Hardball Tonight: Clarke - 9/11 Might Have Been Prevented

MSNBC ^ | Updated: 3:35 p.m. ET March 31, 2004 | Alex Johnson

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Combine all your points with the observation (by some pundit yesterday, I believe) that Cheney said "Clarke was out of the loop on alot of the strategy development." That pundit noted that the Bush Administration was frustrated by leaks of their strategy to the media by, it was suspected, some of this Clinton holdovers who opposed every effort the Bushes made. I would love for Condi to make that point IN PUBLIC and UNDER OATH.

[Huck]

When I'm not ragging on the fat bastard for his crappy ratings, I'm watching the darn show! But not that Sunday travesty. Even I have limits.

[Howlin]

That's the key to this whole thing to me: you see, in the Clinton administration HE had the meetings, ran them, met with Clinton. (And we know how successful they were!)

When the Bush team came to town, they reorganized and Clarke's presence wasn't required at the meetings; hell, even the ones he was suppose to go to with Rice, he didn't go to (probably because SHE was running them, not him).

He was DEMOTED and out of the decision making chain. Woolsey said that himself; Clarke wasn't a leader anymore, he was just an employee.

I imagine that was more than his ego could handle, after he single-handedly handled 9-11, ya know?

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Good letter kabar! I share your frustrations -- I've sent those b*st*rds more than a few emails recently... I'm sure they are immediately deleted and they make no difference, but it's therapy just to type it into an email.

[Howlin]

The more he talks, the loonier he looks, IMO. He's taking on that Captain Queeg demeanor now.

[doug from upland]

Actually it could have been prevented. All we needed was the date and flight numbers gathered from our human intelligence. Oh, that's right, because of the RAT bastards, we were woefully deficient in human intelligence. Never mind.

[ravingnutter]

This nutter is having delusions of Bond - now he seems to think he's a double-o agent.

Hey...watch it...us nutters have a reputation to maintain, we don't want to be associated with the likes of Clarke : )

[Steve_Seattle]

The only guys whose contradictions are overlooked by the press are John Kerry and Richard Clarke. They can change their story every day of the week, no problem, and anyone who challenges them is part of the Bush "slime machine." Meanwhile, the press pores through old records hoping to catch anyone in the Bush administration of a contradiction or mis-statement, and puts a microscope to anything they come up with. How much attention did the press give to Clarke when he was quoted in "Losing Bin Laden"? - none.

[cwb]

That's right. But you see...he's not under oath with Matthews so he can lie all he wants and give the impression that is what he said to the commission...and no one will question it.

[syriacus]

So...9/11 isn't Clarke's fault after all (/sarcasm).

I guess his apology was as pointless as it seemed when he gave it.

Clarke is the Pied Piper of the "must blame someone"-type 9/11 families.

[Jan Hus]

Why is this article reporting that Clarke stated on Mathews show that 9/11 could have been prevented when the show has not been aired.I thought the Mathews show was aired live at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. and was spontaneous (;^).What does Mathews do rehearse the show? or is this an advance teaser to get viewers?

[BlessedByLiberty]

Thanks for the heads up!

Wonder if Hissy Matthews of Hairball asked him about the MoveOn.org commercial that Clark now disavows?

[umgud]

I don't have a problem with anything Clarke is saying. My problem is that the mainstream media promotes his words as gospel and uses them in the media inspired inquisition of Bush. I also am pi$$ed the media promotes his book that would have went nowhere without their help.

Actually, I'm downright angry.

[Steve_Seattle]

It possibly could have been prevented, but that has nothing to do with all this stuff about budgets and alleged mental attitudes by the White House. The investigation of terror is the responsibility of the FBI and the CIA; more than a year ago, we learned that they dropped the ball on a couple of leads - THAT is where the failure was, but now it's all become politics.

[colorado tanker]

LOL!

[Steve_Seattle]

"I also am pi$$ed the media promotes his book that would have went nowhere without their help."

The same media, I might add, that virtually ignored "Losing Bin Laden," in which the same Richard Clarke was critical of the Clinton administration.

[JulieRNR21]

And half the people who watch are probably conservative masochists like me who watch just to be annoyed.

LOL.....you are so cruel to yourself!

[BigSkyFreeper]

Thanks for the ping, reminded me to watch this. Someone should start a live thread for this in due course.

[jwalsh07]

If pigs could fly Richard Clarke would be on somebodys radar.

[ironman]

I'll have to watch the show tonight to see who he puts the blame on. He well may not have contradicted himself, but surely he doing a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking.