Found notes may show Bush plan on Clarke

UPI ^ | 3/31/04 | Pamela Hess

[South40]

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- The White House was worried about the damaging testimony of a former counter-terrorism chief to a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks last week but was trying to let the issue die on its own, according to Pentagon briefing notes found at a Washington coffee shop.

"Stay inside the lines. We don't need to puff this (up). We need (to) be careful as hell about it," the handwritten notes say. "This thing will go away soon and what will keep it alive will be one of us going over the line."

The notes were written by Pentagon political appointee Eric Ruff who left them in a Starbucks coffee shop in Dupont Circle, not far from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's home.

The notes are genuine, a Pentagon official said. They were compiled for an early morning briefing for Rumsfeld before the Sunday morning talk shows, during which administration officials conducted a flurry of interviews to counter the testimony of Richard Clarke, President George W. Bush's former terrorism czar who left the post in 2003. Rumsfeld appeared on Fox and ABC.

The Starbucks customer who found them gave them to the liberal advocacy group the Center for American Progress, which published them on its Web site Wednesday. Included in the notes was a hand-drawn map to Rumsfeld's house, which is largely blacked out on the Web site for security reasons.

Clarke told the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks that the White House was obsessed with Iraq and ignored warning from him and others that al-Qaida was the real threat to the United States. Bush signed an order Sept. 17 directing the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq, the commission staff reported.

The Starbucks notes, printed on paper titled "Eric's Telephone Log" with a notation indicating the points came from a conference call, counseled to "rise above Clark" and "emphasize importance of 9-11 commission and come back to what we have done."

Since the notes were found, however, the White House has decided to allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify before the committee under oath. She will provide a direct answer to Clarke's account.

Rice answered Clarke's allegations in media appearances last week but declined to provide sworn public testimony to the panel, saying it set a dangerous precedent for the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.

One of Clarke's most damaging allegations is that he crafted an anti-terrorism plan -- a National Security Presidential Directive -- to take on al-Qaida in January 2001. The NSPD was not approved until Sept. 4, and neither was it substantially changed in the intervening months, according to Clarke. He has challenged the White House to release both documents to allow for a side-by-side comparison.

The notes address this matter, saying the plan to attack the Taliban existed before Sept. 4.

"The NSPD wasn't signed till Sept. 4 but had an annex going back to July (with) contingency plans to attack Taliban," the notes say.

That point is related to another in the notes. The briefing says commission member Jamie Gorelick, a former general counsel of the Defense Department under President Clinton, was pitting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage against Rice. Under sworn testimony, Armitage contradicted Rice's claim the White House had a strategy before Sept. 11 that called for military operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

[Maria S]

"Get ready for the Clarke memo scandal."

No kidding! Will it be "Clarke memogate", "Starbucksgate", "coffeegate", or "Stay inside the lines gate"?

[mrsmith]

According to the press at the time, Bush increased our presence in Afghanistan as soon as they came into office.
This artilce was printed six months before 9/11.

www.janes.com 15 March 2001

"India is believed to have joined Russia, the USA and Iran in a concerted front against Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Military sources in Delhi, claim that the opposition Northern Alliance's capture of the strategic town of Bamiyan, was precipitated by the four countries' collaborative effort. ...
Several recent meetings between the newly instituted Indo-US and Indo-Russian joint working groups on terrorism led to this effort to tactically and logistically counter the Taliban.
Intelligence sources in Delhi said that while India, Russia and Iran were leading the anti-Taliban campaign on the ground, Washington was giving the Northern Alliance information and logistic support. "

Of course this could have been a manipulative Richard Clarke press leak to this reporter (Clarke used the media a lot in his career). He always wanted to increase US cooperation with anti-taliban forces in the area and Clinton always denied that to him. Perhaps he was trying to force Bush's hand. Though I think there was an Indian source for this article.

Yeah, I remember the lib conspiracy kooks saying Osama had struck at the US because Bush had upped the pressure against him (silly on it's face- they'd the US attacked plenty of times before). Now they say he didn't do anything. That's why they're called kooks - unles they're 'reporters' LOL!

[Hot Tabasco]

The notes were written by Pentagon political appointee Eric Ruff who left them in a Starbucks coffee shop in Dupont Circle, not far from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's home.

Strange but I found copies of same notes lying on the floor at my local Meyers.......

I think there is definitely some substance to this story and it should not be pushed aside.........This could be very series for our administration!

[Spotsy]

On a somewhat related subject:

Hillary has gone on record as saying that an "October Surprise" will determine the winner of the election. What do you suppose she has planned?

Is she holding something as juicy as an ancient DUI record or these Starbuck's notes?

[Maria S]

from google:

Eric Ruff is the Director of Communications for the Office of the Secretary, a position not subject to Senate approval. Before joining Interior, Ruff was providing on-the-ground counsel to executives and media relations staff at the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri. He developed and carried out an array of strategic and tactical programs in support of the company’s global agricultural biotechnology acceptance campaign.

Before working on biotechnology, Ruff served as the senior vice president of communications and technology for the National Restaurant Association, overseeing its efforts to promote the restaurant industry and its views to the publicand the news media.

Prior to joining the association, Ruff spent several years in senior public affairs positions in government. In the U.S. Senate he was communications director for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Senator John Warner (R-VA). In the Administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush he served in public affairs posts at the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce.

