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Rice challenges Clinton
26/09/2006 22:29 - (SA)
New York - Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has challenged former president Bill Clinton's claim that he did more than many of his conservative critics to pursue al-Qaeda.
In an interview published on Tuesday, she said the Bush administration had aggressively pursued the group even before the 9/11 attacks.
"What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years," Rice said during a meeting with editors and reporters at the New York Post.
The newspaper published her comments after Clinton appeared on Fox News Sunday in a combative interview in which he defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and said he "worked hard" to have the al-Qaeda leader killed. 'Ridiculed for trying'
"That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Clinton said in the interview. "They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try."
Rice disputed his assessment.
"The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false - and I think the 9/11 commission understood that," she said.
Rice also took exception to Clinton's statement that he "left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy" for incoming officials when he left office.
"We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaeda," she told the newspaper.
The Clinton interview has been the focus of much attention - drawing nearly 1.2 million views on YouTube and earning the show its best ratings in nearly three years.
Rice questioned the value of the dialogue.
"I think this is not a very fruitful discussion," she said. "We've been through it. "The 9/11 commission has turned over every rock and we know exactly what they said."
- AP
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