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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (555264)	3/23/2004 9:04:29 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

The Bush Administration should have immediately taken up his suggestion to bomb terrorist locations in Afghanistan. when did clark tell bush to bomb Afghanistan. Immediately, what did does that mean send in a missle? Remember how long it took to get ships, planes, support in place. Bush wanted a plan , a comprehensive plan.. clarke could only think in terms of a bomb here a missle here. He wasn't qualified to do a comphensive plan.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (555264)	3/24/2004 8:01:33 AM
From: D.Austin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Dick Clarke of January 30th, 2003, who submitted a letter of resignation on that day to the President of the United States. And I think this letter runs counter to what he is now asserting. Let me just read parts of this letter, and we'll be glad to make this letter available to you shortly here. This is in his own words. Mr. Clarke says, "It has been an enormous privilege to serve you these last 24 months. I will always remember the courage, determination, calm and leadership you demonstrated on September 11th." Then he went on to say, "I will also have fond memories of our briefings for you on cyber-security and the intuitive understanding of its importance that you showed. I thank you again for the opportunity to serve you have provided me, and wish you good fortune as you lead our country through the continuing threats." So at this time period, when he was leaving, there was no mention of the grave concerns he claims to have had about the direction of the war on terrorism, or what we were doing to confront the threat posed by Iraq, by the former regime. Q You and others at the White House made a point of saying yesterday that the timing was suspect because it's an election year. You asked why he had waited this long to make his concerns known. He says that the book could have been published in December, but for the White House security review process. MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let's be clear here. His book went through the normal review process. It went through the normal national security review process to look at classification issues. This is standard practice to make sure that classified information is not inadvertently released. Dick Clarke could have released his book at any time, but the fact is he chose to release it at a time and in a way where he could maximize coverage to sell books, and at a time when he could have the impact to influence the political discourse. That's very clear. Q He could have released it at any time -- MR. McCLELLAN: Well, his publisher put out that he was going to release it at the end of April, I might point out to you. That's been in the public domain. Q And could he have released it before the security review? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, certainly if he had such grave concerns, he could have raised those a year ago when he was leaving the administration, or over a year -- more than a year ago. Q You just shifted the question, though. When did the security review conclude? In other words, when was he free as far as the United States government was concerned to publish this book? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, keep in mind that his publisher put out that it would come out at the end of April. There is a normal review process you go through in a situation like this that involves discussing information that's potentially classified for national security reasons. It went through the normal review process. Q But he says that normal review process ended up delaying the publication of the book. MR. McCLELLAN: No, look, Terry, he could release this book at any time. It's very clear that he chose to release it at a time -- Q No, he couldn't release it at any time -- MR. McCLELLAN: No, Bill, he chose to release it at a time when he could maximize coverage for promoting and selling his book, and he chose to release it at a time -- Q When was he free to release it? MR. McCLELLAN: Can I finish? He chose to release it at a time when he could influence the political discourse. I can get you the exact time period of when that -- Q You've made that point, but Terry and I are trying to find out when it could have been released without -- having been reviewed for the security -- MR. McCLELLAN: I can get you the time period when it was given to us, things like that. Q And then I just have one other question. This morning, he raised an allegation I had not heard before, which is that he says that in the presidential directive which President Bush signed after September 11th, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld requested and received within the four corners of that document, a presidential order to prepare plans for the invasion of Iraq. Is that true? MR. McCLELLAN: This is another example of his revisionist history. As we have said, the President made it very clear that his decision at Camp David was to -- this was in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks -- was to go after the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. And we also should keep in context that during this time period, Iraq continued to shoot daily at our pilots and remained a threat to the United States. Mr. Clarke even pointed out, himself, that Iraq was a serious threat. And he talked about Iraq's history in just -- in the recent past. I quoted you some of his remarks yesterday. Q But the presidential directive following the attacks of September 11th focused on counterterrorism and how the United States was going to, as you put it, eliminate al Qaeda -- MR. McCLELLAN: Remember, at the National Security Council meeting -- Q -- did that include -- did that include a directive to the Defense Department to prepare plans for the invasion of Iraq? MR. McCLELLAN: The invasion of Iraq -- the decision to go to war in Iraq, as you know, came at a much later time. But obviously, Iraq -- Q But he's making the charge that the President was already directing the Pentagon to prepare plans to invade Iraq.