Clarke Known As Abrasive but Efficient

Yahoo! News ^ | 3/27/04 | Nancy Benac - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON -

Richard Clarke, the man who threw elbows and banged heads together to get things done under four American presidents, is the last person friends and colleagues expected to go public.

For decades he was the ultimate inside operator, the person who knew how to tackle the toughest national security problems and overcome bureaucratic inertia with behind-the-scenes guts, arrogance, smarts and hard work.

But writing a book and testifying to an official commission with scathing tales of miscalculations, failures and infighting at the highest levels of government? No way.

"This really isn't Dick," said Steven Simon, who worked with Clarke both at the White House and at the State Department. "It strikes me as a pretty clear indicator of the magnitude of his outrage."

Clarke, who left the Bush administration in early 2003, has become in the past week one of the most talked-about figures in America. In a string of public appearances and a new book that was an instant publishing phenomenon, he has forcefully criticized the Bush administration as a failure in the fight against terrorism that went on a tangent to attack Iraq (news - web sites) when it should have been focused on al-Qaida.

The intensity of the Republican campaign to discredit him as a disgruntled partisan who is out to sell books is a testament to how seriously the White House views his criticism.

On Friday, top Republicans in Congress sought to declassify 2-year-old testimony by Clarke, suggesting he may have lied in his criticism of Bush.

Roger Cressey, a business partner who also worked with Clarke in government, said Clarke had expected to be attacked, but "even he is rather surprised at the ferociousness and vindictiveness of it."

When administration officials questioned his claims last week that Bush was fixated on Iraq the day after the Sept. 11 attacks, Clarke countered that he had four witnesses to such a conversation and derided national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) and Bush for "having a memory lapse, a senior moment."

"This is the president in a very intimidating way, finger in my face, saying `I want a paper on Iraq and this attack,'" Clarke said.

Over four administrations and three decades in government, Clarke became known as "a very hard-driving, arrogant, not especially pleasant or polite fellow who manages to get an extremely impressive amount of work done," according to Gideon Rose, who worked under him on President Clinton (news - web sites)'s National Security Council. "He throws his elbows around the bureaucracy in the service of getting things done."

Leslie Gelb, who hired Clarke for his first State Department job in 1979, said Clarke "has annoyed and angered everybody he's worked with for 30 years. ... But everybody wanted him around because he could actually get the job done."

Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the complaints about Clarke kept rolling in: that he was riding roughshod, he didn't tell me, he didn't pay attention to me. The result: "Every boss would nod in agreement and keep him on the job."

Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser, told the Sept. 11 commission that several of his colleagues wanted Clarke fired.

Berger kept him on, explaining, "I wanted a pile driver."

Clarke, 53, did get swatted at in 1992 when the State Department's inspector general concluded that he had looked the other way as Israel resold Patriot missile technology to China.

Inspector General Sherman M. Funk recommended that Clarke be disciplined, but higher-ups rejected the idea. Clarke disputed the charges, claiming the alleged violations by Israel were "specious on their face," but he soon transferred to the White House.

There, he served three presidents: Bush, Clinton and Bush. In spring of 2001, Clarke's frustration with the current Bush administration's low-key approach to terrorism and al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) boiled over, and he decided to leave his job as the White House terrorism chief for a new government position targeting cyberterror. He and Rice agreed that he would leave Oct. 1, the start of the next budget year.

In his book, Clarke recalls telling Rice and her deputy, "Maybe I'm becoming like Captain Ahab with bin Laden as the white whale. Maybe you need someone less obsessive about it."

He hoped his real message got through: "You obviously do not think that terrorism is as important as I do since you are taking months to do anything, so get somebody else to do it who can be happy working at your pace."

Clarke, who left government service 13 months ago, now has his own consulting firm on homeland and cybersecurity.

He is known for coming down hard on those who let him down, but associates say he also has a pleasant side.

"When you get him one-on-one in a room, he's very personable and has a great sense of humor," said Keith Schwalm, a former Secret Service agent who worked with Clarke at the White House and now is vice president of his consulting company . "He likes to drop little hidden jokes all the time. If you don't have his sense of humor, you won't get 'em, and he'll laugh under his breath."

Clarke, who is single, is known as a voracious reader, from science fiction to history to the latest tutorial on al-Qaida, and as someone who enjoys relaxing with friends over dinner. The native New Englander loves seafood, follows the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Capitals, enjoys jazz and has a room in his Sears catalogue home packed with duck decoys and prints. He describes himself as a political independent registered as a Republican.

Despite Clarke's bulldog reputation, "he is a normal person," Simon said. "He likes to go on nice vacations. He likes good wine. He is your fairly typical cultivated upper-middle-class Washingtonian with cultivated upper-middle-class tastes."

Even his small talk, though, shows intensity and focus.

"Small talk for him is telling you about his cell phone and its capabilities," says Gelb. "He's all business. That's his life."

[Peach]

1. Rep. Christopher Shays, chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, said that in June 2000 Clark told the subcommittee there was "no need for an assessment" of the terrorist threat.

Three national commissions concluded the US needed a comprehensive threat assessment and a national strategy. Shays held 20 hearings pre 9/11 and on June 28, 2000 he asked Mr. Clarke, then serving as Clinton's Special Assistant and National Coordinator, Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrorism, when an all source threat assessment and strategy would be completed.

Clark answered "No assessment has been done, and there is no need for an assessment. I know the threat."

2. In 2000, the Department of Defense Worldwide Conference on Terrorism asked Mr. Clarke's assistant when a national strategy on terrorism would be completed. The assistant responded that a strategy was being developed (in 2000 - the last year of the Clinton presidency). However, no national strategy to combat terrorism was every produced during the Clinton administration.

