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The Forsyth County News
Opinion
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Clarke now a partisan
WASHINGTON ln the
19905, hard-line national security
experts outside the government
regarded Richard Clarice as a rare
kindred soul inside the Clinton
administration. That's mainly
why he alone of Bill Clinton's
senior team was kept on by
George W. Bush. So. how did
Clarke become President Bush's
scourge, taken very seriously at
the White House as a threat to
the re-election campaign?
The answer lies with person
ality rather than ideology, with
personal relations rather than
political strategy. Clarke is now
painted as a miscreant by
Republicans and as a martyr by
Democrats, but he really is a
super-bureaucrat accustomed to
working behind closed doors
who has been thrust into the pub
lic arena. Downgraded and disre
spected at the Bush White
House, he became an anti-Bush
activist with his testimony last
week, which was used to attack
Bush in a television ad by the
leftist Moveon.org.
Clarke had complained to
friends about the Clinton admin
istration's weakness on terrorism,
and probably expected to prosper
in a Republican environment.
Instead, he has improbably
become a leading witness for the
Democratic prosecution. His past
frustration with Clinton is mini
mized in his book ("Against All
Enemies"), which excoriates
Bush.
Until the past week, Clarke
was best known inside
Washington as one of the most
skilled manipulators ever of the
national security bureaucracy. He
is the hero of journalist Richard
Miniter's 2003 book, "Losing
Bin Laden." a scathing exposure
of Clinton's anti-terrorism fail
ings. Clarke was described as
"blunt, tough and unrelenting" in
pursuing terrorist Ramzi Yousef,
sought in the first World Trade
Center bombing. "Imagine what
he could have accomplished if
Clinton had publicly endorsed
his efforts.” Miniter wrote.
Clarke was not only the hero but
also obviously a prime source of
"Losing Bin Laden." Miniter for
the first time revealed, directly
quoting Clarke, the meeting of
"principals" (Cabinet-level offi
cials) on Oct. 12, 2000. after the
terrorist attack on the USS Cole.
The vote was 7 to 1 against an
attack on Osama bin Laden.
Only Clarke wanted action.
In his own book. Clarke
quickly brushes off the Cole
meeting that he described in
detail to Miniter. Instead of com
plaining about Clinton's failure
to come to grips with al Qaeda
and bin Laden, Clarke recites
what sounds like Democratic
talking points. He even interprets
On your payroll
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COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
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Robert ’l®
Novak
U.S. intervention in Bosnia as
having "defeated al Qaeda,"
adding that Clinton "had seen
earlier than anyone that terrorism
would be the major new threat
facing America."
Clarke's experience with the
Bush administration appeared to
heighten his appreciation of
Clinton. Whereas he had briefed
Clinton, Bush was briefed by
CIA Director George Tenet.
Clarke found himself at
"deputies" rather than "princi
pals" meetings. The final indigni
ty was his rejection by Secretary
Tom Ridge for a high-ranking
Homeland Security post.
While Clarke had worked
closely with Clinton National
Security Adviser Sandy Berger
in bureaucratic maneuvers to fur
ther Clarke's anti-terrorist agen
da, Condoleezza Rice as Berger’s
successor was not engaged.
Clarke clearly had difficulty in
relating to Rice, describing her to
close associates as "shallow."
Beyond Rice, friends say,
Clarke felt uncomfortable with
the conservatives brought in by
George W. Bush as he had not
felt with George H.W. Bush's or
certainly Clinton’s team. The
White House team is not hos
pitable to outsiders, and Clarke
was surely an outsider.
Clarke since he left the gov
ernment is described by friends
as becoming much closer to
Rand Beers, who succeeded him
as chief terrorist official in the
Bush administration. Beers
shocked Washington last June
when he quit his high-ranking
post in the Bush administration
to become Sen. John Kerry ’s for
eign policy adviser. Since then,
Clarke and Beers have been col
laborating. That Beers is a regis
tered Democrat and Clarke says
he is a registered (but never an
active) Republican is inconse
quential. Clarke's only political
contributions in 2002 and 2004
were to two former colleagues
on the Clinton National
Security Council staff who are
running for Congress as
Democrats.
