According to a scoop posted last week by The Drudge Report, in his new book, My FBI: Bringing Down The Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting The War On Terror, former FBI director Louis Freeh says:
The problem was with Bill Clinton -- the scandals and the rumored scandals, the incubating ones and the dying ones never ended. Whatever moral compass the president was consulting was leading him in the wrong direction. His closets were full of skeletons just waiting to burst out.
Mike Wallace also interviewed Louis Freeh last Sunday on "60 Minutes". Much of the interview focused on Freeh's account of the FBI's difficulties with fighting terrorism, but Freeh also discussed his strained relationship with President Clinton, probably the worst ever between a President and an FBI Director. The "60 Minutes" website notes, "Freeh thought Clinton disgraced the presidency; Clinton felt Freeh was out to get him, and that Freeh was an insufferable Boy Scout."
Freeh also dropped this bombshell:
Freeh says he stayed on longer as FBI director because he didn’t want to give Clinton a chance to name his successor. “I was concerned about who he would put in there as FBI director because he had expressed antipathy for the FBI, for the director. I was going to stay there and make sure that he couldn’t replace me.”
Freeh had another reason for wanting to outlast Clinton. It was the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, where 19 U.S. servicemen died and more than 370 were wounded.
President Clinton had sent the FBI to investigate and promised Americans that those responsible would pay. “The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished. Let me say it again: we will pursue this. America takes care of our own. Those who did it must not go unpunished,” the president said.
But Freeh says the President failed to keep his promise.
The FBI wanted access to the suspects the Saudis had arrested but then-Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar said the only way to get access to prisoners would be if the president personally asked the crown prince for access.
Freeh says Clinton did not help him. He writes in his book:
“Bill Clinton raised the subject only to tell the crown prince that he understood the Saudi’s reluctance to cooperate, and then he hit Abdullah up for a contribution to the Clinton Presidential Library.”
“That’s a fact that I’m reporting,” says Freeh.
We should be careful with regard to these charges, since they play so well into the Right's pre-conceived notion of Clinton being a playboy whose primary concern was his own legacy. Clinton's disgraceful pimping of the Lincoln Bedroom in exchange for campaign contributions automatically makes any charge of panhandling leveled at him worth pursuing, but realistically we should expect that Freeh's charges will never be fully substantiated, and will only amount to a "he said / he said" series of ping-pong accusations. No one at CBS will be interested enough to develop a Mary Mapes-style 5 year obsession with these charges.
And don't think that the Left will let Freeh's reputation go untarnished -- they won't. Before we know it, they'll have J. Edgar Hoover looking like Norman Rockwell when compared to Freeh. I also recall that G. Gordon Liddy, who is a former FBI special agent, had no love for Freeh, and repeatedly charged him with being incompetent.
But I think that those who try to tear down Louis Freeh miss what is really important here -- the number of scandals that involved President Clinton personally. You see, when you have to investigate The President, you can't just send Mulder and Scully out on a wild goose chase somewhere. You have to use your best men and your best resources. Investigations and details have to be checked and checked again, even more stringently that a regular investigation would warrant. No one wants to tell the President, "Sorry, we got your DNA mixed up with someone else's." And reports have to be reviewed and signed off by top FBI officials. This undoubtedly takes up a lot of the Bureau's time; time that should be spent on other things. That's what's really important here. Bill Clinton's recklessness cost the FBI time and resources that could have been used for far more constructive purposes.
So whenever someone parrots the argument, "Bill Clinton's affairs never hurt anybody," think about what you've just read here.
Just for fun, here are some transcripts of other recent "60 Minutes" "bombshell" interviews: Richard Clarke (March 2004) and Paul O"Neill (Jan. 2004).
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