The ‘Suicide Bomber’ Killed by a Drone in Kabul Was an Aid Worker and the Biden White House Is Trying to Shift Blame

clinton employed “wag the dog” to divert attention from a domestic scandal.

Wag the Dog: Bill Clinton Unleashed
It’s funny only if it’s in a movie.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Clinton had his own wag-the-dog moment. On the same day Monica Lewinsky was to testify before the grand jury regarding Clinton’s attempts to suborn perjury, Clinton ordered strikes against the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan. Clinton claimed the medicine plant was producing chemical weapons for Osama bin Laden and that there were financial ties between the plant and the Al-Qaeda leader. Neither Clinton claim was true.

In fact, numerous Americans and Europeans who were working at or were familiar with the factory reported that it indeed produced medicines that were desperately needed in the region. Moreover, the plant did not have any of the easily observable characteristics of a chemical weapons factory, such as air-sealed doors, which are necessary when producing poisons. Nor were there Sudanese soldiers guarding the plant, as would be expected if it were engaged in the production of chemical weapons. The German ambassador to Sudan said the Clinton administration’s claims of poisonous gas production at the medicine factory were a lie.

Clinton’s claimed reason for the strikes fell under further suspicion when it was learned that only he and a small handful of advisers made the decision. In a departure from protocol, most of the military joint chiefs of staff were kept in the dark until just before the strikes began.

After the strikes, the administration refused to offer any proof to buttress Clinton’s claims that the factory was producing chemical weapons, as had become routine for presidents since the days of President Ronald Reagan. In addition, the Clinton administration refused the Sudanese government’s request for international inspection of the destroyed plant to ascertain if it was producing poison gas, as Clinton had alleged.

The Sudanese owner of the plant said his factory employed 300 workers who manufactured mostly antibiotics. Al-Shifa supplied 60 percent of the pharmaceuticals that were critically needed in Sudan. The owner welcomed American officials to inspect the plant anytime they wanted, but they never asked.

After the strikes, reporters interviewed factory workers and locals while aid workers were sifting through the rubble. American and foreign news reported that medicine vials were found strewn among the wreckage. There was absolutely no evidence of chemical weapons or chemical weapons production at the medicine factory.

There was worldwide condemnation of the United States over Clinton’s missile strikes. “Bombing of Innocent Pharmaceuticals Plant Not US’s Finest Hour,” blared the headline of Canada’s Financial Post. London’s Daily Mail front-page headline asked, “Clinton’s Revenge: But Was His Real Target the Arab Terrorists or Lewinsky’s Testimony?” The Scottish Daily Record observed, “Convenient for Bill Clinton to Launch Raids on Terrorist Camps.”

The evidence undermining Clinton’s claims forced the administration to finally come clean. Defense Secretary William Cohen admitted there were no direct ties to Osama bin Laden. He also claimed defense officials were not aware the factory produced medicine, which is interesting, as that was what the Al-Shifa factory was known for in Sudan. As Sudanese officials suggested, the United States could have merely asked for an inspection of the plant to ascertain its purpose. It would have been impossible to hide any evidence of chemical weapons production, hide the munitions, and reconfigure the operation of the plant without being observed by U.S. satellites. The Clinton administration never asked to inspect the plant.

As in the Wag the Dog movie, Clinton had his own act two. In fall 1998, the independent special counsel delivered his report on the Clinton investigation. It was damning. House Republicans felt they had no choice but to consider impeachment because Clinton had committed perjury and obstructed justice.

On December 16, 1998, the eve of the impeachment debate in the House, Clinton once again put servicemen and women in harm’s way. Clinton ordered U.S. airstrikes against Iraq. In a public announcement, Clinton stated, “Their mission is to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.”

Clinton claimed the timing of the strikes was appropriate because Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced “six weeks” earlier that he would no longer cooperate with United Nations inspection missions. But Clinton’s timeline was patently false. Saddam announced four and a half months earlier, on August 5, that he would no longer cooperate in inspections. Any doubt as to the motive behind the ordered strikes evaporated when Clinton called them off minutes after the impeachment vote was concluded.

Clinton’s simultaneous bombing missions during the Lewinsky grand jury testimony and impeachment debate were widely viewed as wag-the-dog moments. In other words, Clinton’s life imitated art.

https://spectator.org/wag-the-dog-bill-clinton-unleashed/