While Clarke testified under
oath last week that he would
not join a Kerry administration,
he is now, in effect, part of the
Kerry campaign. His book's
publication was timed to coin
cide with his testimony, and his
transformed posture is one of
political partisan.
Robert Novak is a nationally
syndicated columnist and a tel
evision commentator.
J? C Lt IT* '
/ Assembly p
w Ahh...l love how a new budget
makes everything seem all rosy!"
Bush counterattack on Clarke backfiring
WASHINGTON Accor
ding to the White House game
plan, this was supposed to be
the week that we were asking.
"Can Richard Clarke hang
on?"
Instead, I know more peo
ple who are asking. "Can
Condoleezza Rice hang on?"
It is not that the White
House counterattack on
Clarke has been an utter fail
ure or that it did not raise
some questions about him.
But rarely has the White
House tried to kick somebody
so savagely and ended up
stubbing its own toe so hard.
Clarke, a former top
counter-terrorism adviser to
George W. Bush and Bill
Clinton, has made serious
charges against the Bush
administration in a new book.
He says that Bush did not take
terrorism seriously enough
before Sept. 11, 2001, and
that by launching a war in
Iraq, Bush managed to
strengthen rather than weaken
Al Qaeda.
One of the most dramatic
scenes in the book, which
Clarke talked about on televi
sion, involves a meeting on
Sept. 12, 2001, where Bush
drags Clarke into a small
room and tries to shift the
focus of U.S. retaliation to
Iraq, even though Clarke has
made clear to him that Al
Qaeda, and not Iraq, had just
flown airplanes into our build
ings.
The White House was
caught by surprise by Clarke's
book, even though the book
had been over at the White
House for months. Clarke fol
lowed the rules by shipping
his book to the National
Security Council last
November so it could make
sure he had not revealed any
NAnQNALLEGSLATQRS
<U.S. Sen. Zeil Miller
Russell Senate Office Building, Room C-3
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3643; Fax: (202) 228-2090
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss >
1019 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202)224-3521
< U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 10th District
2437 Raybum House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515
Gainesville: RO. Box 1015, Gainesville, GA 30503
Gainesville, (770) 5352592; Washington: (202) 225
5211; Fax: (202) 2258272
U.S. Rep. John Linder, 7th District >
1727 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, DC. 20515-1011
Washington: (202) 2254272; Fax: (202) 2254696
STATELEGISLATORS
< Sen. David Shafer, 48th District
109 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404)651-7738
Sen. Casey Cagle, 491 h District >
421 State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334
Telephone: (404) 6566578; (fax) (404)
651-6768
< Sen. Dan Moody, 27th District
(770) 495-3127;
Office (404) 463-8055
* i i
Roger
Simon
national secrets.
But did the National
Security Council, a White
House agency, alert anybody
else at the White House?
Apparently not.
So the White House was
caught flat-footed and kicked
back hard: Clarke was an
embittered publicity-seeker
trying to make a quick buck,
we were told. And the meet
ing he said took place Sept.
12, 2001? There was no
record of it at the White
House.
That particular denial last
ed almost a week. Today, the
White House admits the meet
ing took place.
I was sick at home all last
week, and so I got to lie on a
couch and watch every minute
of the Sept. 11 commission
hearings on TV. in which
Clarke and others testified in
public and under oath.
Clarke's simple apology at
the beginning of his testimony
was both wrenching and
seemingly sincere.
"Your government failed
you." Clarke said to the fami
lies of those who were killed
on Sept. 11. "Those entrusted
with protecting you failed
you, and I failed you. We tried
hard, but that doesn't matter,
because we failed. And for
that failure, I would ask
once all the facts are out
for your understanding and
your forgiveness.”
