Clarke: Rice should have done job before 9/11 (CNN)

[UpInArms]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/25/clarke.lkl/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke said that key information about the September 11 hijackers may have come out before the attacks if national security adviser Condoleezza Rice "had done her job" -- suggesting the plot may have been uncovered in time to prevent it.

In an interview Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live," Clarke said that "we'll never know" if the 9/11 terrorist attacks were preventable.

But he said the Clinton administration's approach to a similar threat before the turn of the millennium -- in which top officials held daily interagency meetings and actively sought out information from within their agencies -- shows that a similar approach might have worked.

He said that people within the FBI knew that two of the 19 hijackers were in the country before September 11, but that information never made its way up the chain of command.

"If Condi Rice had been doing her job and holding those daily meetings the way Sandy Berger did, if she had a hands-on attitude to being national security adviser when she had information that there was a threat against the United States ... would have been shaken out in the summer of 2001," he told King.

...more...

[Beetwasher]

1. Ouch!

Condi the slacker...

[mhr]

2. With The CSG Meeting Tapes We Might Learn The Truth One Day

http://counterspin.blogspot.com/2004_03_21_counterspin_archive.html#108015552084116835

[Fridays Child]

8. Do you really think those tapes will ever see the light of day?

Some days, it's so hard to have hope for our country.

[mouse7]

12. We want the tapes! We want the tapes!

I honestly never thought another GOP administration would be stupid enough to tape itself after tapes so blatantly drove the Nixon impeachment. Since it was that stupid, bring on the tapes!

[Avalux]

3. Yep

Sleeza wasn't doing her job - too busy holding chimp's hand and reading him stories instead of taking care of business. The woman was handed an incredible amount of power as NSA and did nothing. If anyone should apologize to the American people, it should be that revolting thing.

[UpInArms]

11. you mean like this?

After all, the next time Bush needs to talk to his friend in the Kremlin, that once mysterious former kgb agent, he will probably call Rice into the Oval Office and, using his pet nickname for the Russian leader, say, as he has in the past, "Get me Pootie-Poot on the phone!"

http://www.time.com/time/classroom/glencoe/ourworld2002/unit_5_3.html

[Avalux]

14. Yes!

Funny! :toast:

[SquireJons]

34. I Agree Whole Heartedly

Sadly, I used to like Rice. When she was a regular contributer on The News Hour in the 90's she was very reasonable for a repug. I guess that was all just an act. She seems to be the biggest liar in the administration - and perhaps the one with the most to fear. That, I believe, is why she will not testify before the 911 Panel in public. It may be that she, more than anyone, drooped the ball in leaving the US wide open to a terrorist attack. I'd bet she was saying that terrorists didn't pose a strategic threat. Remember, she came from the cold war / anti Russian school of thought. I never thought she was qualified to be National Security Advisor. I just figured it was window dressing for minorities and women. It's a shame someone wasn't doing her job for her. Perhaps she was still too busy helping Exxon to be bothered with the nations security. Did you know she has an oil tanker named after her? Figures...

[dArKeR]

4. When is someone going to address what they want? IRA, PLO...

[BOSSHOG]

5. No wonder she doesn't want to swear to tell the truth

[Fridays Child]

6. Here's a link to the Larry King Live transcript...

...for those who missed it:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/24/lkl.00.html

[LiberalFighter]

22. KING: Why does Iraq diminish the war on terrorism?

CLARKE: In three ways. Number one, it diverts us from reducing the vulnerabilities here at home, like protecting the rails from attacks like the one on Madrid. We're spending $180 billion in Iraq. We should be spending that money reducing our vulnerabilities to terrorism here at home, much more than we are. The railroads, the chemical plants, they are all still unprotected.

The second way it reduces the war on terrorism is by inflaming the Islamic world and helping, as Rumsfeld said in his internal memo, helping create more terrorists more rapidly than we can capture or kill them, because of the hatred in the Islamic world generated against the United States by our needless invasion of Iraq.

And the third way, of course, was it actually took troops and intelligence assets away from the hunt for bin Laden. We'll probably catch bin Laden here shortly, but it's two years too late. In those two years, al Qaeda has morphed into a hydra, a multi-headed organization, so that by the time we catch him now, it won't matter very much, because all of these al Qaeda-like organizations have grown up around the world, like the group that attacked in Madrid.

The point is, the war in Iraq was not necessary. Iraq was not an imminent threat to the United States. And by going to war with Iraq, we have greatly reduced our possibility to prosecute the war on terrorism. That's what I say in the book.