3. 911 Commissioner Lehman noted to Clarke on Tuesday that his 15 hours of private testimony differed substantially from his public testimony. So substantially that Lehman told Clarke he couldn't believe it. As a result of that, the White House is seeking to declassify whether Clarke lied under oath.

4. On page 127 of Clarke's new book "Against All Enemies", Clarke notes that it's possible that al Qaida operatives in the Phillipes "taught Terry Nichols how to blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building." Intelligence places Nichols there on the same days as Ramzi Yousef, and "we do know that Nichols's bombs did not work before his Philippines stay and were deadly when he returned."

And yet, the Clinton administration focused exclusively on homegrown terrorists, and never talked publicly about this matter. Laurie Mylroie, terrorism expert who worked for the Clinton administration, and others, have since talked about the Iraqi connection to the OKC bombing frequently. Yet your news organization has been largely if not completely silent.

5. Despite Clarke's assertion that he is non-partisan, a few moments research into public records indicates that Clarke has only donated to Democrat's campaigns, never to Republicans.

6. Insight magazine published an article in June 2001 (pre 9/11) that reflects exactly what the Bush administration was doing to combat terrorism and provides information that proves Clarke was primarily focused on cyber terrorism vs. the kind of terrorism that kills thousands of people.

[jwalsh07]

Not any more, now he's known as a lying weasel who prifited from the deaths of Americans.

[NormsRevenge]

For decades he was the ultimate inside operator, the person who knew how to tackle the toughest national security problems and overcome bureaucratic inertia with behind-the-scenes guts, arrogance, smarts and hard work.

efficient, abrasive,, But was he effective?

How many attacks have we sustained over all his years and who is really to blame?

Buy MY book and find out. ;-o (just kidding..)

[inkling]

Holy Crap! Did Clarke write this himself?!

Clarke, who is single, is known as a voracious reader, from science fiction to history to the latest tutorial on al-Qaida, and as someone who enjoys relaxing with friends over dinner. The native New Englander loves seafood, follows the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Capitals, enjoys jazz and has a room in his Sears catalogue home packed with duck decoys and prints.

...His measurements are 36, 42, 56. He loves chinese food and long walks in the rain. No smokers, and please, no head games.

GACK!

[vbmoneyspender]

LOL

[formerlytempaussie]

Single, eh? Hmmm, and a high-pitched arrogance and temper. Boy, does this sound like someone a little light in the loafers. This fella sounds like someone who has been spurned.

[LauraJean]

Oh my goodness, I wonder if he goes to science fiction conventions. He sounds like a lot of people I have met at cons. Just think of the cartoon guy on the Simpsons. Obviously I can understand why the man is still single.

[RoseofTexas]

Geez, the RAG rats are trying so hard to paint Smeagol Clarke as mother Teresa. HA! It'll never work!

[trek]

Fellow freepers. I have no evidence for this but I smell Soros behind the Richard Clarke story. I don't know if they have dirt on Clarke or if they have merely bribed him with serious millions to be funneled via a book deal or maybe even a swiss account. This whole business just does not smell right.

Soros is a very powerful and shady figure. Finding a way to turn Clarke is just his style. Don't be fooled by his sudden interest in American politics. Soros hates Bush and the war on terror because they are a threat to his empire. Soros makes his millions manipulating currencies. Opaque banking practices are critical to his business. And that is why he hates the war on terror. The same changes to the international banking system needed to defund the Jihadis are a mortal threat to his "business".

It sure is a shame that the "investigative media" have no interest in this story. I suspect there is a huge scandal here. But I doubt we will ever hear about. The libs have the press on too short a leash.

[NormsRevenge]

Usually they eat their own,, but in this case, .. they want him to appear to be a Repub as long as they can continue that charade.

[Diogenesis]

No suprise reading AP militants helping terrorists.

[wardaddy]

The intensity of the Republican campaign to discredit him as a disgruntled partisan who is out to sell books is a testament to how seriously the White House views his criticism.

Actually Ms. Sherlocke, they might just be angry that he is a baldfaced liar......the Old Pretender.

[shhrubbery!]

...His measurements are 36, 42, 56. He loves chinese food and long walks in the rain. No smokers, and please, no head games. GACK!

Heh, funny post!

The guy is obviously your typical, East Coast elitist. I'll bet that in his not-too-distant past somewhere are (a) leather elbow patches on a tweed jacket, (b) a pipe, and (c) a Volvo.

[kezekiel]

So, he's focused, a hard worker, reads books, and gets the job done.

Such hard-hitting journalism. Thanks for getting to the bottom of this one, AP!

[GailA]

to true

[LADY J]

"This really isn't Dick," said Steven Simon, who worked with Clarke both at the White House and at the State Department. "It strikes me as a pretty clear indicator of the magnitude of his outrage."

Actually this really IS Dick. We have the proof right from his own mouth.

[MNJohnnie]

As anyone figured the ego angle and race angle on this? You have a middle aged ego centric, self important male bureaucratic insider being passed over for an African American female who later is instrumental in demoting this self important stuffed shirt. I think part of the reason Clarke has been so especially verminous in his comments about Rice is his poor little ego is bruised that a Black Woman is so much for efficient and better qualified despite his 30 years of self-purmotion.

[Spotsy]

Roger Cressey, a business partner who also worked with Clarke in government, said Clarke had expected to be attacked, but "even he is rather surprised at the ferociousness and vindictiveness of it."

Clarke is surprised by the ferociousness and vindictiveness? Clarke made this very personal with things like questioning Bush's intellect (for example, "he doesn't like to read") and by pretending not to know about Condi's academic and professional credentials (anyone who didn't graduate from MIT like Clarke is sub-par in his mind).

Clarke has some serious psychological issues.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

On one of the other threads someone had tracked down some of his political donations, all to Demonic Rats.