Richard Clark, former NSC Internet Guru, is now making accusations to be taken seriously. Or are they? This from Neal Boortz:
Clarke claims he was all but told by the President to manufacture a link between between 9/11 and Iraq. The White House claims they have no evidence the conversation ever took place. Here’s a newsflash: people lie … and people lie to sell books. Clarke also claims to have been repeatedly ignored while trying to warn about Al-Qaeda, and says the administration wasn’t doing enough on terrorism. Riiight.
All it takes is a little digging to realize this is nothing more than a partisan attack from a bitter Democrat. It turns out Clarke is close to Rand Beers, who is advising the Kerry campaign. Of course, you’ll never hear the mainstream media report that. And if Mr. Clarke was so concerned about national security, terrorism, and the administration’s handling of it, then why did he wait until now to tell everybody about it?
Because his book is coming out. Case closed.
Scrappleface has another angle:
“The 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda were such an utter surprise to [National Security Advisor] Rice and [Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld, that it took them almost a month to retaliate against the Taliban,” said Mr. Clarke. “By contrast, Rumsfeld started planning to hit Saddam from the moment he took office in January 2001. Sure enough, only 26 months after that he unleashed a lightning strike on Iraq. He would have launched the attack sooner if Bush hadn’t been so obsessed with Saddam that he couldn’t see straight.”
Seems everyone who lost their job when Bush moved into the White House has an ax to grind. And a book to sell.
More on Clarke can be found here.
I’m currently reading Bush at War by Bob Woodward. Now, I’m assuming Clarke wasn’t invited to the meetings when the planning for striking Afghanistan was taking place. Maybe he should pick up this book and understand why it took a bit to stage and get going. Seems like someone of his “esteem” would have an idea…
Unlike eight years of lobbing a few bombs here and there and hitting a camel or a tent, this administration planned and executed with an end result of change taking place.
I’d just have one question for Clarke. “How does it feel to sell out your country for hopeful political and financial gain?”
In the end that’s all he’s done. Dismiss eight years of nothing and pin the blame on the new Administration that demoted him and his cyber-war ideas. He must be up for a really cushy job where he gets face time in the Oval Office if Kerry wins.
Comment by Shannon — March 26, 2004 @ 2:08 am