[Az_lefty]

26. Very clear and articulate answer

as to why we shouldn't be in Iraq. Bush was preoccupied with Iraq when he came into office and continued to be irregardless of the increased intel concerning al Qaeda. Maybe he just thought he had to finish his daddy's war.

[calimary]

29. GREAT! Thanks for this. Possibly the best Larry King show I've ever seen.

EVERY sentence out of Clarke's mouth was another blow to bush. His answers were MORE than perfect! EVERY one. And he was unassailable to the panel that followed - including Michael "Give Me More Monica!" Issikoff and Judith "Mouthpiece for Chalabi" Miller. AND Republican Chuck Hagel, AND frequent republi-CON suck-up Joe Biden. Utterly unassailable. In fact, they spoke more often about how much credibility he had, and how what he said was what Paul O'Neill had said, earlier.

[0007]

35. ....and I missed it

[Luvpurp]

7. Explain to me how she keeps her job?

She is either lazy or incompetent or evil. My guess is a combination of all 3. Her admission that she hadn't read the Niger memo should have had Congress demanding her resignation.

Folks they are on record that they don't read memos! Why is the media letting this pass?

[Avalux]

9. Another one -

she's chimpy's "special friend".

[Skittles]

13. she is a Bush whore

she doesn't do the job of a REAL NSA.

[Ganja Ninja]

17. That's exactly it. She's just there to fill a chair. She's a token.

[jamesinca]

23. That is easy, she is missing like the pages of the report

Remember those pages? She is very consistant with the reports and she has undying loyalty to the Bush administration.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Democrats Question Blank Pages in 9/11 Report
Thu July 24, 2003 07:31 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro
1. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. Democratic lawmaker on Thursday stood before 27 enlarged blank pages from a congressional report on the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and accused the Bush administration of an "obsession with secrecy."
Bob Graham, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, hammered the White House for demanding that much of the 900-page report be confidential, including the blanked out section on suspected foreign support of those responsible.

[Dulcinea]

28. She's loyal to the Bush clan.

That's all they require.

If she was too comptent, she would've never gotten her job because she could outshine Boy George (not that that's difficult!)

[calimary]

30. With this bunch, you don't get fired for lying, for incompetence, or

for screwing the pooch. You get fired for telling the truth. So, it stands to reason why she's still employed there. You only get fired for telling the truth.

[skypilot]

10. I've been asking for three years now...

What exactly is it that Rice DOES?? Now it seems, according to Clarke, that the answer is: Not a whole lot.

[paranoid floyd]

19. Rice=Trifecta

Looks like the Chimp hit it again. "Let's see fellas, we need us an African American, a woman and someone who won't get in the way. Now that makes three, so if we can....wait a minute. How about that Rice girl. Three for the price of one!"

[newyawker99]

33. Hi paranoid floyd!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[playahata1]

15. GOOD FOR HIM!

They sling mud at him, but he will not sit down, will not shut up.

He will not go quietly.

[Dulcinea]

16. The only thing this posse of lowlifes care about is their own agenda.

Tax cuts & overthrowing Saddam, in that order.

[Bandit]

18. Why should she hold meetings? ~ After all it was unimaginable that

such a thing could happen in America. "No one could have imagined that an airplane would ever be used as a weapon" Kamikaze is a Japanese word and she only knew Russian.

[BigBigBear]

20. Incoming !!!!

Warp core breach, captain,. Everyone in the pod !!!!

[molly]

21. They will try to make her the scape goat before this is over

the sacrificial lamb - it won't work - it's too late.

[waywest]

24. -Tanker scuttled!-

I expect the Chevron tanker (Condoleeza Rice) might be getting a new "paintjob" soon.

[louis-t]

32. Oooooooh, that really irks me...

oil tanker named after that woman.

[Eye and Monkey]

36. Condi, musing: "Before I was a pariah to decent society - "

"Before I was a pariah to decent society, the world was my oyster. I even had a big, big ship named after me."

At this point, the bartender doesn't even look up from the crossword puzzle while quipping the oft-repeated "Of course you did."

[Ravy]

25. One trump card to play when people criticize Clarke.

Came from Dan Abram's last night (or was first I saw it).

<paraphrasing>

"He was under oath. If he was lying, are you prepared to charge him with perjury?"

[xchrom]

27. damn, condi

you're not having a very good week.

[calimary]

31. And, Condi, you deserve it.

But, actually, she IS having a very good "weak."