Wolfowitz to Clarke (4/2001): "We don't have to deal with al Qaeda."

[sabra]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml

Clarke finally got his meeting about al Qaeda in April, three months after his urgent request. But it wasn't with the president or cabinet. It was with the second-in-command in each relevant department.

For the Pentagon, it was Paul Wolfowitz.

Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.'

"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism against the United States in eight years!' And I turned to the deputy director of the CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?' And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There is no Iraqi terrorism against the United States."

Clarke went on to add, "There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. It's amazing how a few incompetent braindead pricks can

turn your country inside out in a matter of a few years eh?? I hope there will be comprehensive investigations on top of inquiries on top of still more investigations when these criminals are thrown out on their rears.

[me b zola]

2. Is anybody collecting all of these facts to put into one document?

It would make for a great DNC ad. :)

[acmavm]

3. A great ad? Hell, it would make a great made-for-tv movie...

"The Real Road to 911".

[HereSince1628]

9. Well, Yes it's all in Clarke's Book. Get it, Read it, Pass it on!

This is a little thing to help save the nation.

[ovidsen]

4. Why am I NOT surprised?? n/t

[Jawja]

5. Mr. Wolfowitz

really meant alledged Iraqi terrorism against Israel.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. Thanks for that detail. It helps support the "Energy Security" theory

for why we're in Iraq. On January 22 2001, Oil Week reported that Wolfowitz had been named to Cheney's "Energy Task Force" (see the 1/22/01 entry in the Wolfowitz Chronology at http://www.ips-dc.org/wolfowitz/tl_01-05.htm. ).

Somebody should follow up with more research about the connections between the "Deputies Committee" of the NSC and the "Energy Task Force" for Big Oil bribe-givers, who wanted and got much more than their money's worth with Dubya's installation at the WH. Sooner or later, Iraq's oil reserves are going to wind up on the balance sheets of the companies that met with Cheney while Richard Clarke's memo was going nowhere.

Should Democrats get subpoena power, this is one avenue to explore thoroughly. As number 2 at Defense, Wolfowitz well may have been Big Oil's point man for ginning up a "Blood for Oil" foreign policy.

I find it incredible that the MSM has published next to nothing on the "Energy Security" theory for why we're in Iraq. Certainly it makes a lot more sense than all the cover stories that have come out of the White House.

[lumpy]

7. Well, the dots are being connected. The truth is

being revealed how the criminal incompetence of the Bush administration has caused the deaths of Americans and the destruction of Iraq, as well as Afghanistan. The PNAC consisting of people such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle wormed their way into our government and took power, using Bush as the willing tool, to further their insane agenda for domination of the mideast and the oil that lies under the sands. Is Congress powerless and weakened so much that these infractions of decency, honesty and the truth cannot be rectified?

[flyarm]

8. GREAT FIND sabra ..I AM GOING THROUGH MY EXTENSIVE FILES

AS WELL..WE ALL NEED TO..I HAVE SO MUCH OF THIS STUFF AND WILL POST AS I FIND THE STUFF..

i saved everything in my files because i knew the day would come that people would finally start listening..

thanks for posting this Sabra!!

fly

[progressoid]

10. The list of evidence against these guys is soooo long,

yet the reporting of that evidence is so short.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Wolfowitz is the same asshole

who was with Rummie on the morning of 9-11 and while they were watching the attack go down on TV said, "There didn't seem to be much to do about it immediately and we went on with whatever the meeting was."

[malaise]

12. This needs to be repeated over and over

They were always planning to invade Iraq.
---------------------
"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.

"I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'

"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report."

Clarke continued, "It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

"I have no idea, to this day, if the president saw it, because after we did it again, it came to the same conclusion. And frankly, I don't think the people around the president show him memos like that. I don't think he sees memos that he doesn't-- wouldn't like the answer."

[arewenotdemo]

20. "Wrong answer. ... Do it again."

Fucking traitors. No less.

[mom cat]

13. We really must thank ABC/Rove for putting this on the front burner.

The dems need to be screaming this from the rooftops.

[CJCRANE]

14. False flag attack - the Neocon approach:

1) Let Al-Qaida attack you
2) Blame Iraq

No one will notice.

(Well, maybe a few pesky bloggers but what can they do?)

[Tin Man]

15. An excerpt from Clarke's book "Against All Enemies" here:

Within a week of the inauguration, Richard Clarke urgently requested Rice and Hadley for a Principals, or Cabinet-level, meeting to brief the new Administration on the seriousness of the Al Qaeda threat. Months later, in April 2001, Clarke finally got his meeting - but it quickly became evident there was already an "agenda" for the meeting. From Clarke's book:

Rice's deputy, Steve Hadley, began the meeting by asking me to brief the group. I turned immediately to the pending decisions needed to deal with al Qaeda. "We need to put pressure on both the Taliban and al Qaeda by arming the Northern Alliance and other groups in Afghanistan. Simultaneously, we need to target bin Laden and his leadership by reinitiating flights of the Predator."

Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld's deputy at Defense, fidgeted and scowled. Hadley asked him if he was all right. "Well, I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden," Wolfowitz responded.

I answered as clearly and forcefully as I could: "We are talking about a network of terrorist organizations called al Qaeda, that happens to be led by bin Laden, and we are talking about that network because it and it alone poses an immediate and serious threat to the United States."

"Well, there are others that do as well, as least as much. Iraqi terrorism, for example," Wolfowitz replied, looking not at me but at Hadley.

"I am unaware of any Iraqi-sponsored terrorism directed at the United States, Paul, since 1993, and I think FBI and CIA concur in that judgment, right, John?" I pointed at CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin, who was obviously not eager to get in the middle of a debate between the White House and the Pentagon but nonetheless replied, "Yes, that is right, Dick. We have no evidence of any active Iraqi terrorist threat against the U.S."

Finally, Wolfowitz turned to me. "You give bin Laden too much credit. He could not do all these things like the 1993 attack on New York, not without a state sponsor. Just because FBI and CIA have failed to find the linkages does not mean they don't exist."

More of this promotional excerpt can be found at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/22/60minutes/main607774.shtml

[RedEarth]

16. Outstanding..........I'm going to post this on a winger site....

[NJmaverick]

17. That's why 9/11 happened!

It's a shame the public doesn't know what went on.

[indepat]

18. They didn't have to and the record show they didn't

[lumpy]

19. Kick for the truth

Spread the word

[Opusnone]

21. Kick, kick, and kick again