History Forum / General / British History / September 2006

Intelligent & Provocative.

Clinton clearly didn't realize the Islamofascists had declared war on us and
then failed to rally the American People.

He treated it all as a matter of Law Enforcement -- rather than of Warfare.

DSH
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AT WAR

What Clinton Didn't Do . . .
. . . .and when he didn't do it.

BY RICHARD MINITER

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The Wall Street Journal

Bill Clinton's outburst on Fox News was something of a public service,
launching a debate about the antiterror policies of his administration.

True. -- DSH

This is important because every George W. Bush policy that arouses the ire
of Democrats--the Patriot Act, extraordinary rendition, detention without
trial, pre-emptive war--is a departure from his predecessor. Where policies
overlap--air attacks on infrastructure, secret presidential orders to kill
terrorists, intelligence sharing with allies, freezing bank accounts, using
police to arrest terror suspects--there is little friction. The question,
then, is whether America should return to Mr. Clinton's policies or soldier
on with Mr. Bush's.

Bingo! -- DSH

It is vital that this debate be honest, but so far this has not been the
case. Both Mr. Clinton's outrage at Chris Wallace's questioning and the ABC
docudrama "The Path to 9/11" are attempts to polarize the nation's memory.

While this divisiveness may be good for Mr. Clinton's reputation, it is
ultimately unhealthy for the country. What we need, instead, is a cold-eyed
look at what works against terrorists and what does not. The policies of the
Clinton and Bush administrations ought to be put to the same iron test.

With that in mind, let us examine Mr. Clinton's war on terror. Some 38 days
after he was sworn in, al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center. He did not
visit the twin towers that year, even though four days after the attack he
was just across the Hudson River in New Jersey, talking about job training.

He made no attempt to rally the public against terrorism. His only public
speech on the bombing was a few paragraphs inserted into a radio address
mostly devoted an economic stimulus package. Those stray paragraphs were
limited to reassuring the public and thanking the rescuers, the kinds of
things governors say after hurricanes. He did not even vow to bring the
bombers to justice. Instead, he turned the first terrorist attack on
American soil over to the FBI.

In his Fox interview, Mr. Clinton said "no one knew that al Qaeda existed"
in October 1993, during the tragic events in Somalia. But his national
security adviser, Tony Lake, told me that he first learned of bin Laden
"sometime in 1993," when he was thought of as a terror financier. U.S. Army
Capt. James Francis Yacone, a black hawk squadron commander in Somalia,
later testified that radio intercepts of enemy mortar crews firing at
Americans were in Arabic, not Somali, suggesting the work of bin Laden's
agents (who spoke Arabic), not warlord Farah Aideed's men (who did not). CIA
and DIA reports also placed al Qaeda operatives in Somalia at the time.

By the end of Mr. Clinton's first year, al Qaeda had apparently attacked
twice. The attacks would continue for every one of the Clinton years.

• In 1994, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (who would later plan the 9/11 attacks)
launched "Operation Bojinka" to down 11 U.S. planes simultaneously over the
Pacific. A sharp-eyed Filipina police officer foiled the plot. The sole
American response: increased law-enforcement cooperation with the
Philippines.

• In 1995, al Qaeda detonated a 220-pound car bomb outside the Office of
Program Manager in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing five Americans and wounding
60 more. The FBI was sent in.

• In 1996, al Qaeda bombed the barracks of American pilots patrolling the
"no-fly zones" over Iraq, killing 19. Again, the FBI responded.

• In 1997, al Qaeda consolidated its position in Afghanistan and bin Laden
repeatedly declared war on the U.S. In February, bin Laden told an Arab TV
network: "If someone can kill an American soldier, it is better than wasting
time on other matters." No response from the Clinton administration.

• In 1998, al Qaeda simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, killing 224, including 12 U.S. diplomats. Mr. Clinton ordered
cruise-missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan in response. Here Mr.
Clinton's critics are wrong: The president was right to retaliate when
America was attacked, irrespective of the Monica Lewinsky case.

Still, "Operation Infinite Reach" was weakened by Clintonian compromise. The
State Department feared that Pakistan might spot the American missiles in
its air space and misinterpret it as an Indian attack. So Mr. Clinton told
Gen. Joe Ralston, vice chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, to notify
Pakistan's army minutes before the Tomahawks passed over Pakistan. Given
Pakistan's links to jihadis at the time, it is not surprising that bin Laden
was tipped off, fleeing some 45 minutes before the missiles arrived.

• In 1999, the Clinton administration disrupted al Qaeda's Millennium plots,
a series of bombings stretching from Amman to Los Angeles. This shining
success was mostly the work of Richard Clarke, a NSC senior director who
forced agencies to work together. But the Millennium approach was
shortlived. Over Mr. Clarke's objections, policy reverted to the status quo.

• In January 2000, al Qaeda tried and failed to attack the U.S.S. The
Sullivans off Yemen. (Their boat sank before they could reach their target.)
But in October 2000, an al Qaeda bomb ripped a hole in the hull of the
U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding another 39.

When Mr. Clarke presented a plan to launch a massive cruise missile strike
on al Qaeda and Taliban facilities in Afghanistan, the Clinton cabinet voted
against it. After the meeting, a State Department counterterrorism official,
Michael Sheehan, sought out Mr. Clarke. Both told me that they were stunned.

Mr. Sheehan asked Mr. Clarke: "What's it going to take to get them to hit al
Qaeda in Afghanistan? Does al Qaeda have to attack the Pentagon?"  ******

There is much more to Mr. Clinton's record--how Predator drones, which
spotted bin Laden three times in 1999 and 2000, were grounded by
bureaucratic infighting; how a petty dispute with an Arizona senator stopped
the CIA from hiring more Arabic translators.

While it is easy to look back in hindsight and blame Bill Clinton, the full
scale and nature of the terrorist threat was not widely appreciated until
9/11. Still: Bill Clinton did not fully grasp that he was at war. Nor did he
intuit that war requires overcoming bureaucratic objections and a
democracy's natural reluctance to use force. That is a hard lesson. But it
is better to learn it from studying the Clinton years than reliving them.

Mr. Miniter, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, is author of "Disinformation:
22 Media Myths that Undermine the War on Terror" (Regnery, 2005).
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DSH