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Susan E. Rice

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91

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2017-11-06

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2017-11-06

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1. “I'm working on a book, but I'm doing a number of different things. But I'm 52 years old. I've had an extraordinary opportunity to serve at levels that I am very, very grateful for. I love public service. I love serving our country. I've loved serving President Obama and working with President Clinton. If I never get a chance to serve in government again, I will feel as though I have. Had a great run, and I am very much thinking about what is the next chapter for me in all likelihood outside of government in the nonprofit sector, in the private sector, in academia. I haven't decided which of those I want to jump into.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “The short answer is I don't know. I've never say never, but I'm also living my life in such a way that it is not my plan or expectation to come back.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “These would be the kinds of things that would cause me as national security advisor concern. And frankly, it's my strong view, and I think the view of most anybody who is familiar with National security policy making that for me not to ask and not to understand the import of the reports that I was reading would have been negligent. And I took my job as National Security Advisor very seriously. I did my utmost to consume all of the information that was provided me to understand it and to act on it or at least present for decision whether we ought to act on it as best I could.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “I mean, these are apples and oranges. No. And I'm not going to get into the substance of the kinds of reports. That I received, or that the context in which I may have asked for the identities of American citizens. The only reason that I would have, and the only reason I ever would and did, request the identity of an American citizen was to understand more fully the significance of the report that I was being provided by the intelligence community. If there was a suggestion that American, for example, was involved in buying or selling prohibited equipment or material that could be used in a terrorist attack or was involved in a crime or was involved in Making or pretending to make policy on behalf of the U.S. government when they weren't in a position to do so. Those would be.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Party without disclosing classified information from the session validated publicly that I had been forthcoming, had cooperated fully and that they did not see issues that caused them concern.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Yes, it is. And to request those names for some nefarious purpose, and then, as some have alleged, to leak it. And I was very clear with the committees, as I've said in public, that I have never leaked classified information. I did not inappropriately or for anything other than the purpose of doing the job of national security advisor, ask for the identity of an American citizen. And when those identities are provided to me or others who are able to ask, they're provided just to us and not to a wider audience. And these are not things that we go around talking about loosely because they are classified and they are protected identities of American citizens. And I was gratified that after my interview both in the Senate and in the House that members of the majority”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “But I'm asking you on the issue. I'm coming to that. So I was also asked about this question of did I, as has been alleged in some quarters inappropriately request the identity of Americans whose names were redacted or masked in intelligence reports, which is standard procedure to”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “No, Russia intervened in the US election in 2012 with the aim of trying to benefit. President Trump. I have no doubt about that. So I was the National Security Advisor for the six months, roughly, in which this was a policy concern. So I think it was very appropriate and I was very happy to participate in the investigations.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “First of all, I did have voluntary interviews with both the Senate Intelligence and the House Intelligence Committees. Pertaining to their Russia investigations. The bulk of the questions that were asked of me, and all of which I answered, were about Russia and Russia's role in interfering. And I presume you embraced it.”

   2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Autocratic leadership going unchallenged. And there is a real risk, in my opinion, that the world does not make room for us to come back and take our seat at the global leadership table at the head of the table if we've left our plate and our seat empty for any length of time. I'm struck every day by how quickly President Trump's approach has damaged our global standing. I mean, it's only been 10 months, and it's very palpable how serious it is. I don't know where we are after four years.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “I don't know, I worry a lot about that every day, David, thee, and The risk is that the world becomes accustomed to A universe in which we are not a leader, where they do not feel obliged to take into consideration the call or the request of the American president where they do not count on us to stand for human rights and democracy and the rule of law and the values that are so dear to us, where they become accustomed to, you know,”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Perspective on the importance of America's leadership not in isolation, but in coordination with those who share our interests and values is a far better way to secure our interest as America first, so to speak, then to become isolated, lonely, and nobody willing to work with us when it isn't convenient.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “In the fight against Germany. Right. But the fact of the matter is every American president has put U.S. interests and values ahead of anything else. But the difference between what President Bush is at, I mean, President, excuse me, President Trump is advocating and what all prior presidents since World War II have adhered to is President Trump's theory is that we put America first by making America stand alone. Everybody else has taken the view that America is stronger and our interests are best served when we have countries and allies and partners around the world that are willing to work with us in our shared interests. And I firmly believe that”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Well, I mean, I think America first as a slogan has resonance with his base. It's a slogan, as you know, that was most. Prominently employed in the 30s”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “And the system of alliances and relationships that have preserved and protected our global leadership and served our interests so well are being undermined by us, not by them. So this is short-sighted. It's dangerous. It's not good for our economy. It's not good for our national security. But it is apparently the preference of the president and many in his administration and has some political reservations.