Found notes may show Bush plan on Clarke

[radfringe]

Found notes may show Bush plan on Clarke
By Pamela Hess
UPI Pentagon Correspondent
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040331-112127-9812r.htm

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- The White House was worried about the damaging testimony of a former counter-terrorism chief to a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks last week but was trying to let the issue die on its own, according to Pentagon briefing notes found at a Washington coffee shop.

"Stay inside the lines. We don't need to puff this (up). We need (to) be careful as hell about it," the handwritten notes say. "This thing will go away soon and what will keep it alive will be one of us going over the line."

The notes were written by Pentagon political appointee Eric Ruff who left them in a Starbucks coffee shop in Dupont Circle, not far from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's home.

The notes are genuine, a Pentagon official said. They were compiled for an early morning briefing for Rumsfeld before the Sunday morning talk shows, during which administration officials conducted a flurry of interviews to counter the testimony of Richard Clarke, President George W. Bush's former terrorism czar who left the post in 2003. Rumsfeld appeared on Fox and ABC.




--------------------------and then there's this little gem

Note to Eric: U Need 2B More Careful
By Al Kamen
Wednesday, March 31, 2004; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37321-2004Mar30.html

Did you hear the one about the guy at Starbucks? No? Okay. A guy walks into the Starbucks at Connecticut Avenue and R Street NW on Sunday to get his favorite latte, and sits down at a table.

On the table, he spots four pieces of paper. One is stationery with the heading "Office of the Secretary of Defense," and right under that "The Special Assistant."

It has a penciled map of directions from the Pentagon to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's house in Northwest Washington. Another sheet says, "Eric's Telephone Log." Someone has written "Conf. call" at the top and some notes, some in partial shorthand, on one side. These apparently were taken by Eric.

The notes say: "Took threat v seriously and then segue to wh we have been doing. Rise above < Richard A.> Clarke.

"Emphasize importance of 9/11 commission and come back to what we have been doing.

[Nlighten1]

1. U Need 2B More Careful ?

Is Prince making notes for them now?

[Jade Fox]

7. LOL....

Listen carefully...that's "Erotic City" playing over the Pentagon loud-speaker
system!

:o

[GregW]

8. PWNED!

[James T. Kirk]

2. The found documents are online.

www.americanprogress.org

They are interesting, but not a big bombshell.

American Progress's joke about the Cole attack is a little tone deaf.

[0007]

4. "They are interesting, but not a big bombshell"

Tell that to Eric Ruff, 'eh?

[izzie]

3. Sounds like the scrap paper the Rep found to get Clinton

Does anyone recall then on TV? Blow up and all. It was so wild.I then knew that nothing could beat C-span for just plain fun.

[damnraddem]

5. Needed that coffee to wake up -- should have drunk it right away.

Either that, or Rummy & co. paid as much attention to Ruff as they had to Clarke before 9/11.

[kwolf68]

6. Not holding breath

Notes on Natonal Security left at a coffee shop? This is a non-story.