Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday accused former President Clinton of not responding forcefully enough to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing or later terrorist attacks.
The former New York mayor criticized Democrats, accusing them of weakness and naivete in dealing with terrorism. Giuliani made the comments to about 650 business, corporate and political leaders at Regent University, the conservative Christian college founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
“Islamic terrorists killed more than 500 Americans before Sept. 11. Many people think the first attack on America was on Sept. 11, 2001. It was not. It was in 1993,” said the former New York mayor.
Giuliani argued that Clinton treated the World Trade Center bombing as a criminal act instead of a terrorist attack, calling it “a big mistake” that emboldened other strikes on the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, in Kenya and Tanzania and later on the USS Cole while docked in Yemen in 2000.
“The United States government, then President Clinton, did not respond,” Giuliani said. “(Osama) bin Laden declared war on us. We didn’t hear it.”
In hindsight, Giuliani said, maybe it’s all clearer now, “but now is now, and there is no reason to go back into denial, and that is essentially what the Democratic candidates for president want to do: they want to go back, to put the country in reverse to the 1990s.
ATTN: Republican Candidates
The President you want to attack to help yourselves in the polls is named BUSH, not Clinton.
The Other Steve
But they want the nomination.
The types of Republicans who show up at Regent university are members of the 26%.
What’s cool about the 26%, is that pretty soon we will be able to call them The 4400, or maybe even The 300.
Tony J
It’s like being a Republican comes with a big dose of Tourettes a’la Clinton. Whenever they’re confronted with one of their own fuck-ups they feel a wave of panic rush over them and it just pops out, the most offensive word they can think of.
“Clinton!! Clintonclintonclinton!! Big Swollen CLINTON!!”
All the words they wrap around the expletive are just there to cloak the madness within.
Jake
Stop. Time out. Could someone please tell me why “Oh Noes, Not the 90’s!!” is becoming the mantra of The Right?
Among other things, I seem to recall the economy was in much better shape. Even Guliani was gainfully employed. We’re supposed to want the alternative?
Sure. And I’ll take a whack on the noggin with a ball peen hammer while we’re at it.
Bu-but Clinton got a BJ in the OO!
Tony J
On that long-off distant day when El Residente’s lawyer returns his or her fee and enters witness portection, it’ll be an Army of One.
Zifnab
See, it being Pat Roberston’s University, I would have gone with “the 700 Club”.
But wasn’t Guiliani the guy who, after ’93, decided to locate the emergency response team at the base of the World Trade Center? I think there’s a truism here about Republican Leadership v. Democratic Leadership. Democrats clearly do not do enough to fight terrorism (why oh why didn’t Sandy Burger let the CIA take the shot on Bin Laden?!) Republicans, on the other hand, embrace the smrtest option available.
Tony J
WTF? Fingers, you better behave or I’m back to the pointing stick. I’m warning you.
Blue Neponset
If it weren’t for Bill Clinton the Borg would still be in the Delta Quadrant. Damn Liberal bastard!!!
Cyrus
Unfortunately, I doubt it. What was Nixon’s approval rating when he resigned?
mattt
Remarkable that Rudy! would bring up the first WTC attack, which occurred a few months before he took the mayor’s oath. Since he seems to have strong opinions on what Clinton should have done, someone should ask him what he, as NY mayor, did himself in the aftermath of that attack.
What did he do to prepare NY’s emergency service to meet a future attack? (Little) Did he get the Police and Fire radios wsorking on the same frequency, a known problem after WTC ’93? (No) Did he set up a command center in a non-threatened area to facilitate command and control? (He overruled his police and fire chiefs and threw a bone to investor buddies by locating the new command center….in the WTC, NY’s most visible and proven terror target)
What does Rudy! think of the federal prosecutor who skilfully won convictions for the WTC93 conspirators? (Fella by the name of Patrick Fitzgerald)
MT
28 Percent
Feed me, Rudy; I dwindle.
ed
When we treated terrorism as a criminal act, we had a great economy, did not live in fear of our own shadows, still had all of our Constitutional rights, and did not spend trillions of dollars fighting a “war” that the military cannot win, as it is criminal action, not military action that is the threat (Iraq, Exhibit 1).
