Crowley falsely claims Bush, Cheney had "100 percent perfect track record" in preventing "Islamic terrorist attack"
On The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley asserted that "[a]fter 9-11, President Bush and Vice President Cheney had a 100 percent perfect track record in keeping the homeland safe from an Islamic terrorist attack." In fact, while Crowley and other conservative media figures have recently downplayed the number of attacks on the United States under former President Bush, there were numerous post-9-11 terrorist attacks attempted and carried out during the Bush administration.
Please upgrade your flash player. The video for this item requires a newer version of Flash Player. If you are unable to install flash you can download a QuickTime version of the video.
From the January 5 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
CROWLEY: After 9-11, President Bush and Vice President Cheney had a 100 percent perfect track record in keeping the homeland safe from an Islamic terrorist attack. So far this year, we've had numerous attacks.
O'REILLY: Well, what about the shoe bomber? What about the shoe bomber?
CROWLEY: That was coming into the United States. It was not a domestic terror attack. I mean, it was meant to be, but it was stopped by the folks on the plane. So far this year, we've had a dramatic uptick in the number of attacks that have actually been successful in being carried out. We had the shooting deaths of the U.S. military in Little Rock, Arkansas, left one dead. We had the Fort Hood shootings. We've got the arrest of five Muslim Americans coming out of Washington, D.C., in Pakistan on terrorism charges. And the list goes on. And now, of course, we have this Detroit bombing.
Fact: Islamic attacks took place under Bush after 9-11
2002 attack against El Al ticket counter at LAX. In July 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet opened fire at an El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, killing two people and wounding four others before being shot dead. A 2004 Justice Department report stated that Hadayet's case had been "officially designated as an act of international terrorism."
2006 UNC SUV attack. In March 2006, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV into an area of campus, striking nine pedestrians. According to reports, Taheri-azar said he acted because he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world." Taheri-azar also reportedly stated in a letter: "I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree."
2001 shoe bomber attempted attack. In June 2008, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described Reid's December 2001 attempt "to blow up a trans-Atlantic plane with a shoe bomb" as an attempt to "carry out terrorist operations for Al-Qaeda."
Fact: Crowley's list of "numerous attacks" during Obama administration included arrest of students, foiled attack
Students arrested while seeking to join terrorists, not for having carried out attacks. After stating that "we've had a dramatic uptick in the number of attacks that have actually been successful in being carried out," Crowley listed several attacks, including the arrest in Pakistan of five Muslim students from Virginia. However, the students reportedly were arrested after an investigation by Pakistani officials and the FBI while seeking to join terrorist groups.
Crowley cites Abdulmutallab among attacks, dismisses Reid's similar attempted bombing. In her list of "numerous attacks," Crowley also included "this Detroit bombing." However, the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from the Netherlands to Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was unsuccessful after other passengers on the flight subdued him as he attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear. The circumstances of his attack were similar to those of the attempted December 2001 bombing of American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. In that attack, passengers subdued Reid as he tried to light a fuse to set off explosives concealed in his sneakers. When O'Reilly brought up the Reid attack, Crowley stated: "That was coming into the United States. It was not a domestic terror attack. I mean, it was meant to be, but it was stopped by the folks on the plane."
Fact: Other conservatives have also denied existence of terrorist attacks under Bush
Frederick, Perino ignore attacks that occurred during Bush term. As Media Matters for America has documented, other conservative media figures also have denied that terrorist attacks occurred under Bush after 9-11. In a Las Vegas Review-Journal column, Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick falsely claimed that "the two cases of domestic terrorism since 9/11" happened "on Obama's watch." Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino falsely claimed on the November 24, 2009, edition of Fox News' Hannity that "[w]e did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term."
But they don't seem to want to talk about the failings of the Bush administration regarding 9/11. Monica Crowley is just another in a long line of excuse makers who prefers to not hold the Bush administration accountable in any way for what happened on 9/11. If she could find a way, she'd probably like to blame Obama for 9/11.
