Richard Clarke: Bush Admin Negligent in Antiterrorism

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by GePap
Hey Dino, care to enlighten us as to whom wrote those "facts"?

It was in the post I lifted from the link in DanS's post about the White House response. NYE asked that it be posted here because he didn't want to register there.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by GePap
Hey Dino, care to enlighten us as to whom wrote those "facts"?

The same people who told us that Iraq was connected to AQ, had WMDs. The same people who leaked Valerie Plame's name. The same people who said that Bush's Harken Energy deal had been cleared by the SEC. And so on. In other words, a group of liars.

[Arrian]

I found this interesting:

WASHINGTON - The Clinton and Bush administrations' decision to use diplomatic rather than military options against al-Qaida allowed the Sept. 11 terrorists to elude capture years before the attacks, a federal panel said Tuesday.

The Clinton administration had early indications of terrorist links to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and future Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as early as 1995, but let years pass as it pursued criminal indictments and diplomatic solutions to subduing them abroad, it found.


Bush officials, meanwhile, failed to act immediately on increasing intelligence chatter and urgent warnings in early 2001 by its counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, to take out al-Qaida targets, according to preliminary findings by the commission reviewing the attacks.


"We found that the CIA (news - web sites) and the FBI (news - web sites) tended to be careful in discussing the attribution for terrorist attacks," the bipartisan report said. "The time lag between terrorist act and any definitive attribution grew to months, then years, as the evidence was compiled."


Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, appearing on CBS's "The Early Show" Tuesday, said, however, the commission will not make any final judgments about the Clarke allegations or other assertions until it has reviewed all the evidence.


Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (news - web sites) told the commission that "President Clinton (news - web sites) and his team did everything we could, everything we could think of, based on the knowledge we had, to protect our people and disrupt and defeat al-Qaida."


The preliminary report said the U.S. government had determined bin Laden was a key terrorist financier as early as 1995, but that efforts to expel him from Sudan stalled after Clinton officials determined he couldn't be brought to the United States without an indictment. A year later, bin Laden left Sudan and set up his base in Afghanistan (news - web sites) without resistance.


In spring 1998, the commission found, the Saudi government successfully thwarted a bin Laden-backed effort to launch attacks on U.S. forces in that country.


The Clinton administration turned to the Saudis for help. Clinton designated CIA Director George Tenet as his representative to work with the Saudis, who agreed to make an "all-out secret effort" to persuade Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to expel Bin Laden.


Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal, using "a mixture of possible bribes and threats," received a commitment from Taliban leader Mullah Omar that bin Laden would be handed over.


But Omar reneged on the agreement during a September 1998 meeting with Turki and Pakistan's intelligence chief.


"When Turki angrily confronted him Omar lost his temper and denounced the Saudi government. The Saudis and Pakistanis walked out," the report said.


In conclusion, the report said "from the spring of 1997 to September 2001, the U.S. government tried to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden to a country where he could face justice," the report said. "The efforts employed inducements, warnings and sanctions. All these efforts failed."


The report was part of the commission's two-day hearing focusing on the two administration's failed responses to the threat from al-Qaida.


Scheduled to testify Tuesday were Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, as well as their counterparts in the Clinton administration, William Cohen and Albright. They were appearing as part of the panel's review of failures in diplomatic and military strategy.


The hearing comes following explosive allegations in a book released Monday by Clarke, Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator and a holdover from the Clinton administration, who is expected to testify Wednesday.


He said that he warned Bush officials in a January 2001 memo about the growing al-Qaida threat after the Cole attack but was put off by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), who "gave me the impression she had never heard the term (al-Qaida) before."





The commission's report Tuesday said Clarke pushed for immediate and secret military aid to the Taliban's foe, the Northern Alliance. But Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, proposed a broader review of the al Qaida response that would take more time. The proposal wasn't approved for Bush's review until just weeks before Sept. 11.

The 10-member commission had invited Rice to testify, but she has declined on the advice of the White House, which cited separation of power concerns involving its staff appearing before a legislative body.

Other potential diplomatic failures cited by the commission:

_ The United States in 1995 located Mohammed in Qatar. He was then a suspect in a 1995 plot to plant bombs on American airliners in Asia. FBI and CIA officials worked on his capture, but first sought a legal indictment and then help from the Qatari government, who they feared might tip Mohammed off. In 1996, Qatari officials reported Mohammed had suddenly disappeared.

_ The U.S. government pressed two successive Pakistani governments from the mid 1990s to pressure the Taliban by threatening to cut off support. But "before 9-11, the United States could not find a mix of incentives or pressure that would persuade Pakistan to reconsider its fundamental relationship."

_ From 1999 through early 2001, the United States pressed the United Arab Emirates, the Taliban's only travel and financial outlets to the outside world, to break off ties, with little success.

Scheduled to testify Wednesday are CIA director George Tenet; Rice's predecessor, Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger; and a new witness added Tuesday to fill Rice's slot, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. On that day, the panel will review intelligence and national policy coordination.

