Friday, April 02, 2004
That Old Reality Problem Again...
The main cover story promulgated by the White House and its defenders in the media (and on the 9/11 commission) to excuse its appalling lack of preparedness leading up to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, has been a variation on the "everyone does it" defense you sometimes hear from school children when cigarette butts turn up in the boy's bathroom.
Prevented by facts from defending in any serious way their own actions -- or lack thereof -- prior to the attacks, the administration has repeatedly suggested that "mistakes were made" not only by themselves (sort of, maybe, in a vague, not really to-be-held-responsible way) but by the previous administration (mostly -- yes, it was mostly Clinton's fault).
This theme was picked up most prominently by 9/11 commission member retired Admiral John Lehman, who seems to think that the panel's mandate runs not from August 1998 to September 11, 2001, as it does, but rather from Bill Clinton's birthday forward until January 20, 2001 -- and no further. The degree to which he has been willing to pursue this agenda is frankly embarrassing, and is documented here and elsewhere.
In any event, the storyline is clear: if mistakes were made, blame should be apportioned to both the current and previous administrations -- now let's move on and forget all about it before the election. And, oh yeah, sorry -- sort of -- for all the dead people.
The one teeny, tiny problem with this story is that, like so many others from the Whte House, it probably isn't remotely true. Ample sworn testimony from Richard Clarke and others has indicated that the Clinton White House, unlike its successor, was in fact very, very, aggressive about pursuing al Queda, and while up to this point that hasn't been enough to counter the spin and willful looking-away that has marked the coverage and commentary on this issue, the ugly truth that keeps flummoxing the Bush administration has once again reared up most inconveniently:
Bearing in mind, that is, that this is the administration that assured the nation and the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that suggested repeatedly that there was a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorists, that tried in vain to stop the creation of this very 9/11 commission, tried in vain to keep national security advisor Condoleezza Rice from testifying under oath, tried in vain to keep the president and vice-president from having to answer questions from the entire panel (not just the co-chairs the administration itself picked), is actively trying to keep from the public the specifics of the vice-president's energy task force meeting, that overrode by executive order the Freedom of Information Act, and that gave the vice-president, for the first time in history, the sole power to classify government documents.
Bearing in mind all that, what reason leaps to mind as the most likely that they would now be blocking the release of thousands of pages of Clinton-era documents relating to the "war on terror"?
Prevented by facts from defending in any serious way their own actions -- or lack thereof -- prior to the attacks, the administration has repeatedly suggested that "mistakes were made" not only by themselves (sort of, maybe, in a vague, not really to-be-held-responsible way) but by the previous administration (mostly -- yes, it was mostly Clinton's fault).
This theme was picked up most prominently by 9/11 commission member retired Admiral John Lehman, who seems to think that the panel's mandate runs not from August 1998 to September 11, 2001, as it does, but rather from Bill Clinton's birthday forward until January 20, 2001 -- and no further. The degree to which he has been willing to pursue this agenda is frankly embarrassing, and is documented here and elsewhere.
In any event, the storyline is clear: if mistakes were made, blame should be apportioned to both the current and previous administrations -- now let's move on and forget all about it before the election. And, oh yeah, sorry -- sort of -- for all the dead people.
The one teeny, tiny problem with this story is that, like so many others from the Whte House, it probably isn't remotely true. Ample sworn testimony from Richard Clarke and others has indicated that the Clinton White House, unlike its successor, was in fact very, very, aggressive about pursuing al Queda, and while up to this point that hasn't been enough to counter the spin and willful looking-away that has marked the coverage and commentary on this issue, the ugly truth that keeps flummoxing the Bush administration has once again reared up most inconveniently:
Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers From 9/11 PanelNow, Poor Readers, we find ourselves asking the obvious question: what is the most likely reason that the Bush White House would block the release of these Clinton papers?
By PHILIP SHENON and DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, April 1 - The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said on Thursday that it was pressing the White House to explain why the Bush administration had blocked thousands of pages of classified foreign policy and counterterrorism documents from former President Bill Clinton's White House files from being turned over to the panel's investigators.
The White House confirmed on Thursday that it had withheld a variety of classified documents from Mr. Clinton's files that had been gathered by the National Archives over the last two years in response to requests from the commission, which is investigating intelligence and law enforcement failures before the attacks.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said some Clinton administration documents had been withheld because they were "duplicative or unrelated," while others were withheld because they were "highly sensitive" and the information in them could be relayed to the commission in other ways. "We are providing the commission with access to all the information they need to do their job," Mr. McClellan said.
The commission and the White House were reacting to public complaints from former aides to Mr. Clinton, who said they had been surprised to learn in recent months that three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of files the former president was ready to offer the commission had been withheld by the Bush administration. The former aides said the files contained highly classified documents about the Clinton administration's efforts against Al Qaeda.
The commission said it was awaiting a full answer from the White House on why any documents were withheld.
Bearing in mind, that is, that this is the administration that assured the nation and the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that suggested repeatedly that there was a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorists, that tried in vain to stop the creation of this very 9/11 commission, tried in vain to keep national security advisor Condoleezza Rice from testifying under oath, tried in vain to keep the president and vice-president from having to answer questions from the entire panel (not just the co-chairs the administration itself picked), is actively trying to keep from the public the specifics of the vice-president's energy task force meeting, that overrode by executive order the Freedom of Information Act, and that gave the vice-president, for the first time in history, the sole power to classify government documents.
Bearing in mind all that, what reason leaps to mind as the most likely that they would now be blocking the release of thousands of pages of Clinton-era documents relating to the "war on terror"?
