----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronn!Blankenship" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 12:49 PM
Subject: Fwd: Clarke's Admission
>From Inside Politics, Wash. Times
"If President Bush had followed every last letter of Richard Clarke's
recommendations starting Inauguration Day, it still would not have
prevented 9/11," the Wall Street Journal says.
"How do we know this? Richard Clarke says so," the newspaper said in
an editorial.
"Here's how the disgruntled National Security Council adviser put it
last week in an exchange with Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission
and former Washington senator:
"Mr. Gorton: 'Assuming that the recommendations that you made on
January 25 of 2001 ... including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had
been an agenda item at this point for 2� years without any action, assuming
that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that
that had all been adopted, say, on January 26, year 2001, is there the
remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11?
"Mr. Clarke: 'No.'
"Mr. Gorton: 'It just would have allowed our response after 9/11 to be
perhaps a little bit faster?'
"Mr. Clarke: 'Well, the response would have begun before 9/11.'
"Mr. Gorton: 'But "yes, but we weren't going to" there was no
recommendation on your part or anyone else's part that we declare war and
attempt to invade Afghanistan prior to 9/11?'
"Mr. Clarke: 'That's right.'
"This startling exchange got almost no media attention last week. Mr.
Clarke has rocketed to national fame over the past 10 days by alleging the
Bush administration was negligently inattentive to the al Qaeda threat. He
took it upon himself to 'apologize' on behalf of 'your government' to the
families of 9/11 victims, as if there had been policy options on the table
"perhaps offered by him" that might have prevented their deaths.
"But when pressed on that point under oath, Mr. Clarke was forced to
concede that the impression he'd created, the very reason anyone was paying
any attention to him, was false. As long as Mr. Clarke is in the apology
business, can we have one for wasting a week of the administration's
precious antiterror time?"
But, that's not the way Senator Gorton characterized the exchange this
morning. This exchange only dealt with the foreign affairs part of
Clarke's recommendations. The part concerning what could/should have been
done domestically is still open.
Dan M.
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