A spokesman for ex-president Clinton attacked a new book by former FBI director Louis Freeh that's sharply critical of Clinton's handling of the war on terrorism, calling Freeh "a man who's desperate to clear his name." "This is clearly a total work of fiction by a man who's desperate to clear his name and sell books," Jay Carson told the Washington Post, noting that the former New Jersey judge contributed nearly $20,000 to Republicans, including President Bush, in the last campaign. "It's unfortunate he'd stoop to this level in his attempt to rewrite history," Carson said. | You mean as opposed to Bill and Hillary's books? |
Freeh's book, "My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror," offers a scorching account of Clinton's mishandling of the Khobar Towers bombing investigation.
The former top G-man is set to appear on CBS "60 Minutes" to detail his scathing revelations, including a claim that Clinton hit up Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for a donation to his presidential library after signaling he wouldn't press him on the Khobar probe. "The former president declined to respond to this charge," CBS News reports on its web site. The Clinton camp told the Washington Post that "60 Minutes" would not accept any surrogate to rebut Freeh on camera once the former president declined to be interviewed. | Hummm, 60 Minutes turning on Bill? |
Daniel Benjamin, a former Clinton counterterrorism official, said Freeh is "factually wrong." Clinton "pushed the crown prince quite hard," and eventually won Saudi cooperation that led to indictments in the case. | They indicted and executed a few people who may or may not of had anything to do with the Kobar bombing. |
"Freeh has been clearly discredited by the 9/11 commission and the congressional joint inquiry," Benjamin insisted.
But Freeh may have witnesses who can back his story - including former President Bush. In a 2003 op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Freeh wrote that he turned to Bush 41 for help with the Khobar probe after Clinton refused. "After months of inaction, I finally turned to the former President Bush, who immediately interceded with [Saudi] Crown Prince Abdullah on the FBI's behalf," Freeh revealed. "Mr. Bush personally asked the Saudis to let the FBI do one-on-one interviews of the detained Khobar bombers. The Saudis immediately acceded," he explained. "This was the investigative breakthrough for which we had been waiting for several years." | Which lead to....what, exactly? |
Freeh blamed Clinton's personal scandals for distracting both the White House and the FBI as the terrorist threat grew. |