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Reno: We Knew Terrorism Was a Threat
The Clinton administration was not ignorant to the terrorist threat when Bill Clinton took office in 1992 but "inherited" problems such as a lack of funding and resources, which plagued efforts to go after some threats, Janet Reno testified Tuesday.And of course Bush (Sr) blocked the funding all thru the Clinton years..... "We understood from early on in the Clinton administration that terrorism posed a great threat to Americans on American soil," said former President Clintonâs attorney general, who took office in March 1993. But we chose to do nothing for the 8 clinton years.... The commission blasted the FBI and the Justice Department on Tuesday but Louis Freeh, who was FBI chief from 1993-2001, said the agency suffered from a lack of resources to effectively hunt down terrorists after Usama bin Laden issued several fatwahs in the 1990s telling his followers to kill Americans and launched "acts of war against the United States" when Al Qaeda attacked U.S. soldiers overseas near Yemen and elsewhere. Freeh has said he met with Bush and Vice President Cheney to talk about terrorism within four days of their taking the White House. He said the president took the Al Qaeda threat seriously. Not during the transistion??? Freeh said a lack of funding and resources contributed to the FBIâs difficulty in fighting terrorism leading up to Sept. 11. The FBI "requested year after year" linguists, particularly experts in Arabic and Farsi in New York City, Freeh said, where many Al Qaeda investigations were housed. Notice: year after year means under Clintonâs watch... Freeh said Al Qaeda was very much on the FBIâs radar during his tenure and that there was an Al Qaeda/bin Laden unit set up in FBI headquarters... Freeh said he met once every two weeks with Reno and Clinton national security adviser, Sandy Berger, so itâs not a "fair characterization" that White House national security officials were frustrated at the lack of information sharing from the FBI. Former Bush and Clinton counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke made that suggestion during his testimony before the panel last week. "I didnât provide written memos to Sandy Berger or the president or anybody else at the National Security Council," Freeh said. But during meetings with Berger and Reno, he said they "went over every single piece of counterterrorism information. Clarke was never present at these meetings, Freeh said. "Why Sandy Berger didnât want him there, I donât know." The plot sickens.... Reno said that after Ashcroft replaced her as attorney general, she sent him memos saying the government needs to "connect the dots" in regards to terrorism and to deal with it. Reno said she doesnât recall talking to Ashcroft specifically about Al Qaeda or bin Laden, however. Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-04-13 |
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