Richard Clarke taking the oath is the Newsweek Cover

[RamboLiberal]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4616750/

The Insider
The Town Crier: He came, he bore witness and he sent Washington into a frenzy. How Richard Clarke fueled a firestorm over who's to blame for 9/11, why two presidents missed the warning signs—and what we can learn to keep it from happening again.

What does Richard Clarke have against Condoleezza Rice? In his book, "Against All Enemies," Clarke, the former counterterror chief for the Bush White House, writes that when he first briefed the president's national-security adviser about the Qaeda threat at a January 2001 meeting, "her facial expression gave me the impression she had never heard the term before." That is a stretch; Rice had spoken publicly about Al Qaeda before she came to the White House. Last week a Bush aide went to similar extremes to demonstrate the depth of Rice's concern about the Qaeda threat. When Rice was a director of Chevron Oil Co., the corporation had named an oil tanker in her honor. But a few months after she took her White House job, she called the head of Chevron and asked that her name be taken off the tanker—and not just because the White House was already under fire for being too cozy with the oil industry. If Osama bin Laden wanted to send a message to the new American president, Rice reportedly reasoned, what better way than to blow up a ship named after his national-security adviser?

Clarke's animus against Rice is transparent. Still, the once obscure, now famous bureaucrat cleverly and effectively portrayed his boss last week as slow-footed and almost clueless in the race to head off a terrorist attack. On the short list of memorable Washington witnesses, Clarke ranks just below John Dean, Richard Nixon's White House counsel during Watergate ("We have a cancer—within, close to the presidency, that's growing..."), and the flamboyant Col. Oliver North of the Iran-contra scandal. While other high-ranking government officials tap-danced and buck-passed before the 9/11 commission, Clarke presented himself as a soulful truth-teller.

He seized the moral high ground shortly after raising his right hand. Clarke apologized to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11. "Those entrusted with protecting you," he gravely intoned, "failed you." After the muffled sobs in the audience died down, the Bush administration, which has not apologized to anyone, was left to make awkward excuses. "The key here is to remember who is responsible," Rice told NEWSWEEK, firmly, but also a little stiffly, as she sat in her corner office in the West Wing at the end of a long week. "Al Qaeda is responsible."

[annagull]

1. The Condi Scowl: A classic now!

Look at that face, that pissed off mug. Now she's in Newsweek with that mean-assed look on her face. She's done, toast; I only hope she writes a tell-all book that indicts her boss, the Shrub..

[RamboLiberal]

2. Here's one item WH excised from Clarke Book

Wonder what else they yanked? He does mention in book that they sent an FBI agent to chase down Wolfie's theory. From Article:

Clarke says his outspokenness earned the particular enmity of Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. Clarke is scathing about Wolfowitz, whom he depicts as obsessed with proving a conspiracy theory propounded by Laurie Mylroie, a controversial academic who contends that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. According to Clarke, Wolfowitz commissioned former CIA director Jim Woolsey to fly to England to retrieve fingerprints of WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef, in order to show that Yousef was a "false double" inserted by Iraqi intelligence. The FBI objected to this wild-goose chase, but Wolfowitz insisted. As it turned out, the fingerprints disproved Mylroie's theory—they matched those of the Ramzi Yousef sitting in a U.S. federal prison. (When Clarke tried to tell this story in a draft of his book, it was excised by White House lawyers in a prepublication review for classified information.)

[Kool Kitty]

3. "Al Qaeda is responsible."

No shit, Condi. But perhaps a little contrition might be in order here. I mean, after all, it did happen on your watch. And Mr. Clarke's apology, that looked and sounded heartfelt to me, carries more resonance than your snappish statements on all the yap shows you've been running your mouth on.

[Disturbed]

4. Not convinced

The majority of the American sheep are not convinced by Clarke. More corabertive evidence is required. I sure hope someone steps up and delivers more fact and info. because the Shrubco Dis-info Macine is pounding hard. Most Americans don't really want to believe that their Govt. failed them so they dismiss evidence that it did.

Joe Wilson's book should be another bomb shell.... coming soon.

