Getting Facts Right

President Bush is putting the heat on the Democrats.

He delivered another powerful speech today highlighting the weakness of Democrats on national security. Bush is continuing this security offensive and is doing a heckuva good job.

Bush blasted away today saying:

"Five years after 9/11, the worst attack on the American homeland in our history, Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing. The party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run."

The President’s point was right on the money.

The spokeswoman from the Democratic National Committee responded, “[Bush’s] failed policies have made America less safe and spawned terrorism, not decreased it. Democrats will be tough and smart, and will actually fight the terrorists, not leave them to plan future attacks."

Huh?

In addition, Sen. Hillary Clinton recently said, “I’m certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled ‘ Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States’ he would’ve taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team.”

Dems have to be held accountable for these kinds of statements.

What Mrs. Clinton neglected to tell us is that in the December 4th 1998 Presidential Daily Brief received by President Clinton, the subject was “Bin Laden preparing to hijack U.S. aircraft and other attacks.”

It went on to say some members of the Bin Laden network had received hijack training according to various sources and that the Bin Laden organization and its allies were moving closer to implementing anti-U.S. attacks at unspecified locations.

This material comes from the 9/11 Commission which Mr. Clinton himself cited during his interview with Chris Wallace.

Additionally, terrorist expert Richard Clarke, who Mr. Clinton also cited in the Chris Wallace interview, made it clear in an August 2002 press conference that the Bush administration was stepping up the anti-terror, anti Bin Laden effort quite a bit during their first eight months, contrary to what President Clinton told Chris Wallace.

There are two key points to Clarke’s briefing:

First, Clarke said that President Bush shifted the war effort from a rollback strategy to an elimination strategy. Second, the Bush Administration increased the anti al Qaeda budget by fivefold. Hence the Bushies were much tougher on al Qaeda.

Now I’m not saying that Bush didn’t make mistakes, just as Clinton made mistakes. What’s more, I grow weary of all this finger pointing over past actions because the key point is to win the war as a future strategy.

But in terms of charges and countercharges, the facts clearly show that Bill Clinton was apprised of a direct Bin Laden attack threat. History also shows that Bush did step up the anti-al Qaeda pace during his earliest months pre-9/11.

It’s a pleasure to use the same sources like Richard Clarke and the 9/11 Commission that Mr. Clinton used in his angered tirade on Fox News.