Clarke & Stuff
Unfortunately, yours truly did not watch 60 Minutes last night. This is mostly because I never watch 60 Minutes or any other tabloid news program (particularly when The Simpsons is on). But apparently, Richard Clarke asserted that the administration was woefully inadequate at this whole terrorism thing and kept trying to steer things toward attacking Iraq.
These charges are pretty heinous and absolutely should be addressed but there is one factor that I still have to consider: The jilted lover factor. Seems to me Clarke may have ulterior motives.
Update: Drudge is reporting that CBS had a financial stake in the book and didn’t disclose it. This page at CBS says:
His allegations are also made in a book, “Against All Enemies,” which is being published Monday by Free Press, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster. Both CBSNews.com and Simon & Schuster are units of Viacom.
But I don’t know if that info was made available on 60 Minutes. Could be nothing.
March 22nd, 2004 at 11:50 am
Motives like what? Certainly there’s the profit motive, as he’s writing a book. But what else that would actually discredit what he’s saying?
The guy is a 20+ year veteran in the pentagon.. He worked under Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton, as well. Any jilting would take a lot, and wouldn’t be of a partisan nature, if that’s what you’re implying.
March 22nd, 2004 at 11:55 am
The fact he was demoted?
March 22nd, 2004 at 1:59 pm
Like Chris says, the real issue should be whether what he says is true or not, and what it means. As for him being “demoted” that’s just a further indictment of the Bushies. Clinton had a cabinet level terrorism post and Bush removed it. Nonetheless, Clarke remained at his post until well after 9/11.
March 22nd, 2004 at 2:07 pm
I agree completely that it should be investigated and, if true, heads should roll. But, as alway, consider the source. Clarke has 2 strikes against his street cred:
he was fired
he was on 60 minutes pushing a book
Color me skeptical.
March 22nd, 2004 at 3:31 pm
Uncle:
But you forget that he’s got independent witnesses who corroborate much of what he says.
March 22nd, 2004 at 3:34 pm
Odd, i didn’t gather that from my perusal of the liberal media. As I said, this needs to be investigated and heads should roll.
March 22nd, 2004 at 4:51 pm
“The fact he was demoted? ”
Except he wasn’t demoted. His positon — the position of Terrorist Czar — was changed from a Cabinet level position to a regular staff position. Which, I might add, is collaboration for his contention that Bush didn’t terrorism as seriously as CLinton or his father did.
March 22nd, 2004 at 4:53 pm
Oh, and you should read the media more closely:
From the CBS interview:
March 22nd, 2004 at 7:58 pm
Not looking good. Of course, people need more proof than what a few folks say. This will get ugly.
March 23rd, 2004 at 5:50 pm
The attempted linking of 9/11 to Iraq is very troubling and corroborated multiple times by both Leslie Stahl in this case as well as Paul O’Neill’s book.
March 22nd, 2004 at 12:49 pm
American Grandstand
[Editor’s note: I wrote this post last evening — after reading excerpts of the “60 Minutes” Richard Clarke interview and before my site collapsed for 14 hours. May as well post it now. If you’ve heard it all before, ignore…