Clinton 'finger pointing' - Bush
2006-09-27 07:26
Washington - US President George W Bush on Tuesday dismissed as "finger-pointing" criticism from his predecessor Bill Clinton of his counter-terrorism efforts in the months leading up to the September 11 attacks.
Clinton, angrily defending his own administration's
attempts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, had accused the
Bush administration of doing far less to stop the al-Qaeda
leader before the 2001 hijack plane attacks.
Bush, who is trying to stave off a Democratic takeover of
Congress in November, seemed to bristle when asked about
Clinton, only to sidestep his assertions.
Finger-pointing
"We'll let history judge all the different finger-pointing
and all that business. I don't have enough time to
finger-point," he said at a news conference with Afghan
President Hamid Karzai.
"I've got to do my job," he added, "and that is to protect
the American people from further attacks".
Bush spoke two days after Fox News Sunday aired a heated
interview in which Clinton defended steps he took after al-Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and faulted criticism by "right-wingers" of his efforts to capture bin Laden.
"They had eight months to try, they did not try," Clinton
said of the Bush administration response. The September 11 attacks
occurred almost eight months after Bush succeeded Clinton.
Battle plans
Clinton also said when his term ended he left the new
Republican administration "battle plans" for going into
Afghanistan, overthrowing the Taliban and launching a
full-scale search for bin Laden.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice disputed Clinton's
statement. "We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight
al-Qaeda," she told the New York Post.
Iraq
Asked about Clinton's comments, Bush said, "I've watched
all the finger-pointing and namings of names and all that
stuff. Our objective is to secure the country. We've had
investigations. We had the 9/11 commission, we've had the
look-back this, we had the look-back that."
Bush also said it was "preposterous" for opponents of his
Iraq war strategy to call for a swift US troop withdrawal.
He has sought to rally public support for the unpopular
Iraq war by framing it as an extension of the "war on
terrorism" he declared after the September 11 attacks.
Many Democrats say Iraq is a distraction from the broader fight.
- Reuters