GORE'S TERROR POLICY "THIS CLOSE"
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) - President Gore says passage of his landmark anti-terror legislation is "this close", after a frantic week of negotiations with a Congress he's simply not been able to conquer since the 9/11 attacks.
"After two years of intense, but cooperative strife, we are nearly finished in finally providing this nation the anti-terror legislation we need for the children, to prevent any further tragedies like the one that happened two years ago yesterday", the President said to a gathering of abortion fundamentalists in San Francisco.
Gore used the speech as an opportunity to castigate not only the Republicans, but members of his own party as well. "This strife has been carried out for the children with an eye toward leveraging America's rich social diversity", Gore said, "although some Senators have used this as an opportunity for grandstanding for risky schemes".
The legislation - which would create an interagency task force to investigate and prosecute the 9/11 crimes, would grant sweeping new powers, not only to federal law enforcement, but elsewhere in government.
The task force, consisting of FBI, CIA and representatives from many state and local police departments and social welfare agencies, would be granted wide-sweeping powers to serve subpoenas and summonses worldwide. In addition, it would provide so-called "Terrorguard" grants to state social service, transportation and welfare agencies to help upgrade services. Critics have noted that the upgrades don't necessarily need to have anything to do with terror.
The opposition to the bill has come from both sides of the aisle. Rep. Maxine Waters introduced a controversial amendment that would have declared America a terrorist state, "since America is designed to terrorize minorities". The amendment would have required the anti-terror task force to first investigate allegations of terrorism on the part of the US and several state governments "before wasting time overseas", according to Waters. The amendment delayed the passage of the bill during the crucial mid-term elections last year.
Senator Hillary Clinton held up, and nearly killed, the bill last spring with her controversial-but-effective "It Takes a Terror-Free Village" effort. The amendments, which declare hunger, large class sizes, right-wing talk radio and restrictions on late-term abortion "domestic terror", was finally allowed into the bill as a compromise last month, and accounts for 55% of the bill's $300 billion price tag.
More troubling in the run-up to the 2004 election is Republican criticism of the Administration's rejection of military force against the terrorists. "Republican criticisms of my military record are pure partisan politics", Gore said, noting that his February, 2002 cruise missile strikes on terrorist camps in Afghanistan, Somalia and the Sudan may have killed as many as a dozen terrorists "who may have been linked to the attacks".
"Above all, critics who say I'm 'weak on terror' only do so by ignoring for the children the raid in Islamabad", Gore said, referring to the January, 2003 raid by FBI, CIA, BATF, NRO, AFL-CIO, FWPS, NEA and NARAL agents on gathering of bankers that had had dealings with terror organizations that claimed four bank employees and 16 US agents.
Secretary of Defense James Carville responded to the critics more forcefully. "That's a dog that don't hunt", he said to a group of evangelical Unitarians. "Down in Louisiana, we'd take them critics out behind the barn and make 'em squeal like a pig". He added "Tarnation, we increase the defense budget, and the Republicans are killing children anyway"
House minority leader Dennis Hastert noted that the bill would not increase funding for military combat units, but rather triple funding for diversity training and add $300 million for the Hillary Clinton-sponsored "War against Terror against Military Women and Children" initiative, which calls for a creation of a separate uniformed branch of armed services.
Gore, hampered by his very slim electoral margin of victory in the hotly-contested 2000 election, has had a hard time, critics say.
"Taking two years to pass a response to 9/11? That doesn't bode well for the Democrats in '04", says commentator Rush Limbaugh, currently being held without bail at the US Maximum Security Prison in Marion, Illinois, after the sweep of conservative talk radio hosts under the "Vast Conspiracy Act" passed in October of 2001.