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “They're very serious. And what's happening is the United States is voluntarily retreating from our historic global leadership role. And it's not just, you know, in the United Nations. You mentioned NATO, which is where he is called into grave question our commitment to our closest allies. We've withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement. We've put the Iran Agreement in jeopardy. We've withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that we orchestrated that would have strengthened our position in the Asia-Pacific. And as we withdraw, others are moving to fill the void, most notably China.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Entire international community to join with us in the reimposition of sanctions. So it's a win-win-win for Iran. They get the ability to pursue a nuclear weapon. There's no constraint on them, and we are isolated. That's the height of stupidity. And then we'd have two nuclear threats that are proximate simultaneously rather than just one.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “That the deal is working in Iran is upholding its obligations for us to blow it up or to risk it by Congress making an ill-fated decision designed to kill it with a thousand cuts would be the height of stupidity. We have an agreement that is preventing a potential adversary from acquiring a weapon that could harm us or allies, Israel, the Gulf partners. And for us to jettison the agreement would put us in opposition not only to Iran, but more importantly to our European allies who are with us in this agreement, we would be the ones to blame, not Iran. Iran would be free to pursue a nuclear weapon because we abrogated the agreement, and we would not be able to get the European countries, the Russians and the Chinese who are also in the deal and believe it's working.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Here, unlike in the case of North Korea, where we have Opponent with actual nuclear weapons and actual growing capacity to deliver them. Iran has no nuclear weapons. It is far from having the ability to produce nuclear weapons, and the agreement that President Obama and the other members of the P5 plus one struck with Iran would verifiably and unequivocally prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon through any possible pathway. And so to risk that agreement throw it away when it is verifiably working and it's not just, you know, I'm saying that. That's what the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency is saying. That's what the chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff is saying. It's what the leadership of our intelligence community is saying. All the allies are saying everybody agrees.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Do they have any practical implicat I think they do because I think I worry much more. About the risk of unintended conflict in the current context with North Korea than I do about a collective decision, although I don't rule this out, that the United States would take preemptive action.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “And then you have to ask yourself why, and now to get to your question, where do I think we ought to be doing today, why we cannot deter and contain the North Korean threat through very clear articulation of what will happen in North Korea if they ever use nuclear weapons against us or our allies, or if they ever sell a nuclear weapon to a third party. We can deal with this problem through deterrence. It's a much lesser problem than the threat we deterred successfully from the Soviet Union for decades. And yet we are approaching this with conflicting signals, blurry red lines, blustery threats from our president that get as low and as Degrading as Kim Jonstretz,”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Artillery capacity and missile capacity. So, you know, this is a thorny problem which successive administrations have dealt with through diplomacy, through pressure, through sanctions, through every tool in the toolbox without success. And to the extent that there are those in the current administration who either rhetorically or actually are contemplating the preemptive use of military force to deal with this, I think they are not weighing the risks versus the benefits in a thoughtful way. The military, our military, will be the first to describe the risks. The benefits would only be worth the risk if we actually had the ability and capacity to take out his entire Missile capacity and his entire nuclear capacity and without going in into any detail, I think that's probably a mistaken assumption.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “It's more true today because the capacity of the North Koreans has increased. We still have almost 30,000 U.S. military personnel north of Seoul, south of the DMZ. We have hundreds of thousands of Americans in South Korea. We have a 25 million person population just in Seoul, which is in close proximity to the border with North Korea and in range of North Korea's substantial non-nuclear.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Well, I don't think he's got a. Point in the sense that you're right. Going back to successive administrations, Clinton, Bush forty three, Obama now Trump, we have had a consistent and growing problem of North Korea's nuclear and missile threat. And the Clinton administration tried both diplomacy in a very robust way to try to address the threat. That was unfortunately reversed by the Bush administration early on. And so we don't know if that would have really borne fruit, but probably not. The Clinton administration also very seriously considered, and you can hear former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry talk about this, and Ash Carter, a preemptive strike on Pyongyang, and they determined that the costs in terms of lives into American military personnel and to the people of South Korea was so excessive that that was not a wise decision.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “About you, yes. No, no, but the issue itself So just to close the loop, I came to the conclusion in December of 2012 that I withdrew my name from consideration for Secretary of State.