Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers From 9/11 Panel

[mindfulNJ]

Bush's "Filegate"?

Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers From 9/11 Panel
By PHILIP SHENON and DAVID E. SANGER

Published: April 2, 2004


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 investigation


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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/politics/02PANE.html?hp

[Pale_Rider]

1. Me knees are weak ...

... and I feel like throwing up at the boldness of this illegitimate Bush presidency! :puke:

[The Zanti Regent]

18. I guess they aren't through photoshopping those papers.

We all know that the GOP wants to blame this on the Clenis.

[Harry Hope]

2. Another sign of Bush desperation.

The last gasps of a dying administration.

[Renew Deal]

5. Welcome to DU!!!

From one Harry to another :toast:

:hi:

[Harry Hope]

8. Thank You

:toast:

[tandot]

26. Welcome to DU, Harry

:hi:

[FreakinDJ]

3. More proof they were warned

[Kurt Remarque]

4. this sounds more and more like watergate...

only with a body count

[Renew Deal]

6. This is sickening.

These criminals are willing to play politics with this commission again. There is proof that they didn't do jack shit. Now they are doing their best to hide it. The puke party doesn't want the Democrats to look strong on security. They want to blame them for everything. That's irrelevant. The Bushies are playing with the 9/11 commission again. How much more can we take?

[pa28]

7. Could it be

that the papers recognized the threat or even predicted the specific mode of terrorist attack? Do they outline a counteroffensive that would have stopped 9-11? If true it would follow that * promptly filed these warning away in cabinet 13. Sorry to speculate but I can't imagine what else it would be. If these papers contained material showing complacency on the part of the Clinton administration they would be in the public record by now.

[Occulus]

13. Weeelll,

according to Clarke's book, Clinton's administration was well aware of al Qaeda and its allies. The material this admin is hiding from the commission is likely much more detailed, but yet more of the same: we're aware of global terrorism as a serious threat to our national security and we're aware of al Qaeda specifically as the source of much of that threat, and bin Ladin as the head of the organization.

Bet ya my salary you could sum up a lot of it that way.

[TankLV]

31. If it had even one word that could be used against President Clinton,

it would have been released before it made it to bunkerboy's desk.

LIHOP meet MIHOP

As said countless times by myself and others before, every new day brings an additional depth to my disgust and contempt for this gang of CRIMINALS.

I am sooooo surprised - NOT!

To recap:

It's classified, top secret, national security (bullshit) if it's damaging to bunkerboy, so they do everything in their powers to keep is secret, but

If there's something, anything, according to their interpretation - read LIES - that can make 1) Clinton look bad, 2) put the blame on someone other than the "annointed one", or 3) make someone else look bad, suddenly it's "opps - it's not REALLY worthy of a "national security" issue, so they "release" it.

Simply disgusting.

Hello whore media, 911 commission - anybody listening? How about asking these questions, hmmmmmmm? Pretty please?

[Lorien]

9. I hope Air America picks up on this one

it's too much to hope that the rest of the mainstream media will.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Some random arm-waving.

Hmm...

Bush wants this to be over as quickly as possible. Hence getting Condi out there next week, and being forthcoming with documentation that isn't necessarily Bush-friendly. So... why retain the Clinton papers? Two possible explanations:

1) There's an actual legitimate reason for not declassifying this stuff (ha!)
2) It would make the Dubster look bad.

Gee, I wonder what it could be...

[homelandpunk]

11. High crimes like this just continue in fucking waves, a new one every day

They are so openly criminal. Truly. The crimes are so apparent, I no longer have any words... What I have realized is that these things are just informational page fillers. It is not NEWS. Unimportant to the moron americans. They do not care about ANY of it. There is not a penis involved.

[snippy]

15. Another day, another felony. How very republican.

[shoopnyc123]

12. These people don't give up...

Anybody got a shovel? They're digging deeper...

