Sunday, January 10, 2010
Some Republicans are taking revisionist history to a new and bizarre partisan level in their attempts to convince the American people that GOP leaders are good at protecting the country from terrorism, while Democrats aren’t. On Friday, former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani said on “Good Morning America”: “We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama.”
About a week before that, GOP strategist Mary Matalin remarked on CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.”
Following the Fort Hood shooting in November, Dana Perino, White House press secretary under President George W. Bush from 2007 to 2009, proclaimed on Fox News: “We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”
Let’s set the record straight. President Bush served in the Oval Office from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. During Bush’s years in office, the following terrorist attacks were committed or attempted in in the United States:
9/11 – Terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners on September 11, 2001, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a vacant field in Pennsylvania. The 19 hijackers killed 2,973 people and injured more than 6,000.
Anthrax Attacks – In the weeks following 9/11, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and members of Congress.
Shoe Bomber – On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid attempted to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes. Reid was convicted in a civilian court and sentenced to life in prison. He is incarcerated in the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Rudy Giuliani: 'We Had No Domestic Attacks Under Bush; We've Had One Under Obama' (by Rachel Weiner, Huffington Post)
Mary Matalin: Bush 'Inherited' 9/11 Attacks (VIDEO) (Huffington Post)
Perino: No Terrorist Attacks In America Under Bush (VIDEO) (by Rachel Weiner, Huffington Post)
Al-Qaeda Terrorists in U.S. Prisons? They’re Already Here (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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