NORMAN SOLOMON: Excuse me, it's remarkable for you to say that the Democrats in Congress have no responsibility. That was your terminology. I think it is amazing to say that to kind of obfuscate and talk about how complex this is, and besides the Democrats aren’t in power, somehow we are to believe that isn’t rhetoric in itself, and then we're supposed to let the hundreds of Democrats on Capitol Hill off the hook. I don't think that flies any more than it would have flown during L.B.J.'s escalation of the Vietnam War for Republicans to be told, ‘Well, gee, you have no responsibility to raise issues, to probe, you're in the minority.’ That is, in the light of history, allowing blood to drip from the hands of those people. And you may call that rhetoric to people in Iraq. It is reality.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go --

SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL: Well, Norman, I just want to say that by responsibility, I mean responsibility in controlling the government, and that means not only the Executive, but the Congress. The Democrats cannot call hearings. They do not control committees. They have no majority. They cannot set the agenda. They cannot call witnesses. You saw what happened with Congressman Conyers on the Downing Street memo, and how he was even forced off the Capitol grounds, because the Republicans would not even grant him a hearing room to hold an unofficial hearing.

NORMAN SOLOMON: And yet, Sid, you have been around the block a lot, and you can remember when Clinton was in the White House, and the Republicans did not have a majority of both houses, and Republicans yelled and screamed bloody murder and got the White House to start moving in their direction because they raised hell. Why are Democrats -- now admittedly, there's more unfortunate backbone in the White House now than during the Clinton years, but why are you unwilling to call upon Democrats in Congress to start raising hell against this war and hopefully begin to change the political climate of the country?

SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL: I think that -- I think that there are a lot of questions that are being raised by Democrats, as I said, and I also say the Democrats don't have a unified position here. There's no one voice in the Democratic Party that speaks for every Democrat across the board on this matter. And that's what happens when you're completely out of power. That’s just a function of being out of power. That’s what’s going on.

AMY GOODMAN: Sid Blumenthal, Norman Solomon, I wanted to go back to a time when the Democrats were in power. Sid Blumenthal, you were, too, as a top adviser to President Clinton. During the Democratic primary in New Hampshire in late January 2004, Democracy Now! correspondent, Jeremy Scahill, questioned General Wesley Clark, who was the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, oversaw the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. Of course, President Clinton was in power then. Jeremy covered the bombing from the ground in Yugoslavia. Among the issues he raised with Wesley Clark was the bombing of R.T.S., Radio Television Serbia, that killed 16 media workers. This is a part of the questioning. I'd like to get both of your responses.

JEREMY SCAHILL: General Clark, just on that issue of the bombing of Radio Television Serbia, Amnesty International called it a war crime.

WESLEY CLARK: Excuse me, I’m not --

JEREMY SCAHILL: Amnesty called it a war crime, and it was condemned by all journalist organizations in the world, and it killed makeup artists and engineers.

WESLEY CLARK: Alright, I want to answer this fellow. I want to answer this fellow, because the truth was that that -- first of all, we gave warnings to Milosevic that was going to be struck. I personally called the CNN reporter and had it set up so that it would be leaked, and Milosevic knew he had the warning because after he got the warning, he actually ordered western journalists to report there as a way of, you know, showing us his power, and we had done it deliberately to sort of get him accustomed to the fact that he better start evacuating. There were actually six people who were killed, as I recall.

JEREMY SCAHILL: There were 16.

WESLEY CLARK: I recall six.

JEREMY SCAHILL: I was there at the time, and I know the families. And they do hold Milosevic accountable, and they also hold you accountable.

WESLEY CLARK: They were ordered to stay there, sir.

JEREMY SCAHILL: And they were makeup artists, and they were engineers, and they were technicians.

WESLEY CLARK: Yes, they were. I remember reading the story. But I want to tell you about it. That was part of --

JEREMY SCAHILL: And Amnesty International said you committed a war crime by doing that.

WESLEY CLARK: Well, it was all looked at by the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia. All of my actions were examined. They were all upheld by the highest law in the United States and by the United Nations.

JEREMY SCAHILL: And you think a media outlet is a legitimate target, when it has innocent civilians inside of it.

WESLEY CLARK: No, but when it’s used as command and control, it is.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Even if it kills make-up artists.

WESLEY CLARK: Well, now, wait a minute. You have to let me finish, and then --

JEREMY SCAHILL: Go ahead, you can finish.

WESLEY CLARK: What I said was we would give them the warnings, it was part of their command and control system. It was approved as a legitimate target under the laws of land warfare. And it went through the U.S. government. And so that's the basis on which we struck. We actually called the bombers back one time, because there was still -- it was still unclear to us that we weren't absolutely certain. What we know is that Milosevic ordered them to stay there. And it was wrong, but --




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