Republican
presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday accused
former president Bill Clinton of not responding
forcefully enough to the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing or later terrorist attacks.
The former New
York City mayor criticized Democrats, accusing them of
weakness and naivete in dealing with terrorism. Giuliani
made the comments to about 650 business, corporate,
and political leaders at Regent University, the
conservative Christian college in Virginia Beach,
Va., founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
''Islamic
terrorists killed more than 500 Americans before September
11. Many people think the first attack on America was
on September 11, 2001. It was not. It was in 1993,''
said Giuliani.
He argued that
Clinton treated the World Trade Center bombing as a
criminal act instead of a terrorist attack, and added that
such an attitude by Clinton was ''a big mistake'' that
emboldened other strikes on the Khobar Towers housing
complex in Saudi Arabia, in Kenya and Tanzania, and
later on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
''The United
States government, then President Clinton, did not
respond,'' Giuliani said. ''[Osama] bin Laden declared war
on us. We didn't hear it.''
In hindsight,
Giuliani said, maybe it's all clearer now, ''but now is
now, and there is no reason to go back into denial, and that
is essentially what the Democratic candidates for
president want to do: They want to go back, to put the
country in reverse to the 1990s."
''I'm not blaming
anybody back then,'' Giuliani said later in the day at
a campaign stop at a Jewish temple in Rockville, Md. ''What
I am saying is, I do blame people after September 11.
Now you have to get it.''
In September
2006, Giuliani defended Clinton's record amid political
bickering over which president--Clinton or George W.
Bush--missed more opportunities to prevent the
September 11 attacks.
''The idea of
trying to cast blame on President Clinton is just wrong for
many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don't think
he deserves it,'' Giuliani said last September during
a stop in Florida. ''I don't think President Bush
deserves it. The people who deserve blame for
September 11, I think we should remind ourselves, are the
terrorists--the Islamic fanatics--who came
here and killed us and want to come here again and do
it.''
In his comments
Tuesday, Giuliani said Democrats would abandon Iraq while
giving terrorists the U.S. ''timetable for retreat.''
Giuliani remained
aligned with President Bush in keeping U.S. forces in
Iraq even as two more senior Senate
Republicans--Indiana's Richard Lugar and Ohio's
George Voinovich--in the past two days suggested the
president's policy is failing and said he should begin
bringing troops home.
In his Rockville
appearance Giuliani compared the war in Iraq to the
conflict between Hamas and Israel.
''What happened
in Gaza is a microcosm of what's going to happen in
Baghdad'' if the United States withdraws, he said. ''It
will become something that inflames the entire
region.''
Democrats were
quick to criticize Giuliani.
''Rudy's
arrogance has gotten the best of him,'' the Democratic
National Committee said in a one-paragraph response.
''How can a man who failed to prepare New York City
for a second attack after the first one, who sent
firefighters and emergency workers into Ground Zero without
respirators and quit the Iraq Study Group to raise
money, keep America safe?''
Speaking at
Regent, Giuliani avoided any mention of two issues that put
him at odds with conservatives--his support for gay
rights and abortion rights.
But he
acknowledged the differences indirectly, drawing warm
applause from the conservative audience for doing so.
''Don't expect to
agree with me on everything, because that would be
unrealistic. I don't even agree with me on everything,'' he
said.
Giuliani
acknowledged there is little difference between his position
and the positions of those of other Republican
candidates on terrorism and the Middle East, but said
his experience as mayor of New York has prepared him
to be better at handling presidential responsibilities. (Bob
Lewis, AP)