**K did you want Clinton to do? Declare martial law and tell the Bushites they can’t have the government because he still has “things to do”. Is that your Republican’t plan for January 2009, ignore the election and declare that Boy George II can’t step down because he (STILL) hasn’t finished the job in Iraq?

    Calling transitioning the United States Government between parties PASSING THE BUCK is the most childish statement I have ever read from a supposedly moderate Republican. The Kool Aid stains are showing on your Brown Shirt boy.

  • How is it that conservatives have become so touchy-feely. It seems results no longer matter. “It’s not finding about what went wrong. It’s about making everyone feeling A-Ok about the job they are doing. Stay positive, yeah!”

    From a comment at Hullaboo

    The first step to unshitting the bed is to haul the drunkard out into the yard and give him a good, hard hosing off.

    If he seems violent, it’s probably wise to lock him up for a while, as a precaution for everyone’s safety.

    Even if he’s merely incoherent and babbling, it might be a good idea to do it just to keep any more beds from being shat in while we’re cleaning up this mess.

    The hangover from this one is gonna be a bitch.
    melior (in Austin) | 09.27.06 – 12:57 am | #

    Futhermore, I might add, if the bed’s happens to be such a godawful mess you can’t imagine getting anywhere at all without a little help from your neighbors, you sure as hell better first get the stinking, feces-smeared, assclown out of their sight before asking.

    Especially if he won’t quit the loud, offensive boasting about how wonderful and fragrant his creation is.
    melior (in Austin) | 09.27.06 – 1:16 am | #

  • Lance — Mr. CB claims there are no moderate Republicans in this world.

    Difference b/t you and me is that I can say that BOTH Bush AND Clinton (plus a several other administrations all the way back to Reagan, Carter, and Truman) f’d up on the Middle East and Terrorism.

    That is message I don’t hear from you, “boy”… you are too busy pounding Bush to realize there was many a mistake made by EVERYONE for many decades, even Richard Clarke.

  • JRS Jr your in the lead for the brass balls award of the day for sticking to your guns. Too bad you have more spine than sense.

    Try to remember back to a magical time beofre Republicans turened this country on its head. Good economy, high moral and economic standing in the world, things were so good there was even time for sex in the White House. Lance is 100% correct that the terrorists who attacked when Clinton was president are in prison (a real US federal prison not at secret eastern European one). Meanwhile 5 years later there have been exactly ZERO convictions of anybody connected with 9/11.

    The fact of the matter is that while Clinton used the Presidency to lead the country, Bush uses the presidency to lead his political party. To be fair not all Republicans are mindless NEOCON tools but they seem to have lost their voices over the past 5 years. Remember Bush stating that he does not know where UBL is and that he frankly does not spend that much time on it? Every speech given by Bush mentions 9/11 a still not one conviction. Not even a trial!

    Rove and Bush and Cheney made the Executive Branch of the US government into the political arm of the Project for the New American Century. They have done nothing but they can’t shut up about the dangers of ‘terra’ ism. Let’s also keep in mind that it was FOX news and that ABC crockumentary who brought Clinton into this. He was quietly saving the world until despeate partisans needed a last straw to grasp at.

    You are entitled to your opinion and you may voice it here, but Bush was President on 9/11 and he still is NOW. He’s the fucking decider and so far he has decided it is more important to screw the middle class than catch terrorists.

    Personally I blame the whole thing on the Teapot Dome scandal. Damn Warren G. Harding to the pits of hell!

  • CB: Why the Bush gang wants to have this fight all over again is still a mystery to me.

    Very simple. MSM doesn’t fact-check, so Rice saying anything bad about Clinton “shores up the base”. And according to the Today Show, “Any talk about the war on terror helps republicans”. Yeah, only if you keep repeating that instead of actual facts, you idiots.

    JRS jr. – I’m just saying the whole damn government is at fault and this finger pointing is fruitless.

    Dems never pointed fingers untill Wallace/Rice/Bush launched their Fall ’06 Fingerpointing Festival.

    BUT THE GLOVES ARE OFF NOW…

  • Ahh the screw the middle class arguement… Home values are highest ever even with the recent hiccup, GDP growth solid, stock market reaching new highs, taxes relatively low, interest rates low, wage growth in line with inflation which is relatively modest, unemployment rate very low, energy costs falling quickly, deficit as a percent of GDP still at historically low levels… That all sounds real terrible to me!

    I can understand you disliking bush given his political stances, but please don’t tell me this economy is struggling!

  • The Bushies have been covering their asses so much with claims and counter-claims that all we hear now are constipated lies about they are completely innocent of everything.