And there isn't a way to contend that there weren't any terrorist attacks after 9/11 while Bush was in office, but even if there weren't, there's no way anyone can claim that it's a result of Bush's policies and actions! In fact, there are more terrorists, in more countries, now than ever before AS A RESULT of Bush's aggressive behavior in the mideast and his failure to successfully capitalize on the worldwide goodwill we had after 9/11.
You wouldn't need 'em! If our gov't acted like THIS, I can assure you that I would galdly be counted among the "terrorists" seeking to overthorw it.
(Along with all the other Liberals and Civil Libertarians while the conservatives and right-wingers cower in their beds, wetting their sheets.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Glen Beck's paradise of "freedom" is exactly what your describing!
If you couldn't lie, you couldn't post.
What I said was I expected an assurance from the head of homeland security that this negligent, sloppy security lapse in letting this terrorist on the plane won't happen again, under her watch. I never said anything about an assurance of no terrorist attack ever happening again. So many warning signs were missed with the Christmas Day bomber that it's inexcusable, from his own father's warnings to our CIA to many other red flags that we missed, and dots we didn't connect.
So please leave my name out of your posts because it is inevitably attached to one of your lies. Post your own opinions, exclusively.
The liar on that thread and on countless others has been you.
There wasn't a sloppy security lapse at the Amsterdam airport. The problem was the inability of the analysts to determine that this one person was a risk!
Janet Napolitano has a role in the actual security at the gates, but it's a different person who oversees the intelligence gathering...but for some reason, you're only going after her, when it wasn't her failure at all.
So, you were demanded assurances that she not fail you again, when the truth is that she hadn't failed you at all!
And when you stop acting in a dishonest fashion, I'll stop using you as an example of dishonest behavior.
She didn't? What exactly did she do to thwart the Christmas Day bombing?
However, I am all in favor of eliminating her position. These extra layers of national security bureaucracy have done nothing to fix the problem and, in my opinion, have exacerbated it. I think it is bigger than any one position even.
I know I am repeating myself but we have invaded multiple countries, killed thousands, spent billions, and still we have the original problem that failed us on 9/11. We seem to be able to actually gather info, but our system does not seem efficient nor effective enough to work quickly enough to act on the info it has.
We have too many different layers of different departments of bureaucracy and none of them seem to trust each other enough to share pertinent information. We need to streamline this national security thing, and instead we added another entire layer of bureaucracy ontop of it to make ourselves feel better. G-Dub is responsible for this - yet another decision that played well to the frightened while actually making the problem worse. But, it will take a real leader to step up and explain to the American people that we will never be completely safe in a free society. Never. And, that we are acually less safe by adding unnecessary layers of bureaucracy to the national security team.
We need one (maybe two) departments that can operate efficiently and effectively and is not afraid to share information up the chain of command quickly so that info can be acted on. I will not hold my breath for Obama to step up and tell us these hard truths. He seems like a good man and a decent president so far, but he also seems to have become too poltically sensitive to spend his political capital telling the American people what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear.
I know these statistics don't bother them because when we liberals talk about regulating car manufacturers to make them safer or providing a public health insurance option so the uninsured get coverage or increasing FDA oversight on drugs to protect consumers, they all scream in unison about the dangers of socialism and big government interfering in the "free market".
But somehow, they are always able to label liberals as being "weak on terror" or "weak on national defense" without getting kicked in the teeth like they deserve for being such un-American A-holes. Let's start kicking, and keep kicking these cowards to the curb, where they belong.
"We know what happened, we know what didn't happen, and we know how to fix it," Jones said. "That should be an encouraging aspect. We don't have to reinvent anything to make sure it doesn't happen again." by James Jones, WH National Security Advisor today.
So Dolly, take up your unreasonable expectations with Mr. Jones.
You said "She took no responsibility, no assurance this couldn't happen again." That's not the same thing as what this guy said.
You were wrong the other day, and you're still wrong.
