"President Clinton and his national security
team ignored several opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist
associates, including one as late as last year" -Mansoor Ijaz, L.A. Times,
December 5, 2001
Through Apathy, Incompetence, a
Compromised and Corrupt USDOJ INS and using our Military to support the
Islamist KLA Terrorists over the Serbs in Kosovo, the Clinton
Administration Makes America Vulnerable to Terrorism
http://www.dojgov.net/Clinton_&_Terrorism-01.htm
While Clinton
reported a surplus at the end of his presidency, the audited numbers actually
show there was a deficit.[8] His presidency was also quickly challenged. On the heels
of a failed attempt at health care reform with a Democratic Congress, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives for
the first time in 40 years.[9] In his second term he was impeached by the U.S. House for perjury and obstruction of justice[10], but was
subsequently acquitted
by the United States Senate and completed his term.[11]
The Whitewater controversy was the focus of
media attention from the publication of a New
York Times report during the 1992 presidential campaign,[138] and
throughout her time as First Lady. The Clintons had lost their late-1970s
investment in the Whitewater Development Corporation;[139] at
the same time, their partners in that investment, Jim
and Susan
McDougal, operated Madison Guaranty, a savings
and loan institution that retained the legal services of Rose
Law Firm[139]
and may have been improperly subsidizing Whitewater losses.[138]
Madison Guaranty later failed, and Clinton's work at Rose was scrutinized for a
possible conflict of interest in representing the bank before state regulators
that her husband had appointed;[138]
she claimed she had done minimal work for the bank.[140] Independent counsels Robert
Fiske and Kenneth Starr subpoenaed Clinton's legal billing
records;[141]
she claimed to be unable to produce these records.[141] The
records were found in the First Lady's White House book room after a two-year
search, and delivered to investigators in early 1996.[142]
The delayed appearance of the records sparked intense interest and another
investigation about how they surfaced and where they had been;[142]
Clinton attributed the problem to disorganization that resulted from their move
from the Arkansas Governor's Mansion and the effects of a White House
renovation.[143]
After the discovery of the records, on January 26,
1996, Clinton made
history by becoming the first First Lady to be subpoenaed to
testify before a Federal grand jury.[144][145][146] After
several Independent Counsels investigated, a final report was issued in 2000 which
stated that there was insufficient evidence that either Clinton had engaged in
criminal wrongdoing.[147]
Other investigations took place during Hillary Clinton's time as First
Lady. Scrutiny of the May 1993 firings of the White House Travel Office
employees, an affair that became known as "Travelgate",
began with charges that the White House had used alleged financial
improprieties in the Travel Office operation as an excuse to replace the office
staff and give the White House travel business to Arkansas friends of theirs.[148] Over
the years the investigation focused more on whether Hillary Clinton had
orchestrated the firings and whether the statements she made to investigating
authorities regarding her role in the firings were true.[149] The
2000 final Independent Counsel report found that there was substantial evidence
that she was involved in the firings and that she had made "factually
false" statements, but that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute
her.[150]
Following deputy White House counsel Vince
Foster's July 1993 suicide, allegations were made that Hillary Clinton had ordered
the removal of potentially damaging files (related to Whitewater or other
matters) from Foster's office on the night of his death.[151]
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr investigated this, and by 1999 Starr was
reported to be holding the investigation open, despite his staff having toldhim
there was no case to be made.[152] When
Starr's successor Robert Ray issued his final Whitewater
reports in 2000, no claims were made against Hillary Clinton regarding this.[153] In
March 1994 newspaper reports revealed her spectacular profits from
cattle futures trading in 1978–1979;[154]
allegations were made of conflict of interest and disguised bribery,[155]
and several individuals analyzed her trading records, but no official
investigation was made and she was never charged with any wrongdoing.[155]
An outgrowth of the Travelgate investigation was the June 1996 discovery of
improper White House access to hundreds of FBI background reports on former
Republican White House employees, an affair that some called "Filegate";[156]
accusations were made that Hillary Clinton had requested these files and that
she had recommended hiring an unqualified individual to head the White House
Security Office.[157
In 1998, the Clintons' relationship became the subject of
much speculation and gossip when it was revealed that the President had had an
extramarital affair with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky.[158]
Events surrounding the Lewinsky scandal eventually led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. When the
allegations against her husband were first made public, Hillary Clinton stated
that they were the result of a "vast right-wing conspiracy",[159]
characterizing the Lewinsky charges as the latest in a long, organized,
collaborative series of charges by Clinton political enemies,[160] rather
than any wrongdoing by her husband. She later said that she had been misled by
her husband's initial claims that no affair had taken place.[161] After
the evidence of President Clinton's encounters with Lewinsky became
incontrovertible and he admitted to her his unfaithful behavior, she issued a
public statement reaffirming her commitment to their marriage,[162] but
privately was reported to be furious at him[163] and was
unsure if she wanted to stay in the marriage.[164]
There was a mix of public reactions to Hillary Clinton
after this: some women admired her strength and poise in private matters made
public, some sympathized with her as a victim of her husband's insensitive
behavior, others criticized her as being an enabler
to her husband's indiscretions by not obtaining a divorce, while still others
accused her of cynically staying in a failed marriage as a way of keeping or
even fostering her own political influence.[165]
Overall, her public approval ratings in the wake of the revelations shot upward
to 71 percent,[166] the highest they had ever been.[167
Clinton voted for the USA Patriot Act in October 2001, as did all but one
senator.
As a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Clinton strongly
supported military action in Afghanistan, saying it was a chance to combat terrorism
while improving the lives of Afghan women who suffered under the Taliban
government.[201]
Clinton voted in favor of the October 2002 Iraq War Resolution, which authorized United States President George
W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, should such
action be required to enforce a United Nations Security
Council Resolution after pursuing with diplomatic efforts.
Senator Clinton voted against the tax cuts
introduced by President Bush, including the Economic
Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth
Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, saying it was fiscally irresponsible
to reopen the budget deficit.
Clinton opposed the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 and
supported a February 2007 non-binding Senate resolution against it, which
failed to gain cloture.[220]
Clinton responded to General David
Petraeus's September 2007 Report to Congress on the
Situation in Iraq by saying, "I think that the reports that you
provide to us really require a willing suspension of disbelief."[223
In April 2007, the Clintons liquidated a blind trust
that had been established when he became president in 1993, in order to avoid
the possibility of ethical conflicts or political embarrassments in the trust
as Hillary Clinton undertook her presidential race;[241][242]
later disclosure statements revealed that the couple's worth was now upwards of
$50 million.[242] In late August 2007, a major contributor to, and
"bundler" for, Clinton's campaign,
called a "HillRaiser", Norman Hsu,
was revealed to be a 15-years-long fugitive in an investment
fraud case.[243] He was also suspected of having broken campaign
finance law regarding his bundling collections.[244]
The Clinton campaign first said it would donate to charity the $23,000 that Hsu
personally contributed to her, [245] then
said it would refund to 260 donors the full $850,000 in bundled donations
raised by Hsu.[246] Hsu was subsequently indicted on new investment fraud charges.