Reply #2: selective amnesia? [View All]

Ex-Bush Aide, Finding Fault, Sets Off Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/politics/23CLAR.html
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JUDITH MILLER
Published: March 23, 2004


Scott McClellan, President
Bush's spokesman, says Mr.
Bush does not recall talking
with Richard A. Clarke about
Iraq on Sept. 12, 2001.

WASHINGTON, March 22 — As the White House opened an aggressive personal attack against its former counterterrorism chief, Richard A. Clarke, a furious debate broke out on Monday about the credibility of his assertion that President Bush pushed him the day after the Sept. 11 attacks to see if there was a link with Saddam Hussein.

The White House dismissed the accusations, described in a new book by Mr. Clarke, by casting him as a disgruntled, politically motivated job seeker and a "best buddy" of a top adviser to Senator John Kerry. But Mr. Clarke defended his account, and several allies rallied to his defense.

One ally, Mr. Clarke's former deputy, Roger Cressey, backed the thrust of one of the most incendiary accusations in the book, about a conversation that Mr. Clarke said he had with Mr. Bush in the White House Situation Room on the night of Sept. 12, 2001. Mr. Clarke said Mr. Bush pressed him three times to find evidence that Iraq was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The accusation is explosive because no such link has ever been proved.

----snip---

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, responded at a White House briefing on Monday that Mr. Bush did not remember having the conversation, and that there were no records that placed the president in the Situation Room at the time.

Mr. Clarke countered in a telephone interview on Monday that he had four witnesses, including Mr. Cressey, who is a partner with Mr. Clarke in a consulting company that advises on cybersecurity issues. In an interview, Mr. Cressey said the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, also witnessed the exchange. Administration officials said Ms. Rice had no recollection of it.

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once again we see the "smear" tactics, pass the buck, blame anyone else, and "re-frame" the issue...

In the 60 minute interview, Clark said he expected to have the attack dogs go after him... just my humble opinion - he was wrong, these are not attack dogs, they're attack-lemmings