Name: Richard A. Clarke Age: Who cares? Nationality: American, naturally! Claim to fame: The guy who is blowing the whistle on Bush
Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, has turned on his ex-boss, a year after stepping down as the cyber-security adviser charged with protecting America against an “electronic Pearl Harbour”. Since, he has accused President Bush of doing a “terrible job” fighting terrorism, of ignoring the Al Qaeda threat before 11 September 2001 and distorting it afterwards. He also accuses the present administration of using the attacks as the pretext to invade Iraq, an already pre-existing and priority agenda for the Bush team.
The past few days have turned Clarke into almost a celebrity with an appearance before a commission investigating the 9/11 attacks, a television interview on the popular 60 Minutes, and the launching of his book Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, in which he has blasted the Bush administration of handling the war on terror.
In his book he writes that before September 11, the Bush White House made terrorism “an important issue but not an urgent issue”. The controversy Clarke has created, has shaken Bush’s credibility so near election time. But White House officials have tried to limit the damage by dismissing Clarke’s assaults as politically motivated pre-election spin. As for Clarke, he promised the 9/11 commission, he would not take a job with a John Kerry administration, if there is one.
With 30 years of government service behind him, Clarke has served seven presidents and worked inside the White House for George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush until he resigned in March 2003. Clarke has highlighted the difference between the approaches of the Clinton and Bush administrations to an upsurge of terrorist threats. Acknowledged as a ruthless advocate of military and covert action in pursuit of American interests, Clarke insists that bureaucratic foot-dragging came in the way of effective measures to prevent a terrorist attack. And he is well supported by well-documented facts of the US intelligence being aware of the presence of Al Qaeda operatives in the USA but little was done to monitor their activities or arrest them. And just before the attacks, there was a virtual stand-down of counter-terrorist preparations that were effective since the last few years of the Clinton administration.
His revelations have caused so many problems for Bush that the President’s National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, has now been forced to testify publicly, something that was resisted earlier, before the September 11 commission to defend the administration’s anti-terrorism policy prior to the 2001 attacks. The commission also plans to schedule a joint private interview with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The one question that the commission may not ask but is in many minds is ‘Was Al Qaeda the only one interested in America being struck by terror?’
Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, has turned on his ex-boss, a year after stepping down as the cyber-security adviser charged with protecting America against an “electronic Pearl Harbour”. Since, he has accused President Bush of doing a “terrible job” fighting terrorism, of ignoring the Al Qaeda threat before 11 September 2001 and distorting it afterwards. He also accuses the present administration of using the attacks as the pretext to invade Iraq, an already pre-existing and priority agenda for the Bush team.