[SideshowScott]

14. The GOP will go all out to hide that they were witchhunting Clinton

while Clinton was trying to stop attacks on the US by terrorists and going after Bin Ladin and Suddam.
The GOP could care less about a terrorst attack..All they could care about was just finding ANYTHING to get Clinton on..And thats a FACT that they are going all out to hide.
Back then Whitewater, blow jobs and spooge on a dress were more important than the safety of Americans as far as the GOP were concerned.
They were not kidding when people said it was a Contract ON America when the GOP took the house.
Reason #114 why ill NEVER vote Republican

[Citizen Daryl]

16. You're Only To 114 Reasons?

<eom>

[indepat]

17. The White House will tell them everything they need to know and provide

every document they need.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Kick

Bush can't look good on his own merits, so he works to bring down Clinton's accomplishments in regard to fighting terrorism. Disgraceful.

[bushisanidiot]

20. R. Clarke to Condi: "Al Qaeda is a threat to america." Condi: "Al who?"

the WH knows they dropped the ball on Al Quaeda and they know Clinton was doing the right thing to try to stop Bin Laden, that's why they don't want the papers released!

Gawd! It's friggin' OBVIOUS!!

[KansDem]

21. "You know, John, you're right! They ARE crooks and liars!!" (eom)

[Az_lefty]

22. Gee, I thought it was all Clinton's fault?

if so why don't they release all these papers to back up their claims? I guess their words don't jive with the documents. No surprise here.

[ejcastellanos]

28. Exactly

If this is the fault of the previous administration then it will be well documented in the records left by them. They've been so quick to blast the previous administration and hint that they failed to act appropriately and now refuse to back up their arguments with substance.

Why am I so unsurprised by the overwhelming level of cooperation the Whitehouse is giving to the commission?

Hopefully the levee is going to break and the tide of excrement this administration has been hiding will wash over the electorate. I truly dread another term.

[leftchick]

23. They underestimate The Big Dog's mind yet again....

I assume the reason they kept so many of these papers is because it shows in black and white the many instances of the Clinton administration's efforts to fight terrrorism. Imganine when Bill walks in to talk to the commission for an unlimited amount of time. Imaging how Bill recounts for them with his Brilliant Memory all of those instances the repukes have hidden from the commission? ROFLMAO....caught again!

[SemperEadem]

29. I wish they would televise Bill's testimony

let me relive those halcyon days of yore, let me start "thinking about tomorrow" once again with happiness instead of dread.

[Blue_Roses]

24. give me a break...

"White House officials said the language showed that the Bush administration had a tougher, more comprehensive plan than the Clinton administration had for dealing with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and the Taliban. Ms. Rice has cited the directive in recent interviews in trying to undermine the credibility of Richard A. Clarke, Mr. Bush's former counterterrorism director, who has accused the Bush administration of largely ignoring terrorist threats before Sept. 11.":eyes:

This response is not only ludicrious but hilarious! There is NO WAY "the Bush administration" had a "tougher, more comprehensive plan than Clinton," there's just NO WAY and to make these kinds of ridiculous, propogated comments only CONTINUES to discredit the Bush administration's stance on terror pre-9/11, but obviously they are too stubborn just to admit they didn't do a damn thing about it. Clarke's book goes into GREAT DETAIL about this and I have NO DOUBT he KNOWS of what he speaks.

This is outrageous.

[74dodgedart]

25. Bob Kerrey quote

"If it did happen, it's an unintentional mistake or it's another intentional act of the White House that will backfire," said Bob Kerrey, a former senator from Nebraska who is a Democratic member of the commission.

[molly]

27. Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

I read this book when it first came out. I just went out to Amazon and did a search for references to Clinton - he was obsessed....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0684871599/ref=sib_rdr_srch/103-0137141-1838241?v=search-inside&keywords=clinton&x=7&y=5

5. on Page 162:
"... would make arresting testimony at the hearings Nunn's committee planned, to hold in the fall. On June 21, 1995, President Clinton signed a secret directive on counterterrorism, the results of a far-reaching review that had begun two years earlier after the ..."

on edit - there are references to Richard Clarke also

[0007]

30. They probably still have some of the toilet paper

Clinton has used during the Monica years.