Powell on Face the Nation [nails Richard Clarke]

State Department ^ | March 28, 2004 | State Department

[Carolinamom]

Thanks you for that info. My phone rang at the moment when Brit revealed this very important part of the CBS "editing." (And the phone call was a wrong number.Grrrrrrrr.)

[Darlin']

LOL. Actually, I believe Brit mentioned one other point but like you, I was on the phone also and think I only got one of them straight.

[McGavin999]

WOW, I'm sorry I missed that. I never watch it anymore, but I really should have watched this one.

[windchime]

Bump!

[AFPhys]

I don't recall your nic, and since you've received no other replies, I'll give you a short one (not much time now here)

You're certainly right: Clarke needed to be replaced. It takes time to do such things. It is apparent that you have had little experience in hiring and firing and running a business. No matter how much a different job needed to be done in the counterterrorism area, it simply wasn't reasonable to just drop everything and fire that guy. The administration compartmentalized the guy while shifting information and responsibilities away from him and onto more competant and loyal persons. The "leaks" from the "highly placed administration sources" have gone way down (wonder how many of those have been Clarke over the years), and the press is angry about that. The thing is, he WAS replaced. They had reports from before they took office to "watch out for Clarke". They used him for stuff he had some usefulness in, and left him behind for other stuff. The question wasn't whether he was useful, but in what way he could be used effectively. He certainly had a load of useful experience and could be good to have. Until the administration had determined how the security area was going to be reorganized, they were letting him do some things while shifting some other responsibilities to others.

That major reorganization plan was finally completed (from what I can glean) on Sep.4. It hit the President's desk Sep.10. I call that pretty fast work. Sep.11 probably changed things somewhat significantly and it had to be reworked a little, so it's hard to know how that changed Clarke's ultimate position. The thing is, the "antiterrorism office" that Clarke was running was riddled with problems the administration did their best to bypass until they could reorganize. Firing Clarke would not have helped a whit. Using him for what he was good at and getting other terrorism problems handled elsewhere was a very smart administrative move.