It was a failure to connect the dots within the intelligence division. It was a one letter misspelling of the guy's name that made them miss that potential sign - are you going to hold HER responsible for the misspelled name? Or for the people who didn't connect the dots? Or for Amsterdam believing that using a body scanner was against the EU's rules?
"What I said was I expected an assurance from the head of homeland security that this negligent, sloppy security lapse in letting this terrorist on the plane won't happen again, under her watch."
It wasn't her fault. I am sorry you think that people should be fired for things that weren't their fault, and I hope you're never a boss of anyone else so that you can't fire anyone for someone else's mistakes.
I also liked Obama's speech. I like almost all of his speeches. He says all the right things. The man gives great speech. I would, however, like to see him actually follow through on some of the tough decisions that he knows must be made. I would like to see him spend more of his own political capital. For a few examples, I would have liked for him to push for his own healthcare reform package and let us know what reforms he saw as necessary to fix the mess. I would like to hear him come out and say which reforms he thinks the national security apparatus needs to become more efficient and able to move more quickly.
I, for one, want a leader to lead me. I think the American people do as well. And, I also think there are many, many Americans like me who believe that Obama is a very smart and decent man and is willing to give him a chance and the benefit of the doubt if he would only step forward and lead a little more forcefully.
I haven't read or seen a thing that says that a father saying he's worried about a son is enough to ban him from an airplane to the USA. What I've seen is that the additional information is what should keep him off the plane.
Also, I take this post to mean that MMfA agrees that the Ft. Hood shooting was a true terrorist attack, because it considered the UNC student driving through people and the shooting at LAX to be so as well...unless MMfA is just going by whatever the government at the time designated the action to be.
I second that!
George W. Bush is no longer the president. Time to move on. Wasn't 'moving on' the whole point of one of your sister fascist organizations?
No. Your "side," Dick, keeps blaming Clinton for, well, pretty much everything, and you expect us to be dishonest about Dubya's lingering coat-tails? Get real, please.
The person after whom you take your screen name is no longer Vice President. Time to move on, friend.
While BOY GEORGE is no longer in office, PRESIDENT OBAMA, and the rest of the country are having to deal the failures and disasters of his administration and will be for years to come.Cheney,you are a complete RIGHT WING fool.
Crowley brought it up. She mentioned that the shoe bomber was unsuccessful but she called this lated thwarted attack a "bombing".
Didn't people die??
It is funny, though. There is this list going around by conservatives (while fully engaged in their "bash Muslims" mode) who claim all sorts of "Islamic Terror Attacks on American Soil" that - what do you know? - happened under the Bush Administration:
3/19/2002 - Tuscon, AZ - A 60-year-old man is gunned down by Muslim snipers on a golf course.
5/27/2002 - Denton, TX - Muslim snipers kill a man as he works in his yard.
7/4/2002 - Los Angeles, CA - Muslim man pulls out a gun at the counter of an Israeli airline and kills two people.
9/5/2002 - Clinton, MD - A 55-year-old pizzaria owner is shot six times in the back by Muslims at close range.
9/21/2002 - Montgomery, AL - Muslim snipers shoot two women, killing one.
9/23/2002 - Baton Rouge, LA - A Korean mother is shot in the back by Muslim snipers.
10/2/2002 - Wheaton, MD - Muslim snipers gun down a program analyst in a store parking lot.
10/3/2002 - Montgomery County, MD - Muslim snipers kill three men and two women in separate attacks over a 15-hour period.
10/9/2002 - Manassas, VA - A man is killed by Muslim snipers while pumping gas two days after a 13-year-old is wounded by the same team.
10/11/2002 - Fredericksburg, VA - Another man is killed by Muslim snipers while pumping gas.
10/14/2002 - Arlington, VA - A woman is killed by Muslim snipers in a Home Depot parking lot.
10/22/2002 - Aspen Hill, MD - A bus driver is killed by Muslim snipers.
8/6/2003 - Houston, TX - After undergoing a religious revival, a Saudi college student slashes the throat of a Jewish student with a 4" butterfly knife, nearly decapitating the young man.
