Declassified docs show U.S. officials urged Clinton, Bush to strike al-Qaida

Source: MSNBC

Newly declassified documents show the frustrations of top White House counterterrorism officials over the U.S. failure to respond to al-Qaida’s October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole despite evidence that Osama bin Laden was reading poetry about the murderous attack and publicly taking credit for it.

The lack of U.S. response to the Cole attack — under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — has re-emerged as a painful issue this week, as crew and family members gather at the U.S. naval base in Norfolk, Va., to mark the 10th anniversary of the bombing, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 38.

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But in his final months in office, Clinton never retaliated against al-Qaida, frustrating some of his own counterterrorism advisors. Clinton later told the 9/11 commission he was never shown hard proof that Osama bin Laden’s operatives were behind the attack.

But two senior investigators — one with the FBI and another with the Naval Criminal Investigative Task Force — recently told NBC News there was actually compelling evidence that al-Qaida was responsible for the bombing almost immediately. Two of the Cole bombers arrested by Yemeni security forces confessed their role and told investigators they were working for two top al-Qaida operatives known to U.S. intelligence — information that was quickly made available to FBI and naval investigative agents.

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If there were any lingering doubts before Clinton left office in late January 2001, they were erased in the early days of Bush’s presidency. In their first months in office, Bush administration officials ignored repeated assertions from White House counterterrorism officials that bin Laden was taking credit for the bombing and using it as a propaganda and recruitment tool, the newly obtained documents show.

Those communications were first mentioned in a little noticed footnote in the 9/11 commission report. But NBC News recently obtained from the National Archives newly declassified notes of commission staffers who were given access to verbatim copies of the internal emails sent by two top White House counterterrorism officials, Roger Cressey, former director of transnational threats, and his boss Richard Clarke, the chief counter-terrorism advisor under Clinton who stayed in the same job during the early years of the Bush presidency.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39622062/ns/us_news-security/

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Declassified emails fron the Bush administration: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/cresseyemails.pdf

criticize him and say he was only doing it to take the spotlight off his dalliances?

gotta remember clinton actually did order missle strikes on camps... and that was response from republicans... that it was to shift eyes from other issues.

I do recall that.

other than in a residual way that let Bush speak of restoring honor and dignity.

He had already been impeached in the House and not convicted in the Senate. It was shortly before the 2000 election - and he was kind of already seen as out of the picture.

The question is whether responding quickly would have made us or the world safer, though I assume that, as a politician, he also would have consider if attacking in some way could have affected the election.

intel scope early on as key organizers of the October 2000 USS Cole attack, and were known to be very major figures within al-Qaida operations.

Nevertheless, for some reason that has yet to be fully explained, they were let into the U.S. on January 15, 2000, a fact known at the time by the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (CIA/CTC) that had been monitoring the planning session in Kuala Lumpur where the Cole and 9/11 attacks were planned-out in early January. A draft warning cable to the FBI I-49 Unit in New York about their entry was withheld at the order of the CIA/CTC Assistant Director. But, CIA Director George Tenet was repeatedly briefed as was FBI Director Louis Freeh.

They knew who these guys were and what they were planning, yet both attacks occurred, anyway.

Now, read the following sentence from the MSNBC report in context and it may make more sense: "Two of the Cole bombers arrested by Yemeni security forces confessed their role and told investigators they were working for two top al-Qaida operatives known to U.S. intelligence."

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http://www.mega.nu/ampp/khartoumbomb.html

Once bitten, twice shy?

A man named Philip Giraldi reported at antiwar.com that Clinton felt any action should be approved by Bush, because Clinton was at the ending of his term. The proposal to discuss some actions was intended for Condi Rice, and she did not have the time to meet with the CIA experts who were making this proposal. Philip Giraldi is a retired CIA operative. I recommend antiwar.com to learn things about the USA and the wars it has been fighting.

with a mess in Somalia so i can see why he would want some discussion with the incoming administration. But they couldn't be bothered. Not really a big surprise there.

Doesn't believing in the existence of al-Qaida make one a conspiracy theorist?

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