ABC: Ex-Aide Says Bush Doing 'Terrible Job' (More from Richard Clarke)

[RamboLiberal]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040320_1217.html

Richard A. Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism coordinator, accuses the Bush administration of failing to recognize the al-Qaida threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and then manipulating America into war with Iraq with dangerous consequences.

He accuses Bush of doing "a terrible job on the war against terrorism."

<snip>

"I'm sure I'll be criticized for lots of things, and I'm sure they'll launch their dogs on me," Clarke said. "But frankly I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something."

<snip>

Almost immediately after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Clarke said the president asked him directly to find whether Iraq was involved in the suicide hijackings.

"Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said, 'Iraq did this,'" said Clarke, who told the president that U.S. intelligence agencies had never found a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida.

"He came back at me and said, 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection,' and in a very intimidating way," Clarke said.

And from CBS(the better article):

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml

<snip>

"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.

"I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'

"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report."

Clarke continued, "It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

"I have no idea, to this day, if the President saw it, because after we did it again, it came to the same conclusion. And frankly, I don't think the people around the president show him memos like that. I don't think he sees memos that he doesn't-- wouldn't like the answer."

[boobooday]

1. Holy Cow

Prepare for the launching of the dogs!!!

The response will be undoubtedly "PavRovian"

Seriously, I hope they pay more attention to this guy than they did to Paul O'Neill. I've been praying for someone on the inside to rat them out.

Sorry, I had to add this quote from the article. This is Clarke on Cheney et al when they took over:

"It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier," Clarke told CBS for an interview Sunday on its "60 Minutes" program."

Preserved in amber. Like ancient cockroaches.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[blm]

5. This is HUGE. We can't let this story be disappeared.

Between this and the Plame case, they have shown their incompetence and vengefulness in ways that are DETRIMENTAL to our nations' security.

[DemNoir]

2. Uh Oh

I feel an unexpected suicide coming on.

[FlemingsGhost]

3. How Bush hasn't been frog-marched from the WH is beyond me.

What will it take?

Americans are fools...

[Nlighten1]

4. Wooooofff

Let loose the dogs!

[Moderator]

6. Please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=433463