back                                                        She's at it again:                                              9/25/06

She's at it again. Ann Coulter again used many distortions if not out right lies to stress her points in a recent article.

Time and again she tried to blame Bill Clinton for the rise of terror in the Islamic world. She used the same distortions and false statements that the far right has been using for years. The article was based on the Democratic complaints about the outright misrepresentation of the 9/11 commission report by the Disney corporation in the made for TV movie that claimed it was based on the report.

Even though one of the directors quit because he wouldn't work on a movie that claimed it was based on the report yet didn't follow the report and in fact changed some of the scenes to portray exactly the opposite of what the report showed and even though the head of the commission a Republican, Thomas H. Kean said publicly that there were distortions in the movie.

I have caught her in many out right lies over the years. I said many times that anyone has the right to their own ideas but no one has the right to their own facts. So let's take a look at what she said and compare them with the known facts.

1. Para. 2.  Islamic Jihadists attacked America year after year throughout the Clinton administration. They did everything but blow up his proverbial "bridge to the 21st century." Every year but one, Clinton found an excuse not to fight back.

Now let's look at some facts, from the 9/11 commission report:  Pg 108 (2nd Paragraph) Bill Clinton in directives in 1995 & 1998 reiterated that terrorism was a National Security Problem, not just a law enforcement issue;  Pg. 117 - 119  On August 20th. 1998 (President Clinton and his advisors had agreed to attack Ben Ladin camps in Afghanistan & a chemical plant in Shifa. Republican leaders Newt Gingrich & Trent Lott (House Speaker & Senate Majority Leader) at first supported the attacks but the following month Gingrich's office dismissed the attacks as pinpricks. Some Republicans started the "Wag the dog." theory and there was a lot of commentary of the timing of the attacks.  Bill Clinton's advisors knew the problems the President had but he told them not to worry about it. Burger recalled the President saying "that they were going to get crap either way, so they should do the right thing." Burger said he never felt any sense of constraint." (Bill Clinton did his job.)  Pg. 119 (last paragraph.) in the last week of August 1998, officials began to consider follow up strikes. Clark said the the President was inclined to attack sooner rather then later.  Pg. 125 (bottom of third paragraph. (In July 1999 Bill Clinton issued an executive order effectively declaring the Taliban regime a state sponsor of Terrorism. In October a UN Security Council Resolution championed by the U. S. added economic & travel sanctions.  Pg. 133 (2nd. Paragraph) Policymakers in the Clinton administration, including the President and his national security advisor, told us that the President's intent regarding covert action against Ben Ladin was clear: He wanted him dead.

Now after reading the 9/11 Commission report which apparently she didn't. I see that in fact Bill Clinton did try to fight back but couldn't get the authority from the Republicans. Go to the web site below to how the Republicans wouldn't pass an anti-terrorist bill requested by President Clinton after the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics

http://www.cnn.com/US/9607/30/clinton.terrorism/index.html Also read

http://www.cnn.com/US/9604/15/anti.terrorism/index.html where the Republicans wouldn't give Bill Clinton's Justice Department additional wire-tap authority. Something they now say is extremely necessary in the fight with international terrorism.

Now who was it that wasn't trying to fight terrorism?  Down with Ann's first statement. So let's continue:

2. Para 2 and part of 3 & 4: The first month Clinton was in office, Islamic terrorists with suspected links to al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center.

For the first time ever, a terrorist act was treated not as a national security, but exclusively as a simple criminal offence. (Did she forget about the Oklahoma City Bombing?) later she mentions the Car bomb attack on the Khobar Towers insinuating that Clinton did nothing to al-Qaida. She fails to mention that all the intelligence at the time pointed to Iraq. The rest of the paragraph is a list of attacks that occurred leading up to 9/11 and ends up with "Each time, the Clinton administration came up with an excuse to do nothing. She must have forgotten C.I.A. refused to sign off on al-Qaida as the responsible party on the attack on the Cole till after Bush was already in office. It was the Bush administration that didn't, when they had the report that it had in fact been el-Qaida, do anything.

Paragraphs 5 & 6: mentions that Bill Clinton didn't take bin Laden from the Sudan. People what good would it do us to have brought Bin Laden here. We had nothing with which to charge him at the time. All the crimes (Terrorists acts) were committed in foreign countries, outside of our jurisdiction. She failed to mentioned Clinton's state department tried to have Saudi Arabia take him. He could have been tried there. I guess we could have taken him and just killed him but what would have been the consequence in the eyes of the world?

Paragraph 9: She makes a good point here:  Only in 1998 did the Clinton-haters ("normal people") force Clinton into a military response. Solely because of the Monica Lowinsky scandal. Clinton finally lobbed a few bombs in the general direction of Saddom Hussein and Osama bin Laden. People she is talking about the "Wag the dog" statements that she and the Republicans brought up to complain that Bill Clinton was attacking without the authorization from congress. Which by the way the 9/11 commission said he did even knowing that he would be attacked by the Republicans His statement was I believe in Richard Clarks book "Against all enemies" was:

Pg. 186 (chapter 2) Even with these problems hanging over him, Clinton made it clear that Clarke gave him their best national security advice "Do you all recommend that we strike on the 29th? Fine. Do not give me political advice or personal advice about the timing. That's my problem. Let me worry about that." If he thought this was the best time to hit the Afghan camps, he would order it and take heat for "Wag the dog." criticism we all knew would happen. (I mentioned "Wag the dog" at the start of this review.) This was the cruise missile attack on the al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

Now about her point, her point must be that the (Normal people) did nothing about terrorism, they were to busy worrying about sex between consulting adults and when something was done all they did was use it for political gains by yelling "Wag the dog"

I'm not going to bother answering the rest of her hate filled article. What she needs is a good, no great, psychiatrist. Her hate is extremely delusional.