The Begining of the End? (part 2)

[Doug Pensinger]

60 Minutes interview with Richard Clarke, one time top anti-terrorism 
advisor.

[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml]

or

http://tinyurl.com/yq9ax

Clarke was the president's chief adviser on terrorism, yet it wasn't until 
Sept. 11 that he ever got to brief Mr. Bush on the subject. Clarke says 
that prior to Sept. 11, the administration didn't take the threat 
seriously.

"We had a terrorist organization that was going after us! Al Qaeda. That 
should have been the first item on the agenda. And it was pushed back and 
back and back for months.

"There's a lot of blame to go around, and I probably deserve some blame, 
too. But on January 24th, 2001, I wrote a memo to Condoleezza Rice asking 
for, urgently -- underlined urgently -- a Cabinet-level meeting to deal 
with the impending al Qaeda attack. And that urgent memo-- wasn't acted 
on.

"I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War 
issues when they back in power in 2001. It was as though they were 
preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They 
came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star 
Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the 
preceding eight years."

Clarke finally got his meeting about al Qaeda in April, three months after 
his urgent request. But it wasn't with the president or cabinet. It was 
with the second-in-command in each relevant department.

For the Pentagon, it was Paul Wolfowitz.

Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have 
to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, 
said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking 
about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the 
United States.'

"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism against the 
United States in eight years!' And I turned to the deputy director of the 
CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?' And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There 
is no Iraqi terrorism against the United States."

Clarke went on to add, "There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was 
supporting al Qaeda, ever."

When Stahl pointed out that some administration officials say it's still 
an open issue, Clarke responded, "Well, they'll say that until hell 
freezes over."
By June 2001, there still hadn't been a Cabinet-level meeting on 
terrorism, even though U.S. intelligence was picking up an unprecedented 
level of ominous chatter.

The CIA director warned the White House, Clarke points out. "George Tenet 
was saying to the White House, saying to the president - because he 
briefed him every morning - a major al Qaeda attack is going to happen 
against the United States somewhere in the world in the weeks and months 
ahead. He said that in June, July, August."

Clarke says the last time the CIA had picked up a similar level of chatter 
was in December, 1999, when Clarke was the terrorism czar in the Clinton 
White House.

Clarke says Mr. Clinton ordered his Cabinet to go to battle stations-- 
meaning, they went on high alert, holding meetings nearly every day.

That, Clarke says, helped thwart a major attack on Los Angeles 
International Airport, when an al Qaeda operative was stopped at the 
border with Canada, driving a car full of explosives.

Clarke harshly criticizes President Bush for not going to battle stations 
when the CIA warned him of a comparable threat in the months before Sept. 
11: "He never thought it was important enough for him to hold a meeting on 
the subject, or for him to order his National Security Adviser to hold a 
Cabinet-level meeting on the subject."

Finally, says Clarke, "The cabinet meeting I asked for right after the 
inauguration took place-- one week prior to 9/11."

In that meeting, Clarke proposed a plan to bomb al Qaeda's sanctuary in 
Afghanistan, and to kill bin Laden.
--
Doug
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