Bush sends dogs of war after Richard Clarke in attempt to obfuscate
reality
Commentary ~ April 6, 2004: As a true American
patriot, Bush's former National Counter terrorism Coordinator recently
spoke out against the Bush administration's feeble attempts to prevent
the 9/11 attacks and against the ridiculously absurd invasion of
Iraq.
Clarke admitted that the government failed its citizens. In his
public hearing before the 9/11 commission on March 24 he said: "To
them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television,
your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you
failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter
because we failed."
In response to Clarke's accusations, the Bush administration and
the media have decided to circumvent the facts and engaged in a
series of character attacks against the whistle-blower. We should
not be surprised. This is what usually happens within large corporations
when an employee finds his conscience and reports to the media about
illegal or unethical activities.
Instead of engaging in character assassination and name-calling,
the Bush administration and its media lapdogs should start doing
the hard work of addressing Richard Clarke's unprecedented claims
regarding the Bush administration's anemic efforts to prevent terrorist
attacks.
Speaking on NBC News' Meet the Press on March 28, Clarke said he
is now permitted to voice his true feelings on the Bush administration
because he no longer has an obligation to promote them. "I
have no obligation anymore to spin. When you're in the White House,
you spin," he said.
Despite the fact that Bush was "getting those intelligence
briefings every morning from George Tenet and week after week, month
after month, hearing about al Qaeda," Clarke said on Hardball
on March 31, "he never took any action against the threat."
In fact, Bush was warned a month before 9/11 that Osama bin Laden
was "determined to strike inside the US." Instead of taking
the threat seriously, Bush left for a one-month vacation the next
day to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The intelligence report was
titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
Bush was presented with it on August 6, 2001, five weeks before
3,000 people died at the World Trade Center.
We also know now that the FBI and CIA had information regarding
the attacks such as the fact that two of the hijackers were in the
country prior to 9/11. Bush took no actions against the threat making
it seem more than plausible that, had some action been taken and
each member of the bureau and agency vigorously questioned for every
detail of al Qaeda and terrorist threats, the attacks could have
been prevented.
After the attacks of 9/11, Bush made the situation worse by targeting
the wrong country. "We had a moment, we had a window of opportunity,
where we could change the ideology in the Islamic world," said
Clarke on Meet the Press. "Instead, we've inflamed
the ideology. We've played right into the hands of al-Qaeda and
others. We've done what Osama bin Laden said we would do.... invading
Iraq after 9/11 is like invading Mexico after Pearl Harbor."
By attacking Iraq, a country whose people had no connection to
the 9/11 attacks, Clarke points out that Bush fueled anti-American
sentiments throughout the Middle East. "We're going to catch
bin Laden. I have no doubt about that. In the next few months, he'll
be found dead or alive. But it's two years too late because during
those two years, al-Qaeda has morphed into a hydra-headed organization,
independent cells like the organization that did the attack in Madrid,"
said Clarke.
