Orrin Hatch's Glass House Has Bin Laden's Name on It
Utah Republican Should Watch Just Whom He Tries to Blame for Yesterday's
Horrific Tragedy By Tamara Baker Wednesday, September 12, 2001 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (APJP) -- All I can
say is that I'm glad I didn't see him doing it, or I would have put my fist
Luckily, enough of my friends and relations had stronger holds on my temper than I did, so I can report to you the following:
Yesterday, on one of his early TV appearances, Orrin Hatch had the gall to blame Bill Clinton for the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
This is most interesting, as our old "friend" Osama Bin Laden is Suspect #1 for these attacks, and the glass house in which Senator Hatch resides has Bin Laden's name written all over it.
In a 1998 MSNBC article (http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp) that has been widely recirculated by Bussflash (http://www.buzzflash.com), Michael Moran details the extensive CIA training which Bin Laden, as a self-appointed leader of the 1990's Afghani rebels who were to overthrow the Soviet regime, received -- only to use against us as he did in the Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 (and as is suspected, in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001).
By the way: These rebels, or "mujahadeen", are better-known to us today as the Taliban, the world's pariahs, the guys so nasty that even the Iranians want nothing to do with them. But, hey, they're anti-Communists, right?
But I digress.
Here's the opening paragraph of Mr. Moran's article:
At the CIA, it happens often enough to have a code name: Blowback. Simply defined, this is the term that describes an agent, an operative or an operation that has turned on its creators. Osama bin Laden, our new public enemy Number 1, is the personification of blowback. And the fact that he is viewed as a hero by millions in the Islamic world proves again the old adage: Reap what you sow.
Now, what does Orrin Hatch have to do with this?
One heck of a lot, as it turns out:
Indeed, to this day, those involved in the decision to give the Afghan rebels access to a fortune in covert funding and top-level combat weaponry continue to defend that move in the context of the Cold War. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee making those decisions, told my colleague Robert Windrem that he would make the same call again today even knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently. It was worth it, he said.
Is it still worth it, Senator Hatch?
The world's economy was already on the brink; now, it may have just been shoved into the abyss, and is likely to stay there for years to come, thanks to Bin Laden.
Thousands of people in the US died yesterday, on planes, in the Pentagon, and in the World Trade Center.
Is it still worth it, Senator Hatch?
Think about that, the next time you try to push your own guilt off onto somebody else.