Dick Morris Tells NewsMax: Lewinsky Affair Impeded Hunt for bin Laden

Josey1

Dick Morris Tells NewsMax: Lewinsky Affair Impeded Hunt for bin LadenEx-President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky interfered with his ability to hunt down Twin Towers terrorist Osama bin Laden, one-time White House political guru Dick Morris tells NewsMax.com exclusively."My sense is that the affair made him passive and risk-averse," Morris said Thursday. "As a result, I think he was less inclined to interfere with the military or to order long-term involvement," explained the man who engineered Clinton's second-term election victory.The statements of the key Clinton aide come in the wake of the ex-president's recent claims that eliminating bin Laden was one of his administration's top priorites."I authorized the arrest and, if necessary, the killing of Osama bin Laden," Clinton told reporters late last week. "And we actually made contact with a group in Afghanistan to do it. And they were unsuccessful." Just two days after the Twin Towers attacks, the former president specifically denied that the risks of military commitment hampered his efforts to take bin Laden out."No, it's not true. The best shot we had at Osama bin Laden was when I bombed his training camp in 1998 and we missed him by just a matter of hours. Maybe even less than an hour," Clinton told the Fox News Channel.But, like many skeptics of that effort, Morris believes that the cruise missile attacks on bin Laden's camp had more to do with the burgeoning Lewinsky sex scandal than nailing the deadly terrorist."I also remain suspicious at the juxtaposition of the strikes and his need to show that he was an active, involved president during the scandal," he told NewsMax.com.Last week the Boston Globe reported that Clinton was distracted by legal issues prompted by his affair with Lewinsky while he was trying to focus on taking the terrorist out. "He met with national security and military advisers to plan the attacks between sessions with lawyers to prepare for his grand jury testimony," the paper said.Worse still, "he authorized the attack on the same August weekend in 1998 that he confessed his affair with Lewinsky to his wife," the Globe noted, describing the predicament as "an added strain." Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:Clinton ScandalsWar on Terrorism

badboybob

Horse pucky. If this article was a bit longer I could fertilize my garden with it.[This message has been edited by badboybob (edited 09-27-2001).]

landis

More like, the "Lewinsky" affair caused the judgement of our President to be impared, and to start shooting indiscreminantly at aspirine factories and killing a lot of innocents in Afganistan, causing an increased anti-American sentiment which led to the WT disaster 9-11.

Patrick Odle

Bubba the most acomplished liar I have ever known of in all my years. But by the polling evidence it will make one more popular than the truth.

Free N TX

He lied back then and he is still a liar now. You can not tell me he had to be involved in the planning of an attempt on bin Laden. All he had to do was put out the order to nail his butt and let the military do the rest, that is what they get paid for.More likely he was thinkin about where he could hide the wet cigar and buy some more before Hiltlery came in and found her stash short one cigar.