We did not have a VP running a secret shadow government, making foolish decisions based on ideology rather than facts. We had a president that embarrassed himself by playing nasty with an intern, not a president that has demeaned the office and undermined the nation through war power declarations that exist only in his mind, not any legal document anywhere. And the ensuing illegal spying, fighting, and containment of suspected terrorists, to name a few.
We could go on, but yeah, I’ll take a return to the 90’s politics any day. And lest I forget, I wonder what we will discover in the future about how much the Bush cabal has paid ben-Laden’s forces to hold off terrorist attacks in the U.S. throughout Bush’s presidency? My guess is somewhere very near the billions “missing” in Iraq.
The Other Steve
you are right, we’ll never get down to the 4400 level.
Hell, even like 17% of the nation approves of Paris Hilton.
Gus
Wrong. You attack Clinton until you’re nominated. In the general campaign you may (respectfully) disagree with Bush.
The Other Steve
So this is the GOP strategy? To advocate americans live in fear?
Pelikan
Tony J:
Perhaps you need the Finglonger.
Face
Ah, so domestic attacks belie foreign ones, eh? So Bush’s response to 9/11 begat the Bali disco bombings, as well as the Madrid train bombings and the London tube bombings also, right? RIGHT?
So Guliani will link bombings in another continent 5 years after the WTC thing, but not mention how the Madrid, London, and Bali explosions may have been linked to Bush’s Sept 11 response?
Dishonesty and hypocritical to the fullest.
Bubblegum Tate
Because the 1990s featured a stronger economy, a more respected USA, and generally happier citizenry–all overseen by a Democratic president! Unacceptable! These aren’t the droids you’re looking for, wingnuts!
I wasn’t much of a Clinton fan, but compared to the current administration, he looks like Integrity and Leadership personified.
Tillman Fan
I, too, wasn’t a Clinton fan in the 1990s, but the Republicans over the past 5 years have been so shameless in their demagoguery regarding Clinton and other Democrats that I’m sorry to say that I can’t help but feel myself immediately siding with Clinton when Republicans criticize him.
Wilfred
Hell yes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aTKLlJFXFahA&refer=home
The Other Steve
Gotta love this mitwit story!
Mitt Romney decided to go on the family vacation. So he loaded up the station wagon, put the dog in a dog carrier and strapped him to the top of the wagon.
A ways down the road, old Tagg Romney saw some brown stuff coming off the back of the car.
Mitt, showing his great handling of a crisis, pulled over and borrowing a hosed sprayed the car and the dog off. Put the dog back up on top of the car and kept going.
Being a midwesterner, I’m familiar with a lot of hunters and dog owners. You may put a dog in the back of a pickup in a carrier.
But you don’t strap it to the roof. Sheesh
Jake
Yes, of course. Because terrist are wild-eyed heathens incapable of planning a variety of attacks years ahead of the actual day something goes kaboom! They just grab a bunch of HEX and race off to the nearest thing with United States stencilled on the side.
I wonder if Rudy will keep pushing this line of crap or if it was a one time shipment of red meat to the Basers at R.U. He might be working his way up to a swipe at 43 or he might decide to ignore that little memo about the terrorists and airplanes. My money’s on Ignore.
The Other Steve
Bush has done a wonderful job at helping to make Bill look like a Great President.
Jake
From the Mittens story:
He created a crisis. He cleaned it up.
On the one hand, after 600 years under The Bush that seems like a vast improvement. On the other, the man just cleaned some dog crap off his damn car. I do not call this crisis managment. I call it cleaning crap off the car.
And he put the dog back in a position to crap down the car again.
Smart. Strong. Smells nice.
croatoan
Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’ from The Onion on Bush’s first inauguration.
Tsulagi
Yeah, so much smarter and effective to follow the brilliant lead set by the party of national security in the new millennium. Preemptively attack a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Spend years and hundreds of billions without any planning after Saddam’s statue fell in the most retarded ways possible while the 9/11 perps franchise.