    The first step to fixing a problem is to recognize that there is a problem. Clinton admitted, with perfect hindsight, his culpability for 9/11. It takes a big man to do that. The Bushies have refused to do the same, the victims of their own fragile egos. If a crime is committed, saying that “it’s all in the past” or “it’s old news” isn’t a valid defense at the trial. It’s a cop-out.

    For the Bush administration, and other future presidential administrations, to learn how not to repeat 9/11, Bush has to face his own faults. The morass of Iraq is precisely what it is today because the Bush adminstration fails to acknowledge any poor decisions and correct them. Bush is not learning from the past and is therefore more likely to perpetuate and repeat mistakes of the past … at the cost of other people’s blood and money.

  • JRS Jr, I’ve got to go with the Ohioan on this one. Before that crap Docu-Drama “Path to 9/11” we could have a civilized conversation about the relative failures of the Clinton and Bushite administration in dealing with al Qaeda, and I might have simply pointed out that every time Clinton moved against Osama bin Laden the Republican’ts cried “wag the dog” or similar drivel.

    But now that the Rovian Lie Machine is trying to put the blame totally on Clinton, there is only one response. Rice was given every support in taking responsibility for the war on terror and she just, in a act of supreme hubris, dropped it in favor of her favorite topic, rogue nations with nuclear weapons and ICBMs. Of course there is no rogue nation with nuclear weapons and ICBMs that can yet reach America, but al Qaeda could on 21 January 2001.

    The mistakes of Reagan, Bush I and Clinton pale in comparison to the failures of Boy George II. That can’t be changed by any claim for fairness by you or anybody else. And why should I give you and your ilk an inch on this? What the Rovian Lie Machine has tried in this debate means that your position deserves no credence at all. Reagan supported the Muslim resistence to the occupation of Afghanistan that literally created Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. That was an unintended consquence. But al Qaeda became the greatest threat to America in stages, not all at once. And at least the Clintonistas realized the threat when they turned the government over to the Bushites. It was the Bushites that dismissed that threat, not the Clintonistas.

    So NO JRS Jr. Give it up. Your talking points are the mindless utterings of a tool of the Rovian Lie Machine. There is no equivilence of blame here. George Walker Bush, 43rd President of the United States and Doctor Condoleca Rice, then National Security Advisor allowed the United States Government to fall complacent while it’s greatest enemy plotted the death and destruction of her people, and even with the warnings put into their hands, allowed the death of 3000 plus Americans.

    And none shall share their blame as none share their hubris.

  • Condi Rice stated during the 9/11 hearings that:

    “The problem was you didn’t have an approach against al Qaeda because you didn’t have an approach against Afghanistan, and you didn’t have an approach against Afghanistan because you didn’t have an approach against Pakistan. And until we could get that right, we didn’t have a policy.”

    In other words, “this was all just too complicated for us so we didn’t mess with it.”

    Now, though, thanks to Pervez Musharraf, we know what the “approach against Pakistan” turned out to be: “We’re going to bomb you into the stone age if you don’t co-operate with us.”

  • Re #15

    -Personal debt at an all-time high.
    -Government debt at an all-time high $8.5 Trillion That is almost $30,000 per person. My family is on the hook for $120K! (mostly owned by China – good plan)
    -College costs at an all-time high.
    -Wages are not keeping pace with inflation!
    The paper says that about nine out of 10 workers have seen inflation that has outpaced their pay increases over the last three years, according to the Labor Department. That includes workers earning up to $80,000 a year, a level that puts them in the 90th percentile of wage earners.
    http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/28/news/economy/real_wages/

    -Healthcare costs out of control.
    -Energy prices are only dropping quickly because they were insanely high!
    -Most of the major airlines are in bankruptcy.
    -GM and Ford were discussing a merger due performing so poorly.
    -The market may be at an all-time high but I’ll be happy to review 401k and IRA statements with you and see how much money a regular person (that would be me) and not a Bush earned last year.
    -Housing starts down.
    -Interest rates have been climbing

    You are judging the health of the entire country based upon the health of the market. The middle class is represented in the market but as individuals we are not impacted. If my company stock goes up $1.00 I may only be worth $1,000 more than yesterday. I can’t get at the money anyway.

    I have ample reason to dislike Bush and do not need to make one up. You cannot deny that the gap between the wealthy and the poor is growing. This approach to economic policy does not work. It didn;t woirk for Reagan and it will not work for Bush.

  • “Condi Rice stated during the 9/11 hearings that:

    ‘The problem was you didn’t have an approach against al Qaeda because you didn’t have an approach against Afghanistan, and you didn’t have an approach against Afghanistan because you didn’t have an approach against Pakistan. And until we could get that right, we didn’t have a policy.'” – Jeff R

    Which just kind of explains Condi. “If we could go to Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban and extricate al Qaeda then there would have been no more terrorist threat.”