It was a simple statement,
and when I heard it, I thought,
"Somebody ought to have
■ > jH
m *•' In
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS -Thur»d«y, April 1,2004
apologized before now."
But just to show how
much the White House attack
machine did not get it, Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist not
only blasted Clarke for his
apology, but mischaracterized
what Clarke had said.
"In his appearance before
the 9-11 commission," Frist
said on the floor of the U.S.
Senate, "Mr. Clarke's theatri
cal apology on behalf of the
nation was not his right, his
privilege or his responsibility.
In my view, it was not an act
of humility, but an act of
supreme arrogance and
manipulation. Mr. Clarke can
and will answer for his own
conduct, but that is all."
But that is all Clarke was
saying. He never apologized
"on behalf of the nation." That
was Frist creating a straw man
in order to knock it down.
The administration ran
into other problems in its
efforts to stomp on Clarke:
According to an article in The
Washington Post. National
Security Advisor Condoleezza
Rice's rebuttals to Clarke
"contradicted other adminis
tration officials and her own
previous statements."
Oh, no! This is not what
the White House wanted!
Richard Clarke was supposed
to be the guy who contradict
ed himself, not Condoleezza
Rice!
And right in the middle of
things. President Bush went
to one of those awful press
dinners that are considered
very big deals in this town
and did what he is supposed
to do try to be funny. He
showed a slide show in which
he poked fun at himself for
trying to find weapons of
mass destruction in the Oval
Office.
Sen. Renee Unterman, 45th District >
(770) 466-1507;
Office (404) 463-1368
< Rep. Tom Knox, 14th District
Legislative Office Building, Room 504
W' ■
18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-0188, or (770) 887-0400, law office
Rep. Jan Jones, 38th District >
412 Legislative Office Building,
Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0137
< Rep. Jack Murphy, 14th District
Legislative office Building,
Room 612, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0325; (770) 781-9319, home
BQARDQFEIX&ADON
Ann Crow
96 Barker Rd., Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 887-9640; acrow@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Pou l Kroogor
9810 Kings Rd., Gainesville, GA 30506
(770) 889-9971; pkreager@foreyth.kl2.ga.us
Nancy Roche
7840 Chestnut Hi Rd., Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 889-0229; nroche@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Rebecca K. Dowafl
2030 Commonwealth Place, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 844-0830; rdowefl@foreylh.kl2ga.us
Chairman Jeffrey Stephens
RO. Bex 169, Cumming, GA 30028
(770) 889-1470; jstephens@foreyth.kl2.ga.us
>
PAGE 9A
Some people were offend
ed by this. Personally, I
thought no offense was meartt
and Bush's joke was within
the bounds of good taste. ' ' *'
So when his secretary of
defense, Donald Rumsfeid,
was asked at a press confer
ence whether the joke wjis
appropriate, did he make the
same defense I just made?
No! He refused to defend the
president at all. ‘*‘L<
"I am just not in a position
to be judgmental about that."
Rumsfeld said. , r> 1
As the week ended, Clarke
was selling tons of books and
Rice was trying to explain
why she could go on every
TV show in the world to
attack Clarke, but would not
do what Clarke had done:
Raise her right hand and
swear under oath that what
she was saying was the truth.
Think it couldn't get
worse? On "Sixty Minutes"
Sunday, Ed Bradley asked
Rice: "Will the families of
those people who were killed
hear an apology from you?
Do you think that would be
appropriate?"
Rice refused. She did say
she was "deeply sorry" for the
"loss" that people endured,
but concluded: "The best
thing that we can do for the
memory of the victims, the
best thing that we can do for
the future of this country, is to
focus on those who did this to
US " , ‘J
But part of what Clarke is
shining a light on and part of
what the Sept. 11 commission
is investigating is not just who
did this to us, but who,let
them do it.
Roger Simon is a national
ly syndicated columnist. He
can be e-mailed at
Writeßoger @aol.com. '
■ «.