This is a beautiful piece of take-down by Richard Clarke. I usually don’t like to quote large chunks of a column, but this is worth it:
Bush stopped terrorist attacks? Yes, some of the many alleged plots cited by the White House probably would have matured into attacks had not the U.S. intelligence community acted. Many were more aspirational than operational, and others were the pure inventions of FBI informants. [...]
But even if taken on its face as true, should having stopped terrorist attacks earn this President a Harry Truman-like reassessment down the road? I can attest from firsthand knowledge that the Clinton administration stopped numerous terrorist operations that would have resulted in American deaths. Yet I don’t hear Bill Clinton running around boasting about that. [...]
If you don’t think the Clinton administration stopped a major terrorist attack in New York City, you might want to talk with the blind sheik, who was involved in a plot to blow up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI. But that would be tough to do because Omar Abdel-Rahman is in solitary in a federal prison in Colorado.
It’s also worth noting that all of the terrorists behind the first WTC bombing were captured and convicted. Bin Laden, on the other hand, is still at large. And this:
There wasn’t a second 9/11? That’s obviously true, but it misses the point. First, we must remember that Al Qaeda terrorists are patient, deliberate planners who often wait years between strikes. Second, there was the first 9/11 – and it happened on Bush’s watch. Without rehashing the entire 9/11 Commission Report, the historical record is pretty clear by now that Bush did virtually nothing about the repeated warnings to him that those cataclysmic attacks were coming. Unfortunately, I can personally attest to that as well.
This all leads back around to the No Attacks Mythology (see my book). There weren’t any other 9/11-style attacks on American soil since 9/11, but there weren’t any other WTC bombings during Clinton’s administration either. That’s a fact. February 26, 1993 through Janurary 20, 2001. No additional WTC-style attacks by Islamic terrorists. And that’s without illegal invasions, torturing, renditions, eavesdropping on American citizens, and on and on.
