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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"The Right Didn’t Mind When Bush Paid a Ransom to Terrorists"
The Right Didnt Mind When Bush Paid a Ransom to Terroristsby Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/10/the-right-didn-t-mind-when-bush-paid-a-ransom-to-terrorists.html
"SNIP..............
We turn now to the Philippines, where the Abu Sayyaf terror networkIslamic fundamentalist, al Qaeda-linked, occupant of a slot on the State Departments official terrorist-organization list since Bill Clinton put it there in 1997was rampaging around the southern archipelago and taking Westerners hostage. Two such hostages were an American husband-and-wife missionary team, Martin and Gracia Burnham. They were kidnapped in May 2001. Their captivity was a pretty big story for a while, but then came September, and the inferno of Lower Manhattan.
The Abu Sayyaf M.O. was the normal oneto demand large (or oddly not so large; the original demand for the Burnhams safety was $1 million) sums of money for their captives safe return. There were talks, and they bled into 2002. In April of that year, Bush gave a speech that included the line: No nation can negotiate with terrorists, for there is no way to make peace with those whose only goal is death.
A nice line. But of course, at that exact moment, the United States was negotiating intently with Abu Sayyaf for the Burnhams release. And not only that: The Bush administration arranged an indirect payment to Abu Sayyaf of $300,000, as reported a little later by ABCs John McWethy, the veteran Pentagon correspondent, and even by Foxs Brent Baier, whose phrasing had it that the U.S. government facilitated a ransom payment to al Qaeda-linked terrorists.
It seems that the payment was indirect rather than direct. But these days, thats good enough for Ollie North (go reread his quote above). Even an indirect payment by the Obama administration to the Haqqani Network would clearly have these people screaming for impeachment hearings.
.............SNIP"
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"The Right Didn’t Mind When Bush Paid a Ransom to Terrorists" (Original Post)
applegrove
Jun 2014
OP
applegrove
(118,024 posts)1. I posted this at the Discussionist and was promply informed that Dems cannot talk about Bush,
anymore. LOL!
WillyT
(72,631 posts)2. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!