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March, 2002 PBS Frontline interview with Clarke; calls Bush response to 9/11 "open minded".
PBS Frontline ^ | March 20, 2002 | PBS

Posted on 03/28/2004 11:04:05 PM PST by smonk

Clarke mainly discusses Paul O'Neill, who had just left the administration. But there is this snippet:

Because one of the things that surprises a lot of the public, I think, is that immediately after Sept. 11, the administration knew exactly who had done it. Was that why?

No. On the day of Sept. 11, then the day or two following, we had a very open mind. CIA and FBI were asked, "See if it's Hezbollah. See if it's Hamas. Don't assume it's Al Qaeda. Don't just assume it's Al Qaeda." Frankly, there was absolutely not a shred of evidence that it was anybody else. The evidence that it was Al Qaeda began just to be massive within days after the attack.

(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2002; cia; clarke; fbi; frontline; hamas; hezbollah; kerry; pbs; qaeda; richardclarke
at the time, PBS wondered how the administration knew that Al Qaeda was resposible for the atrocities of 9/11 "immediately". Clarke, in his own words, explains that GWB was being "open minded", which is merely another word for being "thorough".
1 posted on 03/28/2004 11:04:07 PM PST by smonk
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To: smonk
lol
2 posted on 03/28/2004 11:06:55 PM PST by GeronL (www.armorforcongress.com..... put a FReeper in Congress)
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To: smonk
Good find. The more you research Clarke, the more you realize that he and his puppet-masters are convinced that the average american is a moron.
3 posted on 03/28/2004 11:12:21 PM PST by MamaLucci (Libs, want answers on 911? Ask Clinton why he met with Monica more than with his CIA director.)
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To: smonk
Poll needs some attention:

"Rate the 9/11 Commission so far"

Choices are:

Today's Poll:

Question: Rate the 9/11 Commission so far

Useful to war on terror
Partisan witch-hunt by Democrats
Clarke is hero/whistle blower
Clarke driven solely by his ego
Shows desperation of Bush-haters
Waste of time and money

4 posted on 03/28/2004 11:14:53 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: MamaLucci
btt
5 posted on 03/28/2004 11:15:02 PM PST by nopardons
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To: smonk
No. On the day of Sept. 11, then the day or two following, we had a very open mind. CIA and FBI were asked, "See if it's Hezbollah. See if it's Hamas. Don't assume it's Al Qaeda. Don't just assume it's Al Qaeda." Frankly, there was absolutely not a shred of evidence that it was anybody else. The evidence that it was Al Qaeda began just to be massive within days after the attack.

Ah, but the Bush administration made him say that, y'see.

6 posted on 03/29/2004 12:12:03 AM PST by martin_fierro (Lodi Idol)
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To: nopardons
tidbit on Ken Pollack, one of the folks who worked with Clarke at the NSC and who I think came out to spin alongside him.

MARCH 17, 1999 : (IRAQ NEWS COMMENTS ON IRAQ, KEN POLLACK & NSC : POLLACK HAS DESCRIBED REMOVING SADDAM HUSSEIN AS A 'FANTASY' - DOES THIS SIGNAL CLINTON ADMINISTRATION CHANGE IN IRAQ POLICY?) Ken Pollack is going to be doing for the NSC? And given that he's described removing Saddam Hussein as a fantasy, does that signal the administration is no longer committed to a change in regime in Iraq? - Iraq News , 17 March 1999

7 posted on 03/29/2004 12:18:10 AM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: piasa
Pollack is also on the Council on Foreign relations.
8 posted on 03/29/2004 12:23:35 AM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: smonk
...and the hits just keep onnnnn comin'....
9 posted on 03/29/2004 12:36:18 AM PST by RichInOC (Dick Clarke is a liar. Don't be a Dick.)
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To: smonk
(Interviewer) If you look back on it now and you had one wish, you could have had one thing done, what would it have been?

(Clarke) Blow up the camps and take out their sanctuary. Eliminate their safe haven, eliminate their infrastructure. They would have been a hell of a lot less capable of recruiting people. Their whole "Come to Afghanistan where you'll be safe and you'll be trained," well, that wouldn't have worked if every time they got a camp together, it was blown up by the United States. That's the one thing that we recommended that didn't happen -- the one thing in retrospect I wish had happened.



Unfortunately Clinton, Clarke and the entire administration instead sat on their collective hands throughout the 90's while the aforementioned recruitment and training was taking place. By the time G.W. Bush entered the Whitehouse the plot and people were already in place and bombing camps in Afghanistan would not have stopped it. The obvious implication of Clarke's statement above is that the Clinton administration enabled 9/11 to happen by not stopping the recruitment and training of terrorist in Afghanistan.


10 posted on 03/29/2004 3:10:45 AM PST by Avenger
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To: Avenger
Well-stated.
11 posted on 03/29/2004 4:36:28 AM PST by jigsaw (http://prophetofdoom.net ---> Islam’s Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad’s Own Words)
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To: smonk
bump
12 posted on 03/29/2004 4:38:04 AM PST by dalebert
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