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “And it was, you know, if I had stayed in New York as UN ambassador, which obviously was an option, and I would have been happy with that, this was still something that some folks, particularly in Congress and on Fox News, were going to continue to utilize against me. That was fine, but what I didn't think was fine was the prospect of a bruising confirmation battle should the president have decided to select me for Secretary of State that would have distracted from the president's ability to get through a lot of his second term priorities. I thought we would win. We controlled the Senate, so it wasn't as if I thought if I were nominated, I couldn't ultimately be confirmed. And nowadays people are confirmed with Razor Thomas Martians, it seems. I just didn't want me or myself to be the reason why we weren't”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “But what I thought initially was something that would continue to be a target that was helpful for Fox News and President's opponents to utilize through the campaign became something that persisted in a character assault on me after the campaign.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Which we did know, it turns out it was Al-Qaeda related, Libyan extremists with loose affiliation to Al-Qaeda to this day. But anyway, it was”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “To weaken his candidacy, they seized on my statements as if they were, as you said, some deliberate misrepresentation. The idea being...”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “So, what happened after that was a week later, actually a little more than a week later, about 10 or 11 days later, the intelligence community garnered more information. The FBI got on the ground and they altered the assessment of what had happened. And they put it out in writing for the American people to see, and they acknowledged in their statement, this is from the director of national intelligence, that I was working off information that they had provided me, but that information did now change, and here was the latest. But in the context, and you would have even better perspective on this than I would, the red hot context of the campaign. And I guess the desperation of President Obama's opponents to try to find an opening that they could utilize to”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “Happened earlier in places like Cairo, where in fact the video was the precipitating factor, and that that protest got hijacked by the video.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “But what I did do was speak from the talking points that the intelligence community had crafted based on the best information that they had at the time. It was not for me, nor would it have been appropriate for me to give my own theory or to freelance or to provide information to the American public that diverged from what the intelligence community understood to be the case at the time. And what I tried and did do on every interview was to make clear that this was the current information we had, that it was highly likely to change, and that what I was providing was our best current assessment. And our best current assessment from the intelligence community at the time was that what happened in Benghazi was a protest that was inspired by what”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “First of all, I never said that it wasn't a terrorist attack. I said it wasn't a terrorist attack. And I said, it was a question of what provoked me. One of the interviews, I said, we need to find out, was this Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda affiliates or other forms of extremists?”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “I like almost every one of my colleagues I'm sure who had to work on this problem for years it is a very difficult and painful set of issues and I'm not happy by any stretch with where we ended but I also can't turn around and say that was the thing we should have done in retrospect”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “I don't have what the VAT is. I wish this situation had evolved differently. I wish we could have pulled a lever that would have made it better or less bad.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “The impact of these refugees in Europe is costly in terms of human lives. But I don't believe that the situation would be materially better. For example, you mentioned a no-fly zone. A no-fly zone would not have dealt with the risk and the threat of either chemical weapons or of protecting civilians on the ground in Syria, which is why we rejected that option, quite frankly, in the case of Libya. You're flying around while stuff is happening on the ground, which is quite dangerous and deadly.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “Let me be careful with the premise of your question. I mean, there are a number of things that we did do in Syria, both with the opposition and with humanitarian assistance and diplomatically that were designed to deal with the Assad threat and end the conflict. We also under President Obama made the decision to engage in Syria militarily to try to go after ISIS, which we have done with considerable success, not complete yet, and to go after the Al-Qaeda affiliate then known as al-Nusra in Syria. So we did use military force, but not to engage in the civil conflict. My own view, again, this will be discussed and debated by historians, is that that was ultimately the right choice. It was a costly choice, but all of the options are bad. It was costly in terms of refugees. It was costly in terms of”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “But it proves a point that we still have the same weapons in there. Nothing has changed. He took one night of strikes, and we made a political point to the Syrians, but we didn't capitalize on it diplomatically. Nothing has changed as a result of those strikes. And the remaining weapons, or whether they were newly acquired or whether they were hidden away, remain and remain a threat. So I would rather have 1,300 metric tons out than one night of strikes.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “One, we were able to remove over 1,300 metric tons of chemicals from Syria, we, the international community under U.S. leadership. Had we simply struct these targets, those weapons would still be there. The difference that makes in practical terms is that, as you know, before 2013, when the weapons were removed, Israelis were walking around with gas masks in their briefcases and in their basements. That's not the case anymore. Those weapons were removed, and the bulk of the arsenal, as it turns out, we thought at the time that the entirety of it, but we now know the bulk of it was removed. The other proof of that point that it wasn't the wrong thing to do, not to intervene, is what President Trump has demonstrated.