Lies, damn lies, Albright and Clarke

I could almost excuse Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., for his scandalous comments that the president had "concocted the war in Iraq from Texas." After all, America's poster sot for anti-drunk-driving legislation was probably just confused. He forgot "the lie, after lie, after lie," was not told in Texas by the president, but rather by himself on the banks of the Chappaquiddick. But Madeleine Albright and Richard Clarke are a different story.

Former Secretary of State Albright – second only to Katie Couric and Eleanor Clift for facial contortions – claimed during the 9-11 Commission hearings that the Clinton administration "did everything we could think of" to defeat al-Qaida. My question to Ms. Albright, if I were given opportunity, would be: "Exactly which time Madame?"

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• Would it have been in 1993 when the World Trade Center bombing left 6 dead and 1,000 injured?

• Would it have been in 1995, when five U.S. military personnel were killed in a Saudi Arabia bombing?

• Perhaps it was in 1996, after the bombing of King Aziz Air Force Base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that left 23 Americans dead and 300 injured?

• Or, perhaps it was in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, that left 19 dead and 500 injured?

• Was it in 1998, when 224 were killed and 4,000 injured in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa?

• Or maybe it was the bombing of the USS Cole, which left 17 dead and 39 injured U.S. sailors?

Considering that after each of these events then-President Clinton promised to hunt down and punish those responsible, while doing absolutely nothing – not even visiting the sites – just what kind of action was it that you deemed "everything we could think of"?

Considering that Clinton refused the Sudanese President Bashir's offer to arrest, detain and hand over Osama bin Laden to the United States; considering that Bashir's government had intelligence of OBL's daily activities and detailed intelligence concerning his finances; considering that Steven Simon, then-director of counter-terrorism on Clinton's National Security Council, told the Washington Post: "I [we] really only cared about one thing, that was getting [OBL] out of Sudan. Not the accepting of responsibility for taking him into custody"; considering that former Clinton adviser, Dick Morris said, "[Clinton] didn't do a single thing of the stuff that I recommended on terror" (Hannity & Colmes, Dec. 20, 2001); considering that had Morris' suggestions been heeded, Mohamed Atta would have been deported before 9-11; considering as Morris put it, "In each of these areas he [Clinton] fell asleep at the switch"; considering all of these examples, Ms. Albright, exactly which time and under exactly which circumstances did you do "everything you could think of"?

Your actions in North Korea, Madame Secretary, were less than stellar – certainly not rising to your support of a president who wagged his finger in the face of America, while lying through his teeth.

As to the former counter-terror czar, now former cybersecurity chief, Richard Clarke, my question to him would be where, exactly, were you when all of the aforementioned was taking place?

At the time of your leaving the Bush administration, there was no mention of the "grave concerns" you claim to have had pursuant to the president's directing of the war on terrorism.

In 2002 you told Jim Angle of Fox News and a handful of other reporters that:

• There was no plan on al-Qaida that was passed from the Clinton administration to Bush's.

• You said the Bush administration decided to "increase CIA resources for covert action, five-fold, to go after al-Qaida.

• The new administration, you claimed at that time, "Then changed the strategy from one of rollback with al-Qaida over the course of five years which it had been, to a new strategy that called for the rapid elimination of al-Qaida."

In your resignation letter, you wrote, "I will always remember the courage, determination, calm and leadership you demonstrated on September 11th ..."

You claimed March 24, 2004, that the Clinton administration had "no higher priority" than destroying the terrorism, whereas the Bush administration made it "an important issue, but not an urgent one." Yet you told Angle and the reporters in the August 2002 interview that the Clinton administration "never had a plan" for dealing effectively and forthrightly with terrorism.

You claim in your just released book, that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's facial expression led you to believe she had never heard of al-Qaida, during a briefing in 2001. Yet an audio clip aired by Sean Hannity (Fox News Channel, March 24, 2004) proves unequivocally that Rice had mentioned OBL and al-Qaida as threats a full year before said briefing took place.

So, Mr. Clarke, the question that begs an answer is, were you lying before or are you lying now? And since you are-were obviously lying, why would anyone apart from the Bush haters believe even "hello" and "goodbye" if it comes out of your mouth?