Clarke’s Coziness With the Media Might Help Him Win War With Bush

Washingtonian ^ | March 26, 2004 | Harry Jaffe

[GulliverSwift]

If you want the real book on Richard Clarke—minus the Bush-administration attacks and Clarke’s self-promotion—read Ghost Wars, Steve Coll’s new book on the CIA in Afghanistan.

“His enemies regarded him as not only mean, but dangerous,” writes Coll, managing editor of the Washington Post. “So palpably did he thrive on an air of sinister mystery,” Coll writes, that Clarke chose Oliver North’s old White House office.

Coll is not the first journalist to detect and use Clarke’s knowledge of the sinister and mysterious. While Clarke was White House terrorism czar, he often showed up in news dispatches as an unnamed source. Interviews with reporters on the terrorism beat suggest that Clarke has always been savvy in using the press.

“He was known to be a source for a select group of journalists,” says one print reporter.

Adds a TV reporter: “There were periods when he was available and periods when he went underground.”

Clarke was mentioned by name in nearly 1,000 stories over the years, and he was the unnamed source for many more. Fox News reporter Jim Angle this week outed Clarke as the source of a White House background interview.

“Over the years he’s been in contact with a lot of journalists in town,” says Coll in an interview on Friday. Coll himself spent many hours with Clarke.

Clarke’s history with journalists does not bode well for his detractors in the Bush White House. As they try to discredit Clarke, they are running into journalists who have known him for years. Most reporters came away trusting Clarke.

“Credible?” asked one reporter. “I think he is.”

Coll portrays Clarke as a gruff bureaucratic infighter who did his best to fight terrorism before terrorism was thought to be a real threat.

Coll’s 695-page tome has set the stage for Clarke’s own book—Against All Enemies—and his explosive testimony before the September 11 panel, in which he contended the Bush administration ignored his pleas to combat terrorism before 9/11.

“Clarke revels in public theater,” Coll said in an interview. “A hearing, in the middle of a presidential campaign—he loved it.”

Coll describes Clarke as “a shadowy member of Washington’s permanent intelligence and bureaucratic classes . . . who seemed to wield enormous power precisely because hardly anyone knew who he was or what exactly he did for a living.”

Coll writes that Clarke sometimes acted as a freelance power broker and trickster abroad. When he was at the State Department, investigators “concluded that Clarke had usurped his superiors, turning himself into a one-man foreign policy czar and arms-trafficking shop.”

Clarke worked his way up to become President Clinton’s terrorism czar in 1998, where he began his crusade: “Clarke declared that America faced a new era of terrorist threats for which it was woefully unprepared.”

In an interview, Coll says Clarke’s status was extraordinary: “He’s an amazing figure in that way. He rose effectively to Cabinet rank.”

From that job, Clarke put Osama bin Laden in his crosshairs and “sometimes pushed harder for action on bin Laden than the CIA’s own officers recommended.”

When the Bush administration took over in 2001 and decided to reduce Clarke’s power, Coll writes what Clarke this week told the 9/11 committee: He tried to warn Bush officials that terrorism was a major threat, but they ignored his pleas.

Now that both books are on the stands and Clarke is on TV, Coll has become a reservoir of information for Post reporters looking for guidance on Clarke. Given Coll’s respect for Clarke, it’s fair to assume that he will get fair if not favorable coverage from the Post.

Coll did come away from watching Clarke’s testimony with one question: “It’s a mystery why he chose to deliver the force of his moment so explicitly against the Bush administration,” he says in an interview. “Clinton’s people were involved as well.”

Some would even call it a sinister mystery.

[afz400]

"This guy was on an Ego Trip!"
Agreed - my take is that he was laughed at in private by the Clintons but humored enough that he thought he was a big shot. Rice saw through his phoney BS and wanted someone with real answers so she pushed him aside politely. I'm still amazed that he was allowed to testify in broad generalities and offered no specific evidence of anything - just that he had a "hunch" about an attack or that Rice had a certain "look".

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for the ping ! I'm glad Clarke is being exposed for the two-faced liar he is.

[alrea]

The danger that Bush should prepare us for is the media. In fact there is no terrorism without the media.

[skinkinthegrass]

Give it a rest!...raloxk

HA!HA!..Agree w/ you, the Truth/Facts has always had a "devastating/stinging " (Like Holy Water on Vampires :) effect on the Liberals..it sets them off "in a uncontrollable rage..."a Clinton purple-faced/Shrillary ashtray throwing" rage... 'fer sure. :))

[skinkinthegrass]

This one acts very Liberal in sheeps clothing.

