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OT Al Gore (the traitor) lied and helped the enemy...great Demorat Leader?
Fact-checking al-Gore's (latest) outburst
By Jack Kelly
[url]http://www.JewishWorldReview.com[/url] | Former Vice President Al Gore is
bitterly disappointed he was not elected president.
Periodically, he expresses his disappointment in ways that gives us
reason to be thankful he wasn't.
The most recent was last weekend, when he traveled to Saudi Arabia to
make a speech denouncing the United States. The occasion was the
annual Jeddah economic forum, which is sponsored in part by the family
of Osama bin Laden (which claims to have distanced itself from the
family black sheep).
Mr. Gore has not disclosed how much he was paid for his words of
wisdom. It probably is less than the $267,000 former president Bill
Clinton was paid for speaking to the group in 2002, but odds are his
fee was in six figures.
Whatever Mr. Gore's speaking fee was, his hosts likely thought it a
bargain, considering what the former vice president had to say.
The U.S. committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after 9/11, Mr.
Gore said. Arabs were "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor
charges of overstaying a visa and not having a green card in proper
order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."
According to the Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee, about
1,200 Arabs were arrested after 9/11. Of these, 725 were held on
immigration violations, 100 on unrelated criminal charges, and 360 for
possible links to terrorism.
The Census Bureau says there are about three million Arabs in the
United States. The number "indiscriminately rounded up" after 9/11 is
much less than one tenth of one percent of that number.
Mr. Gore didn't say what he thought was "unforgivable" about the
conditions in which the Arabs were held, but his source probably was a
June, 2003 report by the Justice Department's inspector general, or,
rather, erroneous news accounts of the report.
The Los Angeles Times said most detainees were held for months without
charges. In fact, only 24 were held for more than a month before being
charged, and 59 percent were charged within three days, the IG report
said.
Most Americans remember that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were
Saudis, but Mr. Gore seems to have forgotten. He deplored the
cancellation of "Visa Express," the expedited program without
background checks through which several of the hijackers entered the
United States.
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In a footnote on page 492 of its report, the 9/11 Commission said
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned the attacks, told interrogators
most of the hijackers he selected were Saudis because they had the
easiest time getting visas. According to statistics gathered by the
Government Accountability Office, before 9/11 only three percent of
Saudi applicants were interviewed prior to being issued a visa, and
only one percent were refused.
The Bush administration "is playing into al Qaida's hands" by
subjecting Saudi visa applicants to special scrutiny, Mr. Gore said.
"The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of
friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the
United States," he said.
Some Americans think it would be worse to let into the country
terrorists bent on perpetrating another 9/11.
The former vice president's speech attracted little attention from the
news media, but drew condemnation from Web loggers who were appalled
both by what he said and where he said it. "Only Al Gore could come up
with the idea of criticizing Bush for not sucking up to the Saudis
enough," sighed law professor Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), who had
been a volunteer on Mr. Gore's 1988 presidential campaign.
"It is one thing to say such things to an American audience in an
effort to change our policy...It is another thing entirely to travel
to a foreign country that features pivotally for the war for our
generation for the purpose of denouncing American policies," said
"Tigerhawk."
One wonders what possessed the former vice president to say what he
said where he said it.
Perhaps he is so embittered by his narrow 2000 loss that he doesn't
mind saying things helpful to America's enemies if they might be
hurtful to George W. Bush. Perhaps he is desperate for money and will
say whatever his paymasters want to hear in the hopes of garnering
future invitations. And maybe he just isn't all that bright. He did
flunk out of both law school and divinity school.
Whatever the reason, Mr. Gore's remarks will not assist Democrats in
persuading swing voters they can be trusted with national security...
which may be why his remarks drew so little attention from the news
media.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media
and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR
update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a
deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan
administration.
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