WAIT, THAT RICHARD CLARKE?

Ever since hearing him speak at a conference on Homeland Security I have had enormous respect for Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays. I don't know what positions he held on terrorism prior to 9/11, but I believe without a doubt after hearing him speak on the topic, that the experience of going to the funerals of constituents who died on the planes that day has created in him a commitment on this issue that is both genuine and passionate.

Well imagine my surprise when I read in an essay posted at National Review Online that the same Chris Shays had specifically referred in a negative way to Richard Clarke, saying Clarke had rejected Shays' committee's request's for an overall threat assessment on terrorism. Given the way the NRO essay phrased it, I assumed this was a response from Shays to the book, an attempt to defend the President, so I Googled "Rep. Chris Shays and Richard Clarke." You can really imagine my surprise when I realized that the statement in question was from October of 2001, where Shays is speaking to the need to get serious about terrorism, and Shays' office puts out a press release. It includes a speech he gave on the floor of the House.

When pressed for a national strategy, the previous administration
pointed to a pastiche of event-driven Presidential decision directives
and the Department of Justice's 5-year spending plan. Reactive in
vision and scope, that strategy changed only as we lurched from crisis
to crisis, from Khobar Towers to the Cole, from Oklahoma City to Dar
es Salaam.

President Clinton's National Security Council Coordinator for
Counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, scoffed at our committee's request
for a comprehensive threat assessment. He told us the threat came from
the groups on the State Department's list of designated terrorists and
the strategy was to hunt them down like criminals.

(My emphasis.)

Comments

[Media Hound]

Have you seen this Washington Post article? Richard Clarke
links Saddam and Bin Laden:

The Washington Post
January 23, 1999; Page A02

Embassy Attacks Thwarted, U.S. Says; Official Cites Gains Against
Bin Laden; Clinton Seeks $10 Billion to Fight Terrorism

By Vernon Loeb

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have prevented Osama
bin Laden's extremist network from carrying out truck-bomb attacks
against at least two American embassies since the bombings of U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania more than five months ago, the Clinton
administration's senior counterterrorism official said yesterday.

Clarke did provide new information in defense of Clinton's decision
to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant
in Khartoum, Sudan, in retaliation for bin Laden's role in the Aug. 7
embassy bombings.

While U.S. intelligence officials disclosed shortly after the missile
attack that they had obtained a soil sample from the El Shifa site
that contained a precursor of VX nerve gas, Clarke said that the U.S.
government is "sure" that Iraqi nerve gas experts actually produced a
powdered VX-like substance at the plant that, when mixed with bleach
and water, would have become fully active VX nerve gas.

Clarke said U.S. intelligence does not know how much of the substance
was produced at El Shifa or what happened to it. But he said that
intelligence exists linking bin Laden to El Shifa's current and past
operators, the Iraqi nerve gas experts and the National Islamic Front
in Sudan.

Given the evidence presented to the White House before the airstrike,
Clarke said, the president "would have been derelict in his duties if
he didn't blow up the facility."

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/38284880.html?did=38284880&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Jan+23,+1999&author=Vernon+Loeb&desc=Embassy+Attacks+Thwarted,+U.S.+Says%3b+Official+Cites+Gains+Against+Bin+Laden%3b+Clinton+Seeks+$10+Billion+to+Fight+Terrorism

[dauber]

Yeah, I think there are similar statements in some of the other items I've been linking to indicting the 60 Minutes appearance; there he says absolutely positively no link between al Queda and Saddam, but that was clearly part of the intell that got them worried about al Shifa. Interestingly, Cohn reaffirmed that in his testimony yesterday.

[dauber]

Yeah, I think there are similar statements in some of the other items I've been linking to indicting the 60 Minutes appearance; there he says absolutely positively no link between al Queda and Saddam, but that was clearly part of the intell that got them worried about al Shifa. Interestingly, Cohn reaffirmed that in his testimony yesterday.

[dauber]

Yeah, I think there are similar statements in some of the other items I've been linking to indicting the 60 Minutes appearance; there he says absolutely positively no link between al Queda and Saddam, but that was clearly part of the intell that got them worried about al Shifa. Interestingly, Cohn reaffirmed that in his testimony yesterday.