Remember this? Government ‘failed you,’ Clarke testifies

[Synnical]

Ex-counterterror chief apologizes to victims
at 9/11 hearing, says Bush didn’t consider terrorism an urgent issue

MSNBC
Updated: 9:15 a.m. ET March 25, 2004

WASHINGTON - The former counterterrorism chief in the Bush and Clinton White Houses apologized Wednesday to the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying, “Your government failed you.” But he placed the bulk of the blame on President Bush, accusing his administration of not making terrorism “an urgent issue.”

In contrast, the Clinton administration had “no higher priority,” said Richard Clarke, the star witness at two days of hearings by the independent panel examining diplomatic, military and intelligence efforts to fight Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network.

Clarke has accused Bush in a new book of ignoring al-Qaida before the Sept. 11 attacks, in which about 3,000 people were killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. He has said the president then rushed to blame Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In his opening statement before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Clarke told relatives of victims in the audience: “Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you, and I failed you.”

GOP Policy: Never admit failure
Dems: Admit and make it better

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4568982

Edit to add link and remove ad - my bad

[LuckyLib]

1. Wasn't that great? First time I saw that we had someone who

would talk truth to power from within the government.

[Synnical]

5. I don't recall If I saw Clarke on C-Span

Or if it was a repeat on CNN. But I remember tears, many tears.

[journalist3072]

2. And even more

Remember how Bill Frist took to the Senate floor to rebuke Clarke's remarks?

He basically said Clarke was grandstanding and had to right to apologize on behalf of the government. That was not his place.

And Clarke responded that he was not apologizing on behalf of the entire federal government. It was his personal apology.

[texpatriot2004]

3. K & R nm

[AtomicKitten]

4. Government failed under Bush's watch ,...

not under Clinton's.

Clarke demonstrated being a decent human being and telling the truth is nonpartisan.