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• Monday, May 3, 2010 - So did Paul Tsongas, who said the Clinton who...
| So did Paul Tsongas, who said the Clinton who spoke to Congress was not the Clinton he ran against, which, of course, is what my political advisors and some congressional Democrats were worried about
There were enough important and controversial proposals in the speech to keep Congress busy for the rest of the year, not to mention the other legislation that already was, or soon would be, on their calendarI knew that there would be a lot of ups and downs before the economic program passed, and that I wouldnt be able to spend all of my time pushing itForeign problems and domestic developments wouldnt permit it
On the home front, February ended in violenceOn the twenty-sixth, a bomb exploded at Manhattans World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than one thousandThe investigation quickly revealed it to be the work of terrorists from the Middle East, who hadnt covered their tracks very wellThe first arrests were made March 4; eventually, six of the conspirators were convicted in federal court in New York and each sentenced to 240 years in prisonI was pleased with the effectiveness of our law-enforcement work, but troubled by the evident vulnerability of our open society to terrorMy national security team began to devote more attention to terror networks and what we could do to protect ourselves and free male rolex watches societies around the world against them
On February 28, four agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms were killed and sixteen others wounded at the onset of a confrontation with a religious cult, the Branch Davidians, at their compound outside Waco, TexasThe Davidians were suspected of illegal firearms violationsThe sects messianic leader, David Koresh, believed he was Christ reincarnate, the only person who knew the secret of the seven seals referred to in the book of RevelationKoresh had almost hypnotic mind control over the men, women, and children who followed him; a large arsenal of weapons, which he was obviously prepared to use; and enough food to hold out for a long timeThe standoff between the Davidians and the FBI dragged out for almost two monthsDuring that time, several adults and children left, but most of them stayed, with Koresh promising to surrender but always finding an excuse to delay doing so
On Sunday night, April 18, Janet Reno came to the White House to tell me that the FBI wanted to storm the compound, apprehend Koresh and any of his followers who had taken part in killing the agents or some other crime, and free the rest of themJanet said she was concerned by FBI reports that Koresh was ***ually abusing children, most of them pre-teens, and that he might be planning a mass replica chanel handbag suicideThe FBI had also told her that it couldnt keep so many of its resources tied down in one place foreverThey wanted to raid the compound the next day, using armored vehicles to break holes in the buildings, then blast tear gas into them, a maneuver they estimated would force all the members to surrender within two hoursReno had to approve the assault and wanted my okay first
Several years earlier, I had faced a similar situation as governorA right-wing extremist group had established a compound in the mountains of north ArkansasAmong the men, women, and children who lived there were two suspects wanted for murderThe people lived in several cabins, each of which had a trapdoor that led to a dugout from which they could fire on approaching authoritiesAnd they had a lot of weapons to fireThe FBI wanted to storm them, tooAt a meeting I convened with the FBI, our state police, and cooperating law-enforcement people from Missouri and Oklahoma, I listened to the FBIs case, then said that before I could approve the action, I wanted someone whod fought in the jungles of Vietnam to fly over the place in a helicopter and make an assessmentThe battlewise veteran who made the inspection for me returned to say, If those people can shoot at all, youll lose fifty men in the assaultI called off the raid, put a blockade around the prada evening bags camp, cut off food-stamp aid to the several families who had been receiving it, and prevented anyone who left the premises to get supplies from going backEventually the holdouts gave in, and the suspects were apprehended with no loss of life
When Janet made her case to me, I thought we should try what had worked in Arkansas before we approved the FBI raidShe countered that the FBI was tired of waiting; that the standoff was costing the government a million dollars a week and tying up law-enforcement resources needed elsewhere; that the Branch Davidians could hold out longer than the Arkansas people had; and that the possibilities of child ***ual abuse and mass suicide were real, because Koresh was crazy and so were many of his followersFinally, I told her that if she thought it was the right thing to do, she could go ahead
The next day, as I watched CNN on a television just outside the Oval Office, I saw Koreshs compound in flamesThe raid had gone terribly wrongAfter the FBI fired the tear gas into the buildings where the people were holed up, the Davidians started a fireIt got worse when they opened the windows to let the tear gas out and also let in a hard wind off the Texas plains, which stoked the flamesWhen it ended, more than eighty people had died, including twenty-five children; only nine survivedI knew I latest fendi bags needed to speak to the press and take responsibility for the fiascoSo did Dee Dee Myers and Bruce LindseyBut several times during the day, when I wanted to go ahead, George Stephanopoulos urged me to wait, saying we didnt know whether anyone was still alive or whether, if Koresh heard my words, he might snap and kill them, tooJanet Reno did appear before the cameras, explained what happened, and took full responsibility for the raidAs the first woman to hold the attorney generals post, she thought it was important not to pass the buckBy the time I finally talked to the press about Waco, Reno was being praised and I was being criticized for letting her take the fall
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I had accepted advice that ran counter to my instinctsHe was young and cautious and had given me his honest, albeit mistaken, opinionBut I was furious at myself, first for agreeing to the raid against my better judgment, then for delaying a public acknowledgment of responsibility for itOne of the most important decisions a President has to make is when to take the advice of the people who work for him and when to reject itNobody can be right all the time, but its a lot easier to live with bad decisions that you believed in when you made them than with those your advisors say are right but your gut says are fendi spy wr |
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