    Just maybe defending the United States by, say, listening to the experts and ramping up preventive measures of course wouldn’t work. Though amazingly, that is exactly what worked during the Millenium plot.

    Gah! What a dumb woman. And people have the nerve to suggest that she rather than Hillary Clinton ought to be America’s first woman president?

  • Hey JRS Jr.

    Here is some more great economic news for you!

    http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/27/markets/markets_0405/index.htm?cnn=yes

    In case you don’t have time to click it here is a redacted portion:

    “However, the blue-chip barometer failed to take out the all-time record, due to surging oil prices, a weak read on durable goods orders and a mixed read on the housing market.”

    “The Dow is not really representative of the U.S. economy,” Schrader added. “It’s a benchmark, but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are broader.”
    (THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR)

    Incase you don’t know, the NASDQ and S&P are not close to historical highs.

  • I didn’t deny the gap b/t the wealthy and poor was growing… it’s been growing for decades. I simply said the economy is quite healthy, which it is by many measures.

    BTW: The market is a reflection of the macro economic health. If the economy isn’t healthy, the market surely wouldn’t be

    Please, please don’t point to GM and Ford as a barometer of the economy… they are failing because their product is not competitive. Cars made in the USA by Toyota and Honda are outselling the gas guzzlers that GM and Ford chose to pursue. That would be like pointing to the steel industry as a barometer in the late ’90’s while the rest of the economy was flying.

    Also…
    Perhaps my wages statement included all American workers…
    Housing starts are down slightly from record levels.
    Interest rates have climbed slightly from all time record low levels, and still remain near historic low levels.
    Perhaps college costs are high, but that is a fuction of supply and demand.. More kids want to go to school and professors can demand higher wages driving higher tuition costs.
    Energy costs, adjusted for inflation, are now relatively tame in a historical context.

  • Anyone notice the near constant use of the derogatory term “bubba” in the press coverage of Clinton (e.g. see “hammered” link)?

  • Just a tip Junior –

    When you turn to Rich Miniter to prove your point…you have no point. In college the guy said what ever got him the most attention and he has not improved in the past decade and a half. If the U.S. did become as conservative as he seems to want it, he’d hit the streets with love beads, bell bottoms and a bong.

    (Yes I know I’m showing my age.)

  • That Rice is less than truthful in her capacity of Secretary of State is now a HUGE issue in the Netherlands. Last year, she guarenteed that the USA had no secret prisons in Europe, had never flown redition flights over Europe, and that no detainees were ever tortured. She said this in response to Dutch questions in regards to sending Dutch troops to Uruzgan. As we now know, that was a LIE. Over here, we’re not surprized that she would lie more than once.

  • The stock market at an all time high? In which world? Not this one. It’s almost up to where it was before chickengeorge’s tax cuts.

  • So why is Fox harping on this interview? Simple it detracts from George W Bush’s failed presidency, failed foreign policy, and failure on immigration. Not to mention the contradiction between Bush’s statements regarding national security and giving amnesty (guest worker) to illegal immigrants. To me there is a contradiction if America is under threat then the last thing we should be doing is allowing those illegal in this country the right to stay here legally. Unless the threat is being hyped in an effort to position himself politically then a gues worker program for illegals would be acceptable.

    Anyhow, I am one who is glad to see Clinton taking a stand on 9/11. Personally I belive 9/11 happended because of the failed foreign policies of Reagan and Bush Sr’s failure to remove Saddam during Desert Storm. Let’s not forget it was Reagan who gave Sadaam weapons of mass destruction and supported the Mujahadeem in Afghanistan. Personally if Reagan and Bush Sr made the correct choices we would not be in the situation we are in today. So let make sure the blame gets equally distributed and stop blaming Clinton for another Bush failure.

  • Personally I do not take much what Condelezza Rice has to say to heart and find her creditability lacking. Bush claims he is the first President to suggest a two state solution but unfortuantely Mr. President the idea of a two state solution has been around since 1937. Please check your history as it was the British who proposed the idea when Palestine was their terroritory but gave up on the idea when they went to Arab leaders for their support of the UK in WWII. So I do not know where these grandiose ideas are coming from and I am counting down the days to when President Bush finally leaves office. I believe this comment show how uniformed and lack of knowledge this President has.

  • OK JRS JR.

    I refuse to rant about this for another day. You win. The economy could not be any better. Praise be neo-con supply-side economics for it is your rising tide that lifts all boats!

    Now if you will excuse me I think the mailman has just dropped of another huge box of cash at my door. I’m going shopping!

    You are seriously deluded if you think the measure of success of a country or an economy is the status of its best. The measure of success is the status of its least.

  • MNProgressive: “if you think the measure of success of a country or an economy is the status of its best. The measure of success is the status of its least.”

    Nice, wordsmithy!

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