Part-Time Pundit

Democrats Insist Only Republicans are to Blame for 9/11

Here’s a brief timeline of Al Qaeda. It was founded in 1988 by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. In 1991, it moved training operations to Sudan. Feb. 26, 1993 was the first attack by Al Qaeda on US Soil, the first World Trade Center bombings. June 25, 1996, US servicemen were killed in Saudi in an attack by Al Qaeda. Feb. 28, 1998, Osama Bin Laden orders a fatwa against all US civilians. Aug. 7, 1998, the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya are bombed by Al Qaeda. Oct. 12, 2000, the USS Cole was attacked by Al Qaeda. Last, Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda attacks the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

In short, Al Qaeda was present and around the entire Clinton presidency with no real action. Eight months into office, Bush dealt with an Al Qaeda attack on US soil. There has been no attack since. These facts alone speak volumes on whose foreign policy is more efficacious in dealing with Al Qaeda.

However, here are some more inconvenient truths. Sandy Berger was found guilty of stealing documents regarding daily briefings to then President Clinton, potentially about Al Qaeda. He then destroyed some of those documents and their copies leaving. Some of those documents have been lost forever.

In Fall of 1999, an intelligence program named Able Danger was created and it fingered some of the 9/11 hijackers. This program had its data erased in mid-2000 by the DIA and was formally abandoned in 2001. This took place during the Clinton Administration.

While Canada apparently likes to blame the US foreign policy for causing 9/11 (as opposed to the people actually flying the planes), the fact is, Al Qaeda grew and got its bones during the Clinton Administration. Al Qaeda wasn’t formed in response to George W. Bush, if anything; it was Clinton’s foreign policy. Specifically the components mentioned in the fatwa issues in 1998 (i.e. during Clinton’s presidency). We’ll skip past the well-documented failures of Clinton to accept Bin Laden offered up on a platter.

9/11 was a tragedy of huge proportions, the ramifications of which are still being felt today. There is plenty of failure to go all around but it seems only one group is causing a ruckus to avoid having any blame land on them. The editing process isn’t even done on the ABC 9/11 miniseries, and the Democrats are issuing threats that it better “turn out right.”

As the saying goes, “innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.”

September 8th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Military / War, National, Politics | 5 comments