[kerryin2004]

5. I love ya when your angry condi

Keep up the scowl, your in deep water and you know it.. Isn't it going to be great that not only does the 9-11 report come out in June but Fahrenheit 9-11 is rumored to be hitting theaters.. This can only get worse if they dont take responsibility for their screw ups.. i think the American people deserve to know that their security is going to be in good hands.

[alcuno]

15. Welcome to DU, kerryin2004

I want them ALL under oath. What Condi and George don't get is that Clarke swore to tell the truth and she did not. That's what the American people see.

[Kool Kitty]

6. They may not be convinced,

but they sure as hell are snapping this book up. I think a lot of Americans wonder why their government failed them. They got planes up to escort Payne Stewart's jet, they couldn't do anything on September 11? The reason the smear machine is in hyperdrive is because they are afraid, and they should be. I think more people are paying attention than you think. When is the last time you saw Ms. Rice make 500 TV appearances in the space of 2 weeks? And everyone else testified in public and UNDER OATH. This shoots her credibility, not Clarke's. Even Rumsfeld showed his face. And the guy they sent in her place, Armitage, contradicted a couple of the things she said. I am hopeful. A public apology can be a very powerful thing.

[Sophree]

9. The media is starting to come around

And when they do, so will most other Americans. They just need to hear the truth from an incredulous (of * lies) media.

Have faith all!

[aquart]

10. They already know Bush lied.

They may not want to believe Clarke, but they do. They may not be ready to say so, yet.

[kodi]

12. perhaps, but the question remains: who was irresponsible?

and it sure looks like bush and rice.

bush and rice...the diet amereica doesn't need

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. "Bush and Rice -- The Diet America Doesn't Need"

I smell a bumpersticker here! :thumbsup:

(Forgive me. I think in soundbites more than I should -- a product of the times {or a weak mind}, I suppose. Or maybe the knowledge that any long, reasoned policy outline to Joe & Jane Sixpack immediately puts them right to sleep. It's like when I saw that gaze that Clarke gave the 9-11 commission, the only thing that immediately popped into my mind was a picture of that, captioned, "You Want A Piece Of Me?" :shrug: )

[kodi]

16. i thought clarke's look at that point was "come and get me, sucker."

i have looked into the eyes of a few like that and it is not something you really want to see staring back at you.

but i do like the bumper sticker idea, or at least a song title.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Interesting that Ashcroft is ill, and absent --

"At the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft seemed particularly indifferent to the threat. He brushed off regular briefings on national-security warrants to wiretap terror suspects. When two top antiterror officials flew out to his home in rural Missouri one weekend to get his signature on one such warrant, Ashcroft demanded, 'How come you guys are bothering me out here?' He signed, but didn't even invite them in for a glass of water."

There are some serious questions, it seems to me, to be answered regarding Ashcroft's FBI -- and his press-documented decision to stop flying on commercial flights.

(Great Newsweek cover, rmpalmer -- thanks for posting.)

[xxqqqzme]

8. look @ her face!!!!

that is one hard-as-steel, mean-ass, don't-get-on-her-bad-side, bitch. She totally creeps me out! And the neo-cons want her 2 run 4 gov of California????? (shudder)

[PCIntern]

11. Hell, she was almost chosen

as the President of The Univeristy of Pennsylvania. He name was mentioned in the Inquirer as one of three finalists who didn't make it. Question is: when did she apply and shy? No one seems to realize that your name doesn't just pop in out of nowhere. Enquiring minds want to know!

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

14. A little off this topic, but did anyone know...

what that guy was shouting when they escorted him out the room?

[RamboLiberal]

18. And Condi "Feeling the Heat" gets the Time Cover

[leftchick]

17. is that condi-glower picture in the article too?

I hope so! :)

[Jade Fox]

19. "two presidents missed the warning signs"--horseshit!

Clinton clearly did a much better job at combating terrorism, and handed
the info to Bush who ignored it.

It drives me crazy the way the media feels this need now to always be
"fair" by not saying anything too critical of Conservatives, even if it just
happens to be the truth.