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Well, my view is that the issue of Syria was and actually remains the hardest policy question on the plates of American decision makers. And so I don't profess to have an easy, simple answer to that question. We wrestled for years with the problem of Syria, and the current administration continues to do the same. My own view, and this will be discussed and debated by historians, my own view at this stage with the benefit of what I knew when I was in government and what hindsight I have is that it was not actually the wrong decision for the president not to intervene militarily when the chemical weapons were used. Why do I say that? Well, one, let's be clear what we mean about intervening. Taking strikes at targets inside of Syria”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “And even in Iraq, where we have a central government that we want to see succeed, it doesn't effectively control all of the territory. So again, it's not a unique problem, but we are much, much better at the kinetic aspects of dealing with the threat than we are with the civil aspects.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Let me just finish this up because that's a whole other question. But right now, having our U.S. military having implemented the plan that President Obama and Secretary Ash Carter and General Dunford committed to in 2015 and 2016 to deal with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And now we've seen rocket retaken and Mosul retaken is what now? And I'm not seeing evidence that there is a post conflict plan, that we have a theory of how is Syria going to be governed because as much as we want to see Assad go, he's not gone and it's not likely that he will be gone. And yet we have an atomized Syria now.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “We should have a lot of humility. We are very good at greater or lesser cost depending on how we do it, at rooting out terrorism or removing leaders who may be a threat to their people. We are not good, we, the United States, at the post-conflict phase. And we saw that in Iraq after the President Bush's intervention. We continue to see that in Afghanistan. We saw it in spades in Libya. President Obama made a different decision in Syria than he made in Libya, in part perhaps because of that experience. But we're facing that very dilemma now. Is that right?”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “The international community, including the US, were not sufficiently engaged to try to shape that post-conflict outcome. And instead of there ever being a coherent national unitary government forming, it began to atomize and fracture, which is the way it is still today, despite our many years of effort subsequently to try to put a humpty-dumpty back together. I spent a lot of time on that issue as national security advisor, but it proved to be intractable.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “No. And I think actually what I've heard the president say is he's thought this through is, you know, it was a close call then and it's a close call now. I don't think he regrets the decision to join with our NATO partners to intervene. I think what he regrets, and I think the big failing was what happened after the intervention, the failure on the part of the Europeans who had promised to step up and lead in the post- Conflict period or mistaken assumption that that was a promise we could count on because they just lack the capacity and the leadership skills that we have. And so what happened in Libya after people were saved, lives were protected, Gaddafi was removed, a new government was trying to form in a place where there had been absolutely no government institutions. Gaddafi really ran that as a cult of personality.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Our interests, what are the risks, what are the other commitments we have simultaneously. So I don't think there's a black and white answer to this question. But Rwanda, beyond Libya, has been something that's powerfully affected me, and not least because six months after the genocide, I traveled with the then National Security Advisor, Tony Lake, and a number of others to Rwanda. Six months later, this genocide was so Pervasive that we visited a churchyard and a school that were one of the places where killing it happened. And remember, this was machetes, people going hand to hand killing each other. And there were bodies everywhere on the ground. We were stepping over bodies, barely able to avoid Stepping on them. And so that visual image is one that I've one thing to talk about.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “They did to some extent, but not directly. The echoes were in the sense that Gaddafi in twenty eleven had announced to the world that he was going to exterminate the people of Benghazi. And he was lining up the forces to do so, and he had a history in another context of killing 30,000 of his own citizens in one day. So this was a very credible threat. It was approximate threat. And it seemed a context in which we working with others could do something about it. But, you know, having said that, I don't believe that the United States can or should intervene every time there's a moral or humanitarian catastrophe. We have to look at each situation on its merits and ask what is achievable.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “I think too many people had come to view as almost a routine spasm of killing just on a greater scale. So that was our first, I think that was the first failing. There were others along the way. I mean, you know, you could debate the wisdom of this, but we backed our Belgian and French allies. When they came to the Security Council at the UN and asked for, in the case of the Belgians' permission to withdraw from the peacekeeping force and in the case of the French permission to intervene, but the intervention wasn't designed to help those that were being killed, it was designed actually to help the perpetrators escape. And so there were lots of stages at which you can look back on that in hindsight and have considerable reason for regret, which I certainly did, even though I wasn't even at a decision-making level at that stage.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “After the Black Hawk Down incident which had occurred six months earlier, and so in that context, the biggest failure I think we made, and as President Clinton has frequently acknowledged, was not to even consider and debate the question of whether we or we with others could or should intervene to try to save lives during the height of the genocide. It wasn't even discussed or debated. It wasn't debated in Congress. There wasn't advocacy for it on the editorial pages. It seemed like out of the question almost after Congress had done something unprecedented, which is order the United States president to withdraw forces from the foreign land, stepping on his prerogatives as commander-in-chief to conceive Going right back into an even more unknown remote part of Africa for something that”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “It was a searing experience for me in many ways. I mean, first of all, I think when people look back on this, as you mentioned, they forget that seven days before the genocides happened or began in Rwanda on april seventh, 1994, the Congress had ordered the last American troops to leave Somalia.”

    2017-11-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 188 - Susan E. Rice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source