Inside Politics

Finding the truth

Retired CIA officer Michael F. Scheuer, in a letter to the American Conservative magazine, says former President Bill Clinton “does a vast disservice to CIA officers, to the historical record and to the truth when he continues to claim that he did all he could to stop bin Laden. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Said Mr. Scheuer: “On behalf of CIA officers who risked their lives in Pakistan and Afghanistan to provide President Clinton with the chance to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, I can only shake my head with wonder over the former president’s unwillingness to accept his direct culpability for bin Laden being alive.

“The 9/11 Commission — notwithstanding its many faults — listed the occasions when Clinton could have ordered an attempt to kill or capture bin Laden based on information provided by CIA officers and on many occasions corroborated by signals intelligence or overhead imagery. On one day in particular, Clinton had the U.S. Air Force drop tons of bombs on the Serbs — who had not harmed or even threatened Americans — while refusing to sanction an attack on bin Laden.

“It would be in the interest of all Americans to settle this matter. The 9/11 commissioners chose not to. The documents submitted to them prove beyond doubt that Clinton had chances to kill or capture bin Laden. Indeed, on several occasions he, Sandy Berger and Richard Clarke were told that the quality of intelligence was very unlikely ever to be better.”

Mr. Scheuer added: “I personally submitted almost 500 pages of material pertaining specifically to missed opportunities to eliminate bin Laden, and I and many other officers testified under oath to the opportunities that were presented to Clinton and his National Security Council. None of these documents have been released to the public, and none of the officers were allowed to testify publicly.”

McGovern’s library

George McGovern may have lost the 1972 presidential election, but he inspired many others to work for justice, decency and a better life for poor people around the world, former President Bill Clinton said Saturday at a ceremony in Mitchell, S.D., to dedicate a library in Mr. McGovern’s honor.

“I believe no other presidential candidate ever has had such an enduring impact in defeat,” said Mr. Clinton, who directed Mr. McGovern’s presidential campaign in Texas. “Senator, the fires you lit then still burn in countless hearts.”

Mr. Clinton was the keynote speaker at the official dedication of a library and study center honoring the legacy of the former Democratic senator and his wife, Eleanor. Several thousand people, including Mr. McGovern, Sens. John Thune and Tim Johnson of South Dakota, and former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota gathered at Dakota Wesleyan University.

Mr. McGovern, 84, was remembered not only as an anti-Vietnam war candidate who lost by a landslide to President Nixon but also as a three-term U.S. senator, war hero and tireless worker for programs aimed at ending world hunger.

Mr. McGovern, a three-term senator who was defeated in a 1980 re-election bid, said he is pleased the library was built but is sad that his wife of nearly 63 years had to stay behind at their Montana cabin and miss the event. The two met at Dakota Wesleyan when they were students.

“She’s critically ill, and as the old song goes, she’s in the hands of the Almighty at this time,” Mr. McGovern said.

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