Rice Forcefully Rebuts Clarke Testimony (Releases E-mail...)

CNN ^ | 3/25/04 | John King

[Coop]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that administration records -- including former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke's own words and actions -- prove false his "scurrilous allegation that somehow the president of the United States was not attentive to the terrorist threat."

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - CLARKE

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Was Clarke the source of the WH leaks? Hasn't that problem gone away since he resigned last year?

[mrsmith]

"DR. RICE: Steve, I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile. All of this reporting about hijacking was about traditional hijacking. You take a plane -- people were worried they might blow one up, but they were mostly worried that they might try to take a plane and use it for release of the blind Sheikh or some of their own people. "

It's just foolish to lie about what Condi said in public. You can't distort what's in the public record.

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1104918/posts
The Clarke Effect- another Leftover from The Decade of Frauds
various FR links | 03-25-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[Sidebar Moderator]

To: Sidebar Moderator #52. Our Not so favored FRiends have just been called to this thread.

As long as posters follow the rules, anyone is welcome on any thread.

[Defender2]

True. Just giving a heads up.

[Gorzaloon]

It very well could be. Hillary would hate to face Condi in 2008.

I LIKE her and would hate to face her. That picture back there a few posts nearly made me weak in the knees...She looked royally PO'd. If she were a cat, her tail would have been switching back and forth, and she would have been hunched up ready to lunge at the poor mouse that was testifying Hyping his book.

[Sloth]

I have to say, this attack by Clarke (and jumped on by the Dems) has been one of the most bumbling, amateurish attempts I've ever seen.

I am almost led to believe that Clarke is a covert GOP operative taking a dive in order to take the Dems down with him. It's hard to imagine that he really thought his past public statements wouldn't eventually be examined.

[StriperSniper]

Today's headlines in the Wash Times and ComPost

...and at least a half dozen more that Susan on C-SPAN's Washington Journal showed one by one. Before anybody screams, the discussion at the time was about his being discredited, so it showed the bias in the press.

[Sloth]

I'm an INTJ... looks like I'm in good company with Rumsfeld, Bill Bennett, and C.S. Lewis.

[kayak]

In an assessment backed by several of Clarke's colleagues in the Clinton administration, he is described by some in the Bush White House as a "my-way-or-the-highway type," who can become irritable and difficult to work with if he does not believe his views are being heeded.

Wouldn't you just love to be in this guy's class in college? :^)

I agree with others on the thread .... this whole thing is pure EVIL.

[Puppage]

one of the most bumbling, amateurish attempts I've ever seen

I agree, however it's doing what it was intended to do and that's the call GW's actions into question. With a complicite media,it hurts us.

[Sloth]

I'm not saying Rice is personally responsible, but it's clear that someone somewhere along the line dropped the ball.

Not necessarily. Being able to imagine the deliberate crashing of airliners by terrorists (like Tom Clancy in Debt of Honor) is not at all the same thing as being able to prevent it in a free country of 300 million people. Just like there's nothing to stop somebody from stealing a gasoline tanker truck and ramming it into an elementary school.

Life is not a comic book. You can't stop every bad guy in the world, especially fanatical ones. You cannot pursue every conceivable possibility. I don't blame the Bush administration for failing to prevent 9/11, nor do I blame the Clinton administration. There are things both could have done better, but it probably wouldn't have stopped what happened.

BTW, you are right about the folly of disarming people.

[shrinkermd]

One of the most salient characteristics of INTJ's is their ability to think through a situation and anticipate all the dangers and contingencies. They usually make great investors once they understand the market is also driven by mass psychology.

Clarke was the the right personality in the right job who was disarmed by a feeling of revenge and possibly he has entered a serious decline of spirits associated with unwarranted suspicions. I have not heard about Clarke's personal life; I suspect he might be quite isolated but then, again, that is a hard and incautious prediction to make.

[cyncooper]

The Dems will do this like the Judiciary memo: It is the method of release that is the atrocity, not the contents.

So, which Pubbie gets to resign over the FoxNews tape being released?

Nope. The attempt never got off the ground and never will.

Next.

[r9etb]

, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would ... try to use an airplane as a missile"? That Condi Rice?

Yes, that Condi Rice. You'll note that the heroic Mr. Clarke did not suggest any such thing. There was no specific information. Or are you suggesting that there was?

If you're going to claim that there was specific information, I suggest you put up or shut up.

[cyncooper]

She and the president did not know what The Al Qaeda was!

You're joking, of course.

But lest anyone take it seriously, there is ample documentation of the public record refuting this absurd charge.

[geek_penguin]

What if this is designed to get Rice....

Entirely possible, taking into consideration that it was the Bush administration that demoted Clarke and Condi Rice who led the "ceremony" announcing the "new" position.

[Coop]

I agree, however it's doing what it was intended to do and that's the call GW's actions into question. With a complicit media, it hurts us.

I really don't agree. It's putting national security right out front, as others have mentioned. This gives the Administration an easy opening to discuss its actions concerning the war on terror without people screaming about politicizing 9/11.

[cyncooper]

You are sick.