Kristinn, please see the last part of this post for a DC FReep opportunity.
I've been looking at Beers, too, Pinz:
Hume, Johnson, Bush, Kerry, Beers, & Perjury, LLP (http://www.bigleftoutside.com/archives/week_2003_06_29-2003_07_05.php), by Al Giordano, 2 July 2003
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The Toxic Career of Rand Beers
January 26, 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/donahue01262004.html
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Uncovered: The War on Iraq (20-Aug-2004)
http://www.nndb.com/films/575/000085320/
TRANSCRIPT-PDF which I can't open: http://www.truthuncovered.com/introduction.php
CLIPS: http://www.truthuncovered.com/untoldstories_qhigh.php
http://www.truthuncovered.com/trailer_high.php
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http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=1138615
Combating Catastrophic Terror
A Security Strategy for the Nation
~~~~~~~~~~
http://dca.boozle.net/odd/beers.html
1]23:37:56 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
I was concerned both about what was happening internationally in places like Afghanistan and what was happening domestically in the homeland security area. I didn't work on Iraq. I certainly observed what was going on in Iraq. But principally I was concerned about what was happening in Afghanistan or wasn't happening, and what was happening or wasn't happening at home.
1]23:46:01 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) So, it becomes a question, then, of the competing interests of the United States. You can't do everything with limited resources. This Administration, prior to the war against Iraq, was making the point that there was a strong feeling within the Administration that there was a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. And that one of the reasons cited for going to war against Iraq was precisely the reason of counter-terrorism. Was that a legitimate charge?
[1]23:46:33 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
The intelligence that I saw, and I'm not going to comment on it specifically, certainly didn't move me to come to the same conclusion.
1]23:47:36 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
I thought there were weapons of mass destruction to begin with. I understood that there were certain caveats, as we say in the bureaucratic framework, but that there was so much information about the size of the arsenal that there must have been weapons of mass destruction there.
1]23:48:54 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) If I ask you straight-out, do you think that prior to March of this year, Iraq as it existed, Saddam Hussein and his Baathist party as they existed, represented more of a threat to the United States than whatever other terrorist threats are out there? What would you say?
[1]23:49:15 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
I would have focused on al-Qaeda more than I would have focused on Iraq if it had been my decision.
[1]23:49:21 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) Because?
[1]23:49:22 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
Because I believe that al-Qaeda is a fundamental threat to the United States. And it is not clear to me whether Saddam had that same degree of threat and imminence.
1]23:49:33 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) I mean, what you're saying, to use my own phraseology now, and I'm trying to get you to respond to it in that same way. You're saying you think al-Qaeda, what's going on in Afghanistan, was, remain, a greater threat to the national security interests of the United States than Saddam Hussein, as he existed prior to the war? Is that fair?
[1]23:49:56 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
I'm saying that, but I'm also conscious that we're talking now in a post-conflict environment. And we certainly know more than we did then.
[1]23:50:05 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) But ...
[1]23:50:06 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
But I still have that same conclusion.
[1]23:50:08 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) I mean, what we have learned since the war, does that make you any less concerned than you before then?
[1]23:50:13 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
No, not at all. In fact, far from it, in the other direction. I think that what we have learned since the war is suggestive that Saddam was less, even less imminent a threat to us than it appeared that he was in the lead-up to the war.
1]00:02:16 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) And back with a final question for Rand Beers. It has to do with that climatic moment, I suppose, when you were in your office and you were looking at the files. And what was it about those files that sort of made you decide, "gotta go"?
[1]00:02:31 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
I certainly was known throughout my government career as not having a neat desk. It was never clear. What happened on that particular day is, I came to work and I looked at the piles of files, some of which were current, that I needed to look at right away and some of which had accumulated. And I just realized I didn't have the fortitude, the will, to actually spend the time necessary to do the job that I thought was required in the position that I was in. And I walked away.
[1]00:03:08 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) When you talk about those files, though, I think it's necessary for you to tell us, not precisely but at least generically, what was in those files.
[1]00:03:15 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
They were, almost everyone of them, classified documents, ranging from "confidential" to "top secret" and all kinds of special classifications associated with them.
[1]00:03:26 TED KOPPEL (ABC NEWS)
(OC) And every one of them indicating a threat to the United States?
[1]00:03:29 RAND BEERS (FORMER BUSH COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISER)
And every one, in one way or another, concerning either a threat to the United States or a policy set that needed to be reviewed in order to try to deal with those threats.
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http://dartmouthdc.org/events.html#webster2006 Apr 27
19th Annual Webster Award Dinner
Featuring Honoree Rand Beers '64, Richard Clarke and David Spaulding '76, VP of Alumni Relations
Thu, Apr 27, 6:30 P.M.
The Freedom Forum
22nd Floor
1101 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA
Rosslyn Metro
$90 for Members, $115 for Non-Members
$50 for Classes of 2001-2010
Scholarship Fund Donations Encouraged
Free Parking in the building
Black Tie Optional
The Dartmouth Club of Washington, DC annually bestows the Daniel Webster Distinguished Service Award on members of the Dartmouth family who honor Dartmouth through distinguished public service. Our Webster Awards page lists the recipients to date. This year, the Club will honor Rand Beers '64 who in his long career of public service, served as an Assistant Secretary in the State Department, a Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Combating Terrorism, a Marine Corps officer and a Foreign Service Officer. Richard A. Clarke, former Counter-Terrorism Adviser on The National Security Council and author of Against All Enemies, has agreed to attend and introduce Mr. Beers. Both Mr. Clarke and Mr. Beers served under the last four Presidents - and this is your rare opportunity to hear directly from these long-time policy leaders about their views of our national security. His work has focused on international security, counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism. The ceremony will be held at The Freedom Forum in Arlington, VA with spectacular views overlooking the Potomac and the monuments.
Rand Beers is one of only a few Americans to serve on the National Security Council staff under four presidents, advising Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on international security issues. Five days before the Iraq war began, in March 2003, Mr. Beers resigned his National Security Council position as a special assistant to President Bush on combatting terrorism. Eight weeks later, he volunteered to advise Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign on national security issues.
Throughout his career, he has been a modest, quiet and unassuming advocate of the American people. A Washington Post profile desribed Mr. Beers as an "unlikely insurgent," and "a lifelong bureaucrat, unassuming and tight-lipped until now." But he displayed formidable courage in the defense of his personal convictions when he left government over his disagreement with the Bush administration about its handling of national security issues.
Marc E. Nicholson '71, a professional colleague, describes Mr. Beers as an individual with "an enormous vigor and proactive initiative to make things happen, which is not easy in a large bureaucracy, and a just-the-facts willingness to stick to the truth and go where these facts and the evidence take you, irrespective of ideological trends or political party hang-ups, Democrat or Republican." He added: "After all these years, I have no idea at all to which party [Mr. Beers] belongs, and that is a tribute to the sense of [his] objectivity above party in service to the nation."
The award dinner is black-tie optional, and ticket proceeds will benefit the Scholarship Fund. There are only about 20 places remaining for this year's signature event - so we encourage you to register immediately to guarantee your place at this event! If you have any questions, please contact dinner chair David Connell '90.
Buy Tickets Online by Credit Card with PayPal
Click on the buttons below to select and pay for your tickets. This will take you to PayPal's web site where you can pay by either by credit card or by using your PayPal account if you are a PayPal member.
Webster Dinner, Classes of 2001-2010 - $50