Former Official Clarke Warned of 'Hundreds Dead'

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Former Official Clarke Warned of 'Hundreds Dead'
Wed Mar 24, 2004 03:28 PM ET
By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration's former top counterintelligence official warned one week before the Sept. 11 attacks that hundreds of Americans could die in a terrorist strike, but said on Wednesday that the president did not consider terrorism an urgent issue.

Richard Clarke, who served four U.S. presidents, told the national commission investigating the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon: "I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue."

On the second of two dramatic days of open testimony, one of the most charged moments came when commissioner Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman, asked Clarke about a letter he wrote to Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, one week before the attacks.

"You urge policymakers to imagine a day after hundreds of Americans lay dead at home and abroad after a terrorist attack and ask themselves what else they could have done. You write this on Sept. 4, seven days before Sept. 11." Clarke simply replied, "Yes."

Clarke, who has given 15 hours of testimony to the commission in closed session, was making his first public appearance. The former official, who served three Republican and one Democratic administrations, created a stir this week by publishing a book accusing the Bush administration of failing to recognize the urgency of the threat posed by bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

In his letter to Rice, Clarke blasted the Pentagon and the CIA for failing to act against al Qaeda.

The commission of five Republicans and five Democrats, most of them former legislators or senior officials, is due to report in late July at the height of the presidential campaign. Its findings could have large implications for President Bush's re-election hopes.

Rest of story follows:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4650108

1. you need to snip this for copywrite so the mods don't lock it

:)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

2. Thanks.

[OneBlueSky]

3. well, at least Reuters is leading with the real story . . .

let's see how the networks do tonight . . .

[cybildisobedience]

4. okay, maybe I'm imagining things,

But I was just watching CNN and they cited this letter as proof that Clarke was a fraud.
!?!??!?!??????
Doesn't this prove that Clarke was seriously concerned about a terrorist attack, and had the foresight to warn others in the Bush administration?
The exchange between Wolfe Blitzer and John King used this letter as part of the Bush "smackdown" of Clarke, implying that his own words were used to impeach his character.
It's like the bizarro universe again.

[Bush Pouts]

5. Watch Lehrer

.

[Moderator]

6. Locking

consolidating

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x441952