Scheuer calling Richard Clarke a "liar" on C-span

[acmejack]

No Bones about it, he says the man is a fabulist.

[acmejack]

1. He admits he is a conservative republicon.

Explains why he claims that 9/11 is all Clinton, Sandy Berger & Dick Clarke's fault.

[xchrom]

2. republicans are ballsy.

they will go after the fabric of reality and try their best to rip it to shreds.

and it works far too often.

[papau]

3. Calls Clarke a fabulist (a teller of tales; a liar)? -and Scheurer is on

the good guys side based on what I know of him.

What did Clarke lie about per Scheuer??? - my bet is the 98 non-attack on the bin-Laden camp visit where Scheuer was over-ruled by Clarke and told there would be no attack because of the Saudi Princes that were visiting.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/12/60minutes/main655407.shtml

CBS..Michael Scheuer is the senior intelligence analyst who created and advised a secret CIA unit for tracking and eliminating bin Laden since 1996. He's also been at the center of a battle between the CIA and the White House over Mideast policy and the war on terror....

In 1996, at a time when little was known about the wealthy Saudi, other than he was suspected of financing terrorism, Scheuer was assigned to create a bin Laden desk at the CIA.

...

Codenamed "Alec," the unit was originally made up of about a dozen agents. And in less than a year, they discovered that bin Laden was more than some wealthy Saudi throwing his money around - and that his organization, known as al Qaeda, was not a Muslim charity.

"We had found that he and al Qaeda were involved in an extraordinarily sophisticated and professional effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction. In this case, nuclear material, so by the end of 1996, it was clear that this was an organization unlike any other one we had ever seen," says Scheuer....In a letter to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees earlier this year, Scheuer says his agents provided the U.S. government with about ten opportunities to capture bin Laden before Sept. 11, and that all of them were rejected. One of the last proposals, which he described to the 9/11 Commission in a closed-door session, involved a cruise missile attack against a remote hunting camp in the Afghan desert, where bin Laden was believed to be socializing with members of the royal family from the United Arab Emirates. Scheuer wanted to level the entire camp. "The world is lousy with Arab princes," says Scheuer. "And if we could have got Osama bin Laden, and saved at some point down the road 3,000 American lives, a few less Arab princes would have been OK in my book."

"You couldn't have done this without killing an Arab prince," asks Kroft.

"Probably not. Sister Virginia used to say, 'You'll be known by the company you keep.' That if those princes were out there eating goat with Osama bin Laden, then maybe they were there for nefarious reasons. But nonetheless, they would have been the price of battle." .....

"I think I became too insistent that we were not pursuing this target with enough vigor and with enough risk-taking - - an unwillingness to take risks," says Scheuer. "I got relieved of the position I was in. I had a lovely sojourn in the library and then had other sojourns since."
....

[chimpymustgo]

4. OMFG: "John O'Neil, God rest his soul...just not a trustworthy man."

This man is INSANE.

[papau]

8. That is nuts - Sheuer's ego interfer's with his judgement - IMHO

:-(

[acmejack]

5. I took literary license and put "fabulist" in there, he used "liar"

I did not actually hear what the supposed lie was, I have lawn maintenance people right outside now.

[papau]

9. LOL - I did not think the average GOPer had an SAT quality vocabulary &

was having my stereotyping of the GOP shaken a bit.

Thanks goodness the universe is as it always was with the legacy kids in GOP jobs.

:-)

[liam_laddie]

6. papau, did Clarke really have the authority...

to make this decision on his own? I fully expect that Bandar and other
influential Saudis with a stake in the situation would have prevailed on
very high level officials to call off the "offing." I doubt that the oil princes
were out of the loop...

[papau]

7. He does blame Clarke for a great deal - and has a large ego - and I

know Clarke would give input up the line and wpuld include Sheuer's opinion - and his opinion of that opinion in his input.

But the decision would in the end be Clinton's based on the NSC and State and Pentagon and CIA input. And here Saudi relations would be both a Pentagon and State worry.

[agincourt]

10. Again it is ridiculous to ninny wag

at Clinton officials before 3000 dead, while Bush keeps Bin Laden alive after 3000 dead. Terrorism policy is shoved down our throat 24/7 for 1996 to 2000. Everything is rosy or couldn't help it for policy 2001 up to now. They sing the same shit over and over, that Al Quaida couldn't be destroyed after Clinton left office, same shit again and again. A rapist and degenerate we are fucking told over and over, somehow at the same time could just "save" 3000 people at the drop of the hat. We are too stupid to remain a superpower. Every discussion on Tv pertaining to AL Quaida should fucking focus on Bush/Cheney/Rove, the Clinton administration is history, goddammit. But the MSM keep rehashing it to give the GOPigs a nice blowjob especially in election years.

[Imajika]

11. I think the guy is refreshingly honest...

I like Scheuer. I never considered him some kind of hero when Imperial Hubris came out (like many here did when it was perceived the guy might do serious damage to Bush's reelection chances). Scheuer seems to be a straight shooter and lays out the facts from his point of view.

He says he is a conservative Republican. Doesn't hide it at all. That means I will probably disagree with him on many if not most issues. Yet Scheuer says Iraq was a massive mistake, says that he believes our one-sided pro Israel policy is a major source of the hatred against the US, and repeatedly says that the "terrorists" don't just hate us for our freedoms - rather they primarily hate us for our policy's. You really don't hear many people - Democrat or Republican - talk about the I/P issue the way he does. Scheuer even criticizes the fact that to even discuss these things often results in being branded a traitor or unAmerican.

I don't consider Richard Clarke any sort of hero either, and quite frankly, of the two of them, Scheuer strikes me as more honest and straightforward.

I have no idea whether Scheuer's take on things is correct or not. He is probably right on some points and mistaken on others. I do know I like hearing his opinion and I don't get all wound up when he says things I may not like to hear.

Do people have to tow the line all the time? Geeze, so many people go from hero to goat on DU just for uttering one thing people don't want to hear. Look at Hackett - another example of a DU hero turned "republican plant" because he dares disagree with some of what Murtha says and thinks soldiers ought be presumed innocent until found guilty.

Sad really. I suppose too many people only want someone's opinion if it comforms with their world view or furthers their particular cause.