NY Times: "Clinton Faults Bush Team Efforts to Get bin Laden Before Sept. 11."

This headline probably isn't what FOX News and Chris Wallace had in mind from their Clinton interview. [Click on the pic to watch the video of the interview; here is the transcript.] But, FOX provided the forum and asked the questions. Clinton told them the facts that have been ignored by the media for the past 5 years:

In the interview for “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Clinton defended the steps he took after the bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000 and faulted “right-wingers” for their criticism of his efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader."At least I tried," Clinton argued. "That's the difference in me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying."

"They had eight months to try," he continued. "They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terrorist strategy, and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted."

The Sept. 11 attacks occurred almost eight months after President Bush succeeded Mr. Clinton in January 2001.

Bush ignored the terrorism issue when he became President. That's well documented. He was warned about the threat from Al Qaeda repeatedly. He was told there were probably sleeper cells in the United States, but stayed on vacation after he got the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing that warned "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S."

Now, we've learned from the US Intelligence community that Bush's war in Iraq has made terrorism worse around the world:

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Clinton's right. But, there's more to it. Not only did Bush fail to get Bin Laden before 9/11. Since then, Bush has made the terrorism situation worse. He's a complete failure when it comes to national security.

- Joe in DC, AmericaBlog