The bolded section is news to me.

-Arrian

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The same people who told us that Iraq was connected to AQ,

I don't recall any government official suggesting that.

had WMDs.

I don't think the French or the UN wrote it either.

The same people who leaked Valerie Plame's name.

That was a bit of truth telling, not a lie.[/nitpick]

The same people who said that Bush's Harken Energy deal had been cleared by the SEC.

Well, He was cleared of any wrongdoing.

[GePap]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
It was in the post I lifted from the link in DanS's post about the White House response. NYE asked that it be posted here because he didn't want to register there.

So wait, I am to say what Clarcke is saying is Myth, yet becuase the WH said it, it is fact?



Thanks, I needed that.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by GePap
So wait, I am to say what Clarcke is saying is Myth, yet becuase the WH said it, it is fact?

I don't particularly care what you do. I just find it curious that you are usually the one whining about people dismissing things out of hand simply because they dislike the source.

[GePap]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I don't particularly care what you do. I just find it curious that you are usually the one whining about people dismissing things out of hand simply because they dislike the source.

Did I dismiss it?

As I said above, I find it funny that I am to take on as fact and one as myth, when both are equaly valid.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I don't recall any government official suggesting that.

You have a poor memory then. They are still saying it.

had WMDs.

I don't think the French or the UN wrote it either.

What!?!

The same people who leaked Valerie Plame's name.

That was a bit of truth telling, not a lie.[/nitpick]

They did it to try and discredit someone else, to cloud the truth about Niger and uranium.

The same people who said that Bush's Harken Energy deal had been cleared by the SEC.

Well, He was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Actually he wasn't. The SEC simply dropped the investigation because Daddy was president. Bush was never cleared.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by GePap

You linked to Rush-so you have others do the dirty work, big deal.

Your usual evasions I see.

Just to be clear, you dont think that when Clarke advised against extraditing Bin Laden from the Sudan that was a major failure on his part?

Let me get this straight- demoting the OFFICE of counterterrorism to deal with the MAN holding it makes sense to you? If anything, keeping the same man AND demoting the office is a terrible sign- if we were to assume they were unhappy with his work, why not demote him to a LOWER OFFICE, while bringing new blood to the counterterrorism post at a high level?

The most simple solution is that the 'cabinet level decisions' were being made by a real cabinet member as opposed to a 'Tsar'. IMO, counterterrorism doesnt require such a position.

[Sava]

this is a great thread...

Che

Arrian

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
You have a poor memory then. They are still saying it.

Then it shouldn't be that hard for you to back it up.

had WMDs.

I don't think the French or the UN wrote it either.

What!?!

You said people that believed Iraq had WMD wrote it.

The same people who said that Bush's Harken Energy deal had been cleared by the SEC.

Well, He was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Actually he wasn't. The SEC simply dropped the investigation because Daddy was president. Bush was never cleared.

Same difference legally unless of course you have some direct evidence that political pressure caused the SEC to drop the investigation.

[Arrian]

Sava, spreadin' the love. to you too, big guy.

But come on, you can't leave me hanging like that. Where is the vitriolic rant?

-Arrian

[GePap]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Just to be clear, you dont think that when Clarke advised against extraditing Bin Laden from the Sudan that was a major failure on his part?

Don;t you have to charge someone with a crime before you can begin extradition proceedings? Did the admin in 1996 have enough evidence to even place an indictment?

The most simple solution is that the 'cabinet level decisions' were being made by a real cabinet member as opposed to a 'Tsar'. IMO, counterterrorism doesnt require such a position.

1. It does not address the point of why the admin. should not be seen negatively if they kept an incompetent man on board, as you try to paint Clarcke

2. We know do have a guy at the cabinet level who supposedly handles counterterrorism-the department of Homeland defense- so do you think this should not be a cabinet level position?

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by GePap

Don;t you have to charge someone with a crime before you can begin extradition proceedings? Did the admin in 1996 have enough evidence to even place an indictment?

I dont know. But your question gets back to the paradox faced by a free country in dealing with terrorists. Should we carry out covert ops (including assasination) in other countries in order to defend the USA?

1. It does not address the point of why the admin. should not be seen negatively if they kept an incompetent man on board, as you try to paint Clarcke

I havent painted him as incompetent. I just think his comments about Bush and the administration are disingenuous given his former position and mistakes (people in glass houses etc)

2. We know do have a guy at the cabinet level who supposedly handles counterterrorism-the department of Homeland defense- so do you think this should not be a cabinet level position?

Homeland security, in its present incarnation, has a much larger scope of action than Clarke had. So a cabinet position is justified.

[GePap]

Originally posted by SpencerH

I havent painted him as incompetent. I just think his comments about Bush and the administration are disingenuous given his former position and mistakes (people in glass houses etc)

But if they are true?