Earlier he served as legislative assistant for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). After managing the successful 1986 re-election campaign of Att.Gen. Brian McKay of Nevada, Ruff jointed DRGM, the state’s largest advertising and marketing agency, where he represented Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nevada in Carson City. He also directed the agency’s highly successful public relations campaign for the Nevada mining industry.

In his earlier career as a journalist, Ruff covered Capitol Hill for Congressional Quarterly. Prior to working for CQ, he covered Congress as a bureau chief and regional reporter for the Donrey Media Group. Ruff and his wife, Rebecca, live in Arlington, Va., and have two sons.

[Tennessean4Bush]

This just in. Secret notes reveal Republican plan to tell the truth.

Ha! I was thinking the exact same thing after I read the article. I mean, this truly shows the Republicans trying to be level-headed and not attack Clarke and point out a few contradictions. So what?

[Hot Tabasco]

Isn't there something bizarre about this story?

Of course not! What, are you paranoid or something?

[cwb]

OT observation: I've have yet to get an answer to why it is that Jamie Gorelick is even on this commission. This is a woman who should be answering questions...not asking them. Her positions within the Clinton administration are very relevant to both the policy and the inaction we saw against OBL and AQ...prior to 9/11.

Think about this...this is a woman who was both a Deputy AG under Clinton...and now I see, a General Counsel for the Defense Department. This is important because as we've seen, the Clinton administration engaged in extreme legalese in its efforts to avoid confrontation with these terrorist groups. Whether it was the PC politics of the DOJ that prevented them from targeting Muslim groups and charities in this country, for fear of being labeled racists...to commanders in the military having to consult "lawyers" before they took any military action.

If, as Dick Morris has even said, that this was an overriding "political" concern for Clinton, than Jamie Gorelick is the one witness who should be in the hotseat by virtue of her 2 positions in the Clinton administration that put her at the heart of these questions. Were domestic political concerns and PC policies more important than national security...especially since this administration treated terrorism as a legal matter? I'm beginning to think that her appoitment to this position, was to keep her from becoming a witness.

[Hot Tabasco]

End stall...." Tom D. will be here for you on Monday at 8PM........Richard C". xxxooo

...and will be "Deeply Saddened" if you don't show up! LOL!

[js1138]

So what?

Even under oath you're allowed to present yourself well. If the parties had been reversed and I saw the statement, "We don't need to puff this up," I would think it means we don't need to counterattack. Simple and likely interpretation no matter who says it.

[cricket]

"The issue of dem obstruction of the President's political appointees, etc. has not gotten the attention that it deseves."

Think Mr. BenVenista swollen with pomposity; stated today that the Repubs were from hereon, to be punished by the aggrieved Dems, for daring to subvert the will of Congress; by Bush making interim appointments of Judge Pickering and.. .and (?)whomever.

So, the Dems now have claimed they will make NO MORE confirmations of any of Bush's nominees! Imagine. . .IOW, we can no longer. . .depend (laugh) on their cooperation (bigger laugh) to make bi-partisan decisions that would serve the best interests of our Country. IOW; go forth and . . .yourself!

A firing squad would be too good for these people.

[LiberationIT]

I wonder if UPI has reported any of the contents of the Senate memos. Or if UPI's reporting of these "found" notes has any moral distinction from the Left's outrage over the found Senate memos they so cavalierly left lying around?

[cricket]

"Hillary has gone on record as saying that an "October Surprise" will determine the winner of the election. What do you suppose she has planned?"

. . .sounds a bit. . .manipulative; clandestine. . .funny no one is asking her the big question.

Can only guess. . . Larry Flynt will claim GW had a sex change operation?

She said she would never run for President. And she won't. But she may be crowned.

[michigander]

This is all so much BS.
Here are links to our federal gonvernment's big chance to spell out, exactly, what they were doing about terroist threats over the years (draw your own conclusions)...

Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1998, Introduction

Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999, Introduction

Patterns of Global Terrorism - 2000, Introduction

Patterns of Global Terrorism -2001, Preface and Introduction

[norton]

"I wonder if the guy who left the notes is still employed? Directions to Rumsfelds home are now in the hands of ultra leftist kooks....wonderful. He'll have to move."

Not to mention wondering why someone in the conference call felt a need to draw a map!

Let me see.......
[weighing alternative in left hand versus alternative in right hand]
Invited to a barbeque and needed instructions.....or....doing a favor for someone waiting to pick up a 'lost' item?

[miloklancy]

Granted this memo shouldn't have been left in a Starbucks of all places, but I think it was blatantly obvious that the Bush camp was worried about Clarke's testimony. But there is by no means a "vast right-wing conspiracy" here. Clarke's testimony did politicize the Sept 11th commission's hearings and now Condi Rice is left with the job of putting committee back on task after Mr. Clarke's little publicity stunt of a testimony that he only really used to sell his book and not really provide anything meaningful to the commission.

[Ole Okie]

Maybe I will go "loose" some notes in a Starbucks that will make the Democrats look really bad.

Yes, the looser those notes are, the easier they will be to lose.

Just open the rings in the three ring binder and let it fall loosely open. Then you will immediately lose the notes. :0)

[Milligan]

It must be a disgruntle Starbuck employee. Follow the crumbs.

[BenLurkin]

This just in. Secret notes reveal Republican plan to tell the truth.

Heh-heh-heh.

[Jeeper]

My sentiments exactly. This stinks. The map was too much. The pentagon has claimed the notes, so they must be genuine.
Silly liberals. If you're going to 'reveal' some inside information on Republicans, proving they tell the truth won't help you.