Plus be sure to stay that course while thousands of US and Iraqi lives are lost and millions affected. Truly, Osama during at least one of his daily ass up prayer sessions must thank Allah for the Tard and the post-9/11 thinking of rubberstamping Republicans.
You know, since Rudy and the boys love to dress up as Reagan, and Rudy is such a historian of terrorist events, maybe he should use the Gipper’s shining example of what to do. When 241 service members, nearly all Marines, were killed by terrorist bombing in Beirut, within days we invaded…Grenada.
I’m seeing a pattern here among Republicans. If another Pub becomes The Decider and we’re attacked, who the fuck knows which country the new Commander Guy would have us invade and occupy. But at least Ronnie had the decency to send the guys to a nice place instead of that 120 degree sandpit hell called Iraq.
Vote Republican for national security? Be sure to visit the lobotomy machine and get your drool cup before jumping on that bus.
capelza
So a GOP candidate is speaking at Robertson’s “university”. I can’t wait for the next wingnut to tell me people like Pat Robertson are marginal and that he doesn’t really represent anyone when he spouts off some insane crap…oh, and American Taliban!!!!
ThymeZone
Off topic, but posting this link because it’s a topic of a thread here not long ago.
A sad story.
The Other Steve
Obviously you hate America. Those team owners deserve every dime they earn, and not a penny less.
AnonE.Mouse
Giuliani’s performance both before(outdated equipment,location of the command center)and after(criminal neglect of worker and citizen safety) is a Swift Boating begging to happen.I think there may be a heroic NY firefighter or two who could quickly dispel the notion of Rudy as saviour.
Jay C
I think the key to understanding Rudy!s remarks is described, precisely, by the venue he delivered them in:
Exactly the sort of audience likeliest to go snort-wild over bellicose tough-talk about “terrorism” – and even more so when the speaker can toss in a dump on Bubba the Boogeyman as a convenient punching-bag.
Well let’s trundle back to those awful 1990’s and contemplate exactly what were the dire consequences of treating the 1993 WTC bombing as a “crime”:
Let’s see….
Oh, that’s right: the perpetrators were identified, tracked down, arrested, tried, found guilty and tossed in jail for the rest of their miserable lives!
Works for me! I can’t see what Rudy Giuliani finds particularly wrong with this scenario, though – other than there not being any legalized torture involved.
jg
Is Darrell writing his speeches?
Keith
I thought the first terrorist attack on Americans was the fuel-air bomb attack on the military barracks in Beirut, 1983. Or does it not count if it wasn’t in the contiguous US? We’ve been a target of attacks for decades, and the earlier ones were where we had…wait for it…A MILITARY PRESENCE IN THEIR COUNTRIES.
Well, reading up on it, there were more going back further: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents
mclaren
Absolutely.
Bonzo the Chimp’s co-star sent American troops into Beuirut, where we scored another stunning American military triumph — oh, wait…
jake
No, no. It is better to let the perpetrators run around so you can keep using them to scare people and get re-elected. If you happen to catch a perpetrator you shouldn’t try him, you should keep him hidden away from lawyers, judges, reporters etc. so he can’t say embarrassing things like: “We hate Saddam Hussein.” or “Release me, I am Mary Queen of Scots!” because there’s nothing less scary than a perpetrator who is bat shit loony unless he is cackling about bathing in the blood of blonde American virgins.
And of course there is the fun of nabbing random non-perpetrators and keeping them locked up for when you need the thrill and excitment of subjecting them to unorthodox questioning methods.
Zifnab
At what point do you think one of the contracted improved information gathering experts removes the electrodes from a guy’s ass and finally writes the report that concluded “I don’t think this guy actually knows anything”?
HyperIon
umm, the players union appears to be a large part of the problem. but i agree that money is at the heart of the issue. (i was floored when i read that union pres Upshaw makes multiple millions per year.) god, what a bunch greedy bastards!
chopper
waitaminute, wasn’t the clinton administration the one that actually caught the dudes who attacked the WTC in 93? and threw them in prison? publically, and effectively?