That was BAAAD...but, Thank EWE for saying it. :)

[skinkinthegrass]

In fact there is no terrorism without the media.

Good Point...The purpose of Terror, is to Terrorize...Lenin, I think.

[alrea]

TERRORISTS CAN'T TERRORIZE WITHOUT THE MEDIA

[PhilDragoo]

Department of Silly Wonks
Richard Clarke, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Phrenology
Background briefing via conference call
1500 hours ET 27 March 2004

CLARKE:

Let me begin saying I have six points, seven, seven points to make. I'll set them out and will take questions when I'm finished.

First, let me clear up my marital status. I've been too busy to marry. As you recall former Attorney General Janet Reno was too busy to marry. I trust this will end the innuendo, no pun intended with inuendo. Uh, yes.

Two, I am not as some have said, was it Wesley Pruden or G. Gordon Liddy--doesn't matter--I am not a quote lying sack of crap end quote, so I trust we can put that to bed.

Third, I am the official who urged the bombing of the facility in Sudan in 1998. The popular notion that this was an aspirin factory is completely in error. I could tell by the expression on the face of the Sudanese ambassador that the real function of the plant was the manufacture of nerve gas.

Fourth, I briefed Condoleezza Rice on al Qaeda and I could tell by the expression on her face she had never heard of al Qaeda before.

Fifth, I briefed George Bush on the September 11 attack and he asked me to check whether Iraq was involved. I could tell by the expression on his face that he wanted to have me beaten by sweaty men in leather breeches.

Six, the rumor that the publication date of my book, Condi Rice and George Bush are Big Fat Idiots was NOT moved up to coincide with the Commission hearings.

And finally, my fawning letter of resignation was written with gritted teeth and the bile rising in my throat.

That's it. I'll take questions.

ANGLE:

Assistant Deputy Undersecretary Clarke, why did the Clinton Administration pass up four offers of bin Laden from Sudan and fail to kill bin Laden on the eleven Predator-Hellfire flights in September and October of 2000?

CLARKE:

Oh look at the time! Thank you for your attention. That will conclude this background briefing. Good Bye.

[Destro]

I think the damage to Bush has been done- Clarke sadly, IMHO has handed the election to Kerry. Bush will be on the defensive throught the 8 months till the election.

[madison10]

Do you think it may have been Clarke who leaked the info on Wilson's wife? Just curious.

[Destro]

No - The men who leaked the name are about to be indicted. Cheney's staff I think.

[Joe Republc]

"...One problem, folks. Most Americans don't believe the journalists or reporters vouching for him are credible either."

Amen. The credibility and objectivity of the press seems to be getting worse. I'd like to think more Americans are waking up to that fact.

-- Joe

[blackbart.223]

"I think the damage to Bush has been done- Clarke sadly, IMHO has handed the election to Kerry."

And I think it's quite the opposite. Time will tell.

[potlatch]

LOL, I like 'your' version of things!

[potlatch]

No deals with FOX/FNC as of now

No deals with Fox News ever, I hope and pray!

[okie01]

"Do you think it may have been Clarke who leaked the info on Wilson's wife?"

I strongly suspect it.

And, in doing so, he was doing Wilson a favor...

[Stentor]

i am not liberal

LOL.

[MeekOneGOP]

I think the damage to Bush has been done- Clarke sadly, IMHO has handed the election to Kerry. Bush will be on the defensive throught the 8 months till the election.

I LOVE it ! Folks continue to misunderestimate Bush, and he continues to WIN Elections !

I voted for Bush in 1994, 1998, 2000 and will do the same November 2nd this year ! I urge others to do the same.

We need to tell folks that a vote for Kerry is a vote to weaken our resolve against these mad men that would launch even BIGGER attacks against us than they did on 9-11-2001.

I NEVER vote for a Democrat. There is ONLY one GOOD Democrat: One that has just been voted OUT of POWER !!

I vote straight ticket GOP ! Do I hold my nose sometimes ? Yes ! That's better and easier than handing power to those that side with our enemies.

We must maintain our resolve against Jean Keri, imho ...

This is my 'Rant for the Day' ...

________________________________________________________

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL ! That is good, Phil ! haha !

[Destro]

We need to tell folks that a vote for Kerry is a vote to.....

With all due respect - that is Bush's job. So far he has done a piss poor job at telling us.