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Shays noted that at a briefing on June 28, 2000, he asked Mr. Clarke, then serving as President Clinton’s Special Assistant and National Coordinator, Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counterterrorism, when an all-source threat assessment and strategy would be completed. His answer: “No assessment has been done, and there is no need for an assessment, I know the threat.”
Earlier that year, at the Department of Defense Worldwide Conference on Terrorism, Mr. Clarke’s assistant, Ms. Lisa Gordon-Haggerty, was asked when a national strategy to combat terrorism would be completed. She said Mr. Clarke’s office was developing a national strategy, and the plan would be completed over the next several weeks. No national strategy to combat terrorism was ever produced during the Clinton Administration
It is outrageous that Russert and Matthews welcome the likes of Clarke on their programs and act like he has even one bit of credibility and actually act like the Bush administration has been dishonest or at least not given terrorism appropriate attention when they MUST know that Clarke's self-aggrandizing account in his damn book and testimony is undercut by Shays, for just one example.
They are not to be respected or trusted ever again.