June 26, 2006
Khobar Towers
The Wall Street Journal reminds us that it's been 10 years since the Khobar Towers were bombed by pig-tailed girl scouts.
Oh, I'm sorry.
- It soon became clear that Mr. Clinton and his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, had no interest in confronting the fact that Iran had blown up the towers. This is astounding, considering that the Saudi Security Service had arrested six of the bombers after the attack. As FBI agents sifted through the remains of Building 131 in 115-degree heat, the bombers admitted they had been trained by the Iranian external security service (IRGC) in Lebanon's Beka Valley and received their passports at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, along with $250,000 cash for the operation from IRGC Gen. Ahmad Sharifi.
We later learned that senior members of the Iranian government, including Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the Spiritual Leader's office had selected Khobar as their target and commissioned the Saudi Hezbollah to carry out the operation. The Saudi police told us that FBI agents had to interview the bombers in custody in order to make our case. To make this happen, however, the U.S. president would need to make a personal request to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
So for 30 months, I wrote and rewrote the same set of simple talking points for the president, Mr. Berger, and others to press the FBI's request to go inside a Saudi prison and interview the Khobar bombers. And for 30 months nothing happened. The Saudis reported back to us that the president and Mr. Berger would either fail to raise the matter with the crown prince or raise it without making any request. On one such occasion, our commander in chief instead hit up Prince Abdullah for a contribution to his library. Mr. Berger never once, in the course of the five-year investigation which coincided with his tenure, even asked how the investigation was going.
Please read all of former FBI Director Louis Freeh's op-ed. Iran Posted by AlexC at June 26, 2006 5:55 PM
(Keep in mind millions of pig tailed girl scouts never blow up a U.S. Embassy. Be careful not to paint with a broad brush.)
I may surprise some folks around here, but I thought Director Freeh may have been too tough on the Clinton Administration. While the record is clear on their fecklessness, it was the Chief Executive's decision whether to publicly implicate a foreign country, not the FBI's.
I do not appreciate the current CIA's setting their own policy in opposition to the Bush Administration, I can't condone the FBI's doing the same to the previous administration.
Can I? I'd like to.
Posted by: jk at June 26, 2006 6:37 PM | What do you think? [1]