Sean Hannity, Osama and the Bill Clinton Canard
27 January 2006 3:46 pm by Taylor Marsh
Sean Hannity, Osama and the Bill Clinton Canard
Since you come here, and read what we write, we at
DU have some words for you. Since your screener will never take my calls,
I shall communicate with you here.My husband was a NYC fireman, working on 9/11. We both
used to be republicans; in fact, I used to listen to you every day. I finally
turned you off and started thinking for myself. Why? Because no matter the
issue, you always support the Republican way. Now, any thinking person will
have some issues with their party. But you never did . Because you don’t think.
Take the war on terror, for instance. My husband and
I are angry; we are angry that you and your cohorts and this president are
using our tragedy for political gain. You see, my husband, a fireman in NYC,
was working on 9/11. I thought he was dead the entire day. He is now disabled,
due to the clean-up at the WTC site. And yet, even with our personal experience
with terrorism, we believe the Iraq war was a sham. … …So let me tell you the final reason I became a Democrat
and only listen to you to keep tabs on what you are plotting: the rhetoric
coming from you, Limbaugh, O’Reilly and your ilk. I heard you call liberals
“evil” one too many times, and it disgusted and scared me. You see,
this is what the Germans did to the Jews in the 1930s. I used to teach my
students the propaganda that went on in 1930s Germany when I taught them the
book “Night” by Elie Wiesel. The Jews were called “evil,”
“disloyal,” “against their country,” “rats,”
all words, if you notice, that you call Democrats/liberals. So I could no
longer support a party that was actively trying to cause hatred between Americans,
and promoting such dangerous speech. I no longer support a party that whips
up the worst instincts in its members, rather than their better side.
Sean Hannity is one of the most dangerous people in America, that’s
right, dangerous. He’s got a tremendous amount of power, which starts
on radio and extends through “Hannity and Colmes.”
There has been an active campaign for a very long time to portray
Democrats as unpatriotic, radical, even un-American, especially when it comes
to matters of national security. Look what the right-wing did to John Kerry
across the airwaves and networks.
This brings me to Sean Hannity’s continuing campaign canard that
President Clinton refused the Sudanese offer to take Osama bin Laden into custody.
He repeats it every chance he gets, which happened again recently when yet another
bin Laden tape popped up. Hannity plays a tape of Clinton “admitting”
he refused to take bin Laden. However, what he doesn’t do is say that on more than one occasion, President Clinton
has said he mis-spoke in that clip and has retracted what he said unequivocally. But
Sean continues, as if time stopped the day the tape was made. He also likes
to assert that an “indictment” against bin Laden was the only standard
by which the Clinton administration would capture Osama. It’s preposterous, not to mention untrue, but it serves
his argument and Republican Party talking points not to clarify the story with the truth.
These contacts with Sudan, which went
on for years, have become a source of controversy. Former Sudanese officials
claim that Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to the United States. Clinton
administration officials deny ever receiving such an offer. We have not found
any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim.Sudan did offer to expel Bin Ladin to
Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudis to pardon him. U.S. officials became aware
of these secret discussion, certainly by March 1996. The evidence suggests
that the Saudi government wanted Bin Ladin expelled from Sudan, but would
not agree to pardon him. The Saudis did not want Bin Ladin back in their country
at all.
Yet both Berger and Clarke also said the
lack of an indictment made no difference. Instead they said the idea was not
worth pursuing because there was no chance that Sudan would ever turn over
Bin Ladin to a hostile country. If Sudan had been serious, Clarke said, the
United States would have worked something out.
9/11
Commission Staff Statement No. 5 (also see here)
The Sudanese evidently made a secret deal to get bin Laden to
Afghanistan, by way of the United Arab Emirates. They didn’t inform the U.S.
until two days after Osama had left Sudan. Did the U.S. try to intercept bin
Laden? It’s not even clear whether we knew he’d left Sudan at the time of his
departure.
Nothing hurts the Democratic Party more than the continued myth
that Republicans are strong and Democrats are weak. Karl Rove has put more muscle
behind that message.
“President Bush and the Republican
Party do,” Rove informed us. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be
said for many Democrats.”Rove went on: “Republicans have a post-9/11
worldview, and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview. That doesn’t make
them unpatriotic — not at all. But it does make them wrong — deeply and
profoundly and consistently wrong.”
And though Rove may be the brain behind all things Bush, the pied piper of the president’s propaganda is Sean Hannity.
