HRC Defines Irony in Accusation Against Bush

I just read this in a report on Hillary Clinton...

And during a foreign policy address Wednesday at Princeton University, she accused the Bush administration of "downplaying" the threat posed by Iran and its nuclear program.

...then I laughed, and I laughed, and I laughed.

'Cause not 30 minutes before I was reading about the Khobar Tower attacks in Louis Freeh's book, My FBI.

In it he details the continuous roadblocks he met in investigating this case and seeking justice for the families of the Americans killed. He asked for help from the Clinton administration in gaining cooperation from the Saudis, and was met with promises but no action. He eventually turned to former president George H. W. Bush to intervene with the Saudi royal family to gain access to witnesses, and voila, the cooperation was granted. And what did they find out?

"...almost beyond a doubt that the Khobar Tower attacks had been sanctioned, funded, and directed by senior officials of the government of Iran."

So the FBI discovered that Iran was directly responsible for the terrorist attack against America, that killed 19 and wounded 372. And Sandy Berger's response to being briefed on these facts?

"Who knows about this?"

Apparently the Clinton administration had political reasons for not wanting it to get out that Iran was responsible. Then they'd have to do pesky little things like seek justice for American citizens who were killed or injured by terrorists, which might make things sticky as they pursued their political objectives.

So, rather than being about how to deal with the Iranian attack, the meeting in the West Wing was about...

"...how to deal with the press and with Congress, should news of the Iranian involvement in the Khobar murders leak outside of the room."

and...

"Remarkably (although that's an insufficient word), Sandy's people had prepared a script A and script B for spinning the story once it did become public: script A for Republicans on the Hill, script B for those nosy reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times, etc."

Whether or not Bush has given Iran enough attention, it just seems a wee bit ironic to this blogger that Hillary chose to make that particular accusation against the president when her husband's administration wilfully and knowingly dropped the ball on Iran's terrorist activities against Americans.

But, hey -- maybe it's just me.

NOTE: As of the writing of Freeh's book, which was published in October 2005, the Khobar Tower case is still pending, with outstanding warrants for 14 defendants.

Hillary Clinton
George Bush
Iran
Bill Clinton
Irony