Clarke's Credibility takes 2 more hits:
Clarke has credited the thwarting of a y2k bombing plot on a top down shaking of the trees on the part of the Clinton administration. The truth: The bomber was caught by an alert customs agent and The INS was not even on alert. Both C. Rice and Janet Reno have testified to this.
Clarke claimed robust counter terrorism activity on the part of the CLinton administration. But, Reno "can't recall" if it was even mentioned when she turned over the job to Ashcroft.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Attorney General Janet Reno told the panel investigating the September 11 attacks on Tuesday that she told her successor, John Ashcroft, that information on terrorist activity must be pulled together, but said she did not recall if she specifically mentioned al Qaeda or terrorist cells in the United States.
Other problems:
180 degree difference between his 2002 background briefing and his book and testimony – his explanation of emphasizing positive and minimizing negatives is completely inadequate. We are not talking about shades of grays between the stories, they are diametrically opposed stories.
Apparently a completely different characterization between 2002 closed testimony, and his book.
Different answers to the same questions under oath compared to his book promotion interviews
180 degrees of difference between his assertions in “Losing Bin Laden” by Richard Miniter and those in his book.
Clarke has claimed robust activity on the part of the Clinton administration in the fight against terrorism, and that the comprehensive security document "A National Security Strategy For A Global Age", produced by the Clinton Administration in December 2000, does not even mention Al Qaeda.
Numerous factual errors in his book, for instance:
- Clarke says in his book that on 9/11 the senior director for defense policy, Franklin Miller, urged Defense Secretary to take a helicopter out of the burning Pentagon, to which Rumsfeld said -- "I am too ... old to go to an alternate site."
Miller says he never talked to Rumsfeld at all that day. In addition, Clarke says an official in the White House Situation Room that day yelled -- "Secret Service Reports a hostile aircraft 10 minutes out." But Miller tells the New York Times he doesn't remember that ever happening.
- Clarke said in his book, that Rice "looked skeptical" when she was warned early in 2001 about the threat from al-Qaeda and appeared never to have heard of the organization. We know that Rice was well aware of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and discussed it during the 2000 campaign.
And since the very first foreign policy directive from the Bush administration was one to eliminate Al Qaeda, it confirms with solid irrefutable evidence that it was of the highest priority. This is further refutation of Clarke’s story, which says it was not urgent, and that Bush was pre-occupied with Iraq. |