12/2/2003 - Chicago, IL - A Muslim doctor deliberately allows a Jewish patient to die from an easily treatable condition.
4/13/2004 - Raleigh, NC - A Muslim man runs down five strangers with a car.
4/15/2004 - Scottsville, NY - In an honor killing, a Muslim father kills his wife and attacks his two daughters with a knife and hammer because he feared that they had been sexually molested.
6/16/2006 - Baltimore, MD - A 62-year-old Jewish moviegoer is shot to death by a Muslim gunman in an unprovoked terror attack.
6/25/2006 - Denver, CO - Saying that it was 'Allah's choice', a Muslim shoots four of his co-workers and a police officer.
7/28/2006 - Seattle, WA - An 'angry' Muslim-American uses a young girl as hostage to enter a local Jewish center, where he shoots six women, one of whom dies.
10/6/2006 - Louisville, KY - In an 'honor' attack, a Muslim man rapes and beats his estranged wife, leaving her for dead, then savagely murders their four children.
2/13/2007 - Salt Lake City, UT - A Muslim immigrant goes on a shooting rampage at a mall, targeting people buying Valentine's Day cards at a gift shop and killing five.
1/1/2008 - Irving, TX - A Muslim immigrant shoots his two daughters to death on concerns about their 'Western' lifestyle.
7/6/2008 - Jonesboro, GA - A devout Muslim strangles his 25-year-old daughter in an honor killing.
Leave it to conservatives to use these examples to bash Muslims, but ignore the very same list to pretend that President Obama is supposedly "not keeping us safe" or some other b.s. claim like Crowley's false argument.
I will never understand why an actual adult would find solace in scaring the crap out of themselves unjustifiably. I am picturing a man rocking back and forth in the fetal position.
November 12, 2001 – American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, crashes into a Queens neighborhood in New York City when the plane's vertical tail fin snaps just after takeoff. All 251 passengers and nine crew members on board are killed as well as five people on the ground.
......Al Quaeda too credit for it and Richard Reid confirmed it was a shoe bomb, where was our media or media matters on that one?
Only the bushies could say "bringing the fight to the enemy" and mean "so there's a much more convenient location for killing Americans."
Nice perfect record there.
What? You don't watch Jeff Dunham?
;)
Sadly somehow people can sweep their faults under the rug and lie on television. Many groups insulate their audience and then apply an us versus them thinking so they won't believe anyone who says otherwise.
I remember reading in a book about reaching out to remove the spec from another man's eye while you have a plank in yours....they should be familiar with this except instead of helping their pointing fingers.
What an inordinate, disproportionate waste of resources on preventing an anecdotal way to die. Put that $$ into CANCER research. Cancer kills over 500,000 Americans EVERY YEAR. That's 166 9/11 PER YEAR. But nobody's willing to spend a trillion bucks on curing it. Instead, let's spend a trillion simoleons bombing BROWN PEOPLE. Yeah, I feel safer already.
Randy
And some people say that some on the left aren't serious about fighting terrorism or those engaged in using it to kill Americans.
Where would they ever get that idea?
While we're wasting trillions on an easily preventable problem (STOP BOMBING BROWN PEOPLE), we could be address illnesses that kill millions of Americans every year. It's called prioritizing. The GOP has no sense of it. Never have, never will.
Randy
You have made your feelings on dealing with terrorism quite clear.
Randy
I doubt he would see it as just bombing brown people.
Nowhere in there does it mention keeping us safe, in the safety blanket and pacifier sense that you and the other right wing babies are so smitten with.
Randy
If they won't take your call, send them a text.
It seems pretty obvious what the real top priority is as it is the condition ultimately placed on how the people are protected.
Bush failed to do this after 9/11, and allowed the Constitution to be shredded. He and Cheney should have been impeached. They should still stand trial for War Crimes. and War Profiteering.
I think they are only mentioning the attack in NC because they are counting the Fort Hood one as a terrorist attack.