Republicans are much, much, much better off with Lincoln Chafee out of the party, even if he is the current governor of Rhode Island:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Governor Chafee says he does “not rejoice in violence,’’ but recognizes that the death of Osama bin Laden will likely “bring solace’’ and “some closure’’ to the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Asked how he viewed the death of bin Laden at the hands of the U.S. military and CIA in light of his oft-stated opposition to the death penalty, he said: “When you are at war, it is a little different from [an] assassination. We’re at war. . . .
“It all started with September 11 and going after the perpetrators . . . I have been in favor of that.’’
But when asked if he believed the military had, fact, gotten the man responsible for 9/11, he said “there were flaws’’ in his mind in the after-the-fact investigation by the 9/11 Commission: “That’s the first step — and I say that in my book — that’s the first step after a tragedy: have a commission to find out what happened on September 11, and we haven’t really had one.
“This is a complicated area in which the Bush administration had a 9/11 commission that tried to figure out exactly what happened, who was responsible, but that commission has been widely criticized, and so exactly who was responsible — just because we say it was bin Laden — I am sure there were others that were responsible also.’’
In a wide-ranging interview, Chafee also pointed to his own “prophetic’’ attempts to draw more attention to Pakistan as a possible hiding place for bin Laden, in the book he wrote after leaving the U.S. Senate, and a conversation he had with the once-unnamed — but now identified — Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister, who was assassinated in a December 2007 bomb attack as she was leaving a political rally.
On pages 114-115 of his book, “Against the Tide,’’ Chafee talks about a moment during a hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee in which a State Department official was testifying “in sonorous tones on the hunt for bin Laden. I nudged Senator Chuck Hagel and said, ‘Have they checked the apartment next to Musharraf’s?’ ‘’
A few paragraphs along, he writes about sharing this same scenario with political opponents of then-military leader Pervez Musharraf within one of the delegations of Pakistani officials he met in his role as chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
As reported in his book, he posed the question then: “Was the man who had slaughtered nearly three thousand people on September 11 really hiding in a cave on a mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, or was he sipping tea out of a silver cup in the apartment next to Musharraf’s.’’
In his next paragraph, he wrote: “The political passions of my visitors were unleashed, with great animation. ‘Of course there’s deal! We all know that’s true.’ ‘’
In his book, Chafee suggests a go-along-to-get-along deal between the Pakistan government and al-Qaida.
In light of the events of recent days, Chafee said Tuesday: “Who called it? Who called it?’’
Indeed, governor. No one else suspected that Osama bin Laden crossed the border into Pakistan during or after the battle at Tora Bora. Your deductive skills, foresight, genius, and humility are inspiring. Too much attention has been paid to those Navy SEALs and all who supported them and helped track down bin Laden. You’re the one who deserves more credit at this hour.