Was Bush fixated on 'getting Saddam'?
By Daniel Schorr
csmonitor.com
WASHINGTON - A Texas Democratic fundraiser, speaking not for
attribution, told me about the lunch he recently had at the home of
former President Clinton in the New York suburbs. Clinton recounted
his last meeting with President Bush over coffee, just before the
inauguration on Jan. 20, 2001.
The outgoing president counseled his
successor that he would face five
challenges in the international arena - the
Israeli- Palestinian conflict, the Al Qaeda
terrorist threat, a nuclear-armed North
Korea, the India-Pakistan confrontation,
and the Saddam Hussein dictatorship in
Iraq.
Clinton was surprised at Bush's
response. He said he disagreed with
Clinton's order - that he considered
Saddam Hussein to be the primary threat
that he would have to deal with.
The story casts a light - as it probably
was intended to do - on the current controversy over whether
President Bush allegedly neglected the war on terrorism in his
single-minded preoccupation with bringing down Saddam Hussein,
the man who plotted the assassination of his father.
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said in his memoir that from
the first meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) 10 days after
the inauguration, the White House seemed obsessed with Saddam
Hussein as "a bad person who needed to go."
The White House dismissed O'Neill as a disgruntled employee. But
now we have the dramatic account of Richard Clarke, who served as
antiterrorism coordinator for 10 years under four presidents. In his
newly published memoir, Clarke says that ousting Hussein was
"Topic A" from the first NSC meeting, just as O'Neill had said, and
there was little discussion of why the Iraqi dictator was being
targeted.
Clarke wrote that the day after Sept. 11, 2001, the president pulled
him and a small group of aides into the Situation Room, closed the
door and said, "Go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam
did this." Clarke said he replied, "But Mr. President, Al Qaeda did
this."
"I know, I know," Mr. Bush is quoted. "But see if Saddam is involved.
Just look. I want to know any shred."
The Bush administration has been saturating the airwaves with
denials of Clarke's charges. But they seem to fit with the public
statements of the president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
seeking to link Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda.
The great concern in the White House is that the Saddam fixation to
the neglect of the terrorist threat may end up as a campaign issue.
And it well may.
o Daniel Schorr is a senior news analyst at National Public Radio. |
