The Aldrich Alert Gary Aldrich
A Publication of the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty

White House Drops The Ball on USS Cole Warning

by Gary Aldrich - Volume 1 Issue 24 October 25, 2000

When it comes to the protection of national security, over and over again the Clinton/Gore White House drops the ball.

So many examples exist as ironclad proof of the incompetence of this Clinton/Gore Administration in the area of national security, it seems useless to argue that this White House can or ever will do anything right.

Of course there are those who are still hoping to this day that they will "grow into the job." But, security professionals do not live on hope, or guess or gamble with the lives of others.

I don’t think the Clinton/Gore bunch will ever "get it" when it comes to the seriousness of the threats against this nation - they have only about 90 days left to get up to speed. Meanwhile, millions of our brave young service men and women are in harm’s way, at the mercy of those who are too often short on good decisions, and shorter still on high performance.

I know good journalism requires that examples of what I’m claiming be given, but frankly I’m so sick and tired of those blockheads in the White House that I can’t bear to list their many serious screw-ups again. Besides, if concerned citizens don’t know about the Clinton White House by now - if they haven’t reached a conclusion by now - what could I or anyone else write to help make up their minds?

Today in the Washington Times we learned that there were serious warnings given by NSA about a terrorist attack about to be launched against our citizens in a specific part of the world - that part of the world where the USS Cole was to be refueled. But the warnings were not passed on to the Navy in a timely manner. By the time the warnings made their way to the proper parties, many had already met a horrible, tragic fate.

I know from my time in the FBI that "hot" information of this kind, bearing on a terrorist act about to be perpetrated, would have been immediately sent to the White House so that officials within the NSC and the President’s inner circle could deal right away with whatever threat was raised. True security pros would have understood the need for immediate and decisive action.

Immediate action, such as passing on this serious warning to the US Navy ships in the area. We have taken an absence from excellence for so long, its difficult to remember a time when things actually did work swiftly, and smoothly.

When did we agree as a country that third-world performance was good enough?

We’ll now wait for the predictable congressional inquiry, but I’ll wager that Sandy Burger and his top level NSC staffers were absent from the premises when the warnings came in - probably off to some Gore Campaign fund-raiser, or perhaps hob-nobbing with some Chinese generals at a "hot" Washington night spot.

When I worked there I had a hard time finding any real serious people in the Clinton/Gore White House. "Sex, drugs and Rock and Roll" has a way of distracting folks away from serious business, I guess.

I know that sounds so cynical, but is there a single person left in this country that does not have an absolute right to their cynicism about this seriously flawed group of La La Land tribe from the incomprehensible, dysfunctional "Sixties?"

The FBI sent 100 special agents around to the other side of the globe to investigate crimes related to the attack on the USS Cole. How about sending about 50 FBI special agents down to the Clinton White House where some of the biggest crimes of our time have been committed?