THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1993
February
- February 5: Clinton signs into law the Family and Medical Leave Act,
Minority rights
which requires large companies to allow their employees to take unpaid leave because of pregnancy or serious medical conditions. The Act is the fulfillment of a key Clinton campaign promise and, though unpopular with many Republicans, is welcomed by most working Americans. (Wikipedia) - February 6: Peace Corps director Elaine Chao marries Republican senator Mitch McConnell,
GOP campaign strategies
a "junkyard dog" neoconservative with a powerful voice in GOP foreign policy. McConnell and Chao become one of the GOP's best-known "power couples." Just after the Tiananmen Square masscre, James Chao, Elaine's father and a powerful Chinese-American business magnate, begins donating to McConnell. Other Asian-Americans begin donating heavily to McConnell as well; interestingly enough, in 1996 when the GOP will lambast the Clinton campaign for taking money from Asian-American fundraisers John Huang and Maria Hsia (a connection falsely characterized as the Clinton campaign "taking money from Red China,") Huang and Hsia are discovered to be large McConnell donors as well. (Huang and Hsia will be convicted of laundering foreign money for political campaigns.) Chao and McConnell will paint the entire fundraising question as it concerns them as racist slandering, but even after the GOP levels charges of foreign tampering against Clinton's 1996 campaign, McConnell continues to take money from Huang and Hsia. (Laura Flanders)
WTC bombing
- February 26: The World Trade Center is bombed by a group of terrorists led by Ramzi Yousef.
Islamist terrorism
The bomb is placed incorrectly, and the resulting explosion "merely" kills six instead of bringing down both towers as planned. (Had the bomb been set properly, it is very likely that one or both towers would have been destroyed.) According to an undercover FBI agent who testified in the trials of the terrorists, the FBI knew about the bombing plans weeks ahead of time, and told the agent they would stop the bombing attempt by replacing the explosives with an inert substance. However, the agent testified, shortly before the bomb was planted, the plan to replace the explosives was called off by an FBI supervisor, and the bombing goes as planned. To the outside observer, it seems as if the FBI allowed the bombing to take place. Several of the suspects were trained by the CIA in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a fact which is not made clear at the trials. (Later the CIA would admit "partial culpability" for the bombing.) An associate of Yousef, Ahmad Ajaj, may have been an agent of the Israeli Mossad. The leader of the 9/11, Khalid Shaikh Muhammed, is Yousef's uncle. One of the attackers left a note stating, "Next time it will be very precise." There is little doubt that the 9/11 attacks were a completion of the failed 1993 WTC bombing. Though the bombings take place a scant six weeks after the Bush administration left office, Clinton and the Democrats make no effort to place blame on Bush officials for the intelligence failures that allowed the terrorists to conspire undetected for over three years to execute their attack. No liberals make charges of "criminal negligence," as conservatives will do against Clinton after the 9/11 attacks. As for Osama bin Laden's involvement, no clues will surface for nearly three years as to his involvement in planning and financing the attack. Evidence pointing to bin Laden's involvement remains scanty to this day. Most conservatives, and many Clinton officials, believe at the time that Iranian-backed terrorists were involved in the bombings. (CCR, CNN/Killtown, Joe Conason)
