LAT, Brownstein: Discrediting Clarke Won't Stop Debate...

March 29, 2004

Ronald Brownstein:
Washington Outlook

Discrediting Clarke Won't Stop the Debate He Helped Start


("The debate has moved beyond one man," Brownstein contends, pointing to 9/11 Commission staff reports.)

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While incoming Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was extensively briefed on Al Qaeda, the commission staff reported, incoming Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld never arranged a briefing from Brian Sheridan, the Pentagon's top counterterrorism official under Clinton. Other Pentagon counterterrorism officials told the commission "that they thought the new team was focused on other issues and was not especially interested in their counterterrorism agenda." Sheridan still hadn't been replaced by Sept. 11.

Likewise, while CIA Director George J. Tenet told the commission he believed Bush understood the threat, the commission found that other CIA officials grew concerned that the White House did not recognize the gravity of the danger when intelligence reporting on possible terrorist attacks "spiked" in the summer of 2001....

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The commission staff documented that in January 2001, Clarke presented Rice with two documents from his work under Clinton that called for steadily escalating pressure on the Taliban to turn over Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, including increased aid to the Northern Alliance seeking to topple the Afghan government and a resumption of reconnaissance flights by the unmanned Predator while the U.S. military completed an armed version of the drone.

Though Clarke asked for a Cabinet-level meeting to quickly reach decisions, the commission confirmed the National Security Council routed this agenda into a committee of No. 2 officials. Those meetings, sometimes held as long as six weeks apart, stretched through the summer, while Clarke fumed over inaction on the Predator flights and aid to the Northern Alliance; the Cabinet-level principals did not meet specifically to consider the counterterrorism agenda until Sept. 4, 2001....

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(Brownstein concludes by saying that most Americans will probably judge Bush more on his actions after September 11, than before, "partly because most Americans may believe Clinton also failed to act aggressively enough." He adds, however: "But the White House attempt to shift the focus to Clarke's credibility is still unseemly, especially after the corroborating evidence the commission presented last week.")


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-outlook29mar29,1,1591608.column?coll=la-home-nation

After seven days of shock and awe bombardment of the Truth, key questions are still twisting out there, unanswered. There never was any denial to the key charge that on Sept. 12, Clarke was ordered to find a reason to attack Iraq. Now they've taken the pathetic step of trotting out members of victim's families to question the timing of Clarke's book, which they had control of all along. Remember, it had to go through a White House national security check process that was stretched out for months.

over at that point. But there was too much public pressure not to give an extension to the comission.