April 2001: Bushist Tells CNN US focusing "too much energy" on bin Laden.

[BurtWorm]

"The State Department officially released its annual terrorism report
just a little more than an hour ago, but unlike last year, there's no
extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. A
senior State Department official tells CNN the U.S. government made a
mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden and 'personalizing
terrorism.'"

-- CNN, 4/30/2001.

(Pointed out on Usenet by Zepp.)

[grannylib]

1. Oh for pete's sake....when is all of this going to finally break the dam

and sweep these filthy bastards off the face of the earth???
Their lies, their incompetence, their utterly shameless arrogance -
pure filth.

[seabeyond]

2. yet adminsistration and the people blame clinton

this is jsut absurd

[charlie]

3. I was looking at that

the other day:

The State Department officially released its annual terrorism report just a little more than an hour ago, but unlike last year, there's no extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. A senior State Department official tells CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden and "personalizing terrorism."

still, Secretary of State Colin Powell says efforts to fight global terrorism will remain consistent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POWELL: The results are clear: state sponsors of terrorism are increasingly isolated; terrorist groups on under growing pressure. Terrorists are being brought to justice, we will not let up. But we must also be aware of the nature of the threat before us. Terrorism is a persistent disease.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: The secretary of state did go on to say that South Asia, particularly Afghanistan, continues to be the focal point for terrorism that is directed against the United States.

April 30, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0104/30/ip.00.html

In the rest of the news transcript, you'll see that Bush was flogging his missile defense initiative the same day.

[AntiCoup2K4]

4. I wonder if this quote can still be found on the CNN website?

Of course, even if it is they'll still deny it. Just like the talking heads on FAUX claim that Junior "inherited" the recession from Clinton, even though their own website archives contain dozens of references to the "recession which began in March of 2001".

[ET Awful]

5. Another early 2001 quote to remember. . .

We will always try to consult with our friends in the region so that they are not surprised and do everything we can to explain the purpose of our responses. We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place, but we are always willing to review them to make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does not affect the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and the ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good conversation on this issue.


. . . . . .if I knew they were continuing to try to find weapons of mass destruction, I would have no doubt in my mind who those weapons were aimed at. They are being aimed at Arabs, not at the United States or at others.

Colin Powell speaking to Egypts Foreign Minister in February of 2001.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/933.htm

[buycitgo]

6. whoaaaaa