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Clarke rejects attacks by gop { March 25 2004 }

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Clarke rejects attacks by GOP
STANDS BY STORY: Ex-aide embraced by families of 9/11 victims
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Thursday, March 25, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ

Washington -- Richard Clarke, the former White House official who has suddenly emerged as perhaps the most potent critic of President Bush's handling of the war on terrorism, stoutly defended himself Wednesday against attacks on his credibility from Republicans on the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Clarke, who was the White House National Security Council counterterrorism chief under President Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, spent much of his dramatic two hours of testimony sparring with his critics. He won support from families of some of the 3,000 victims of the 2001 terror attacks on New York City and the Pentagon who attended Wednesday's hearing and assailed the panel's Republicans for turning the investigation into a partisan affair driven by election-year politics.

Clark's appearance ended with an ovation from many in the audience. After that, the victims' families dramatically walked out of the hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building in protest of the White House's decision to prevent Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice from testifying in public and under oath to the commission about the government's handing of the events leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The events surrounding Clarke, whose testimony was the highpoint of two days of hearings that featured top Cabinet officials of the Bush and Clinton administrations, showed how the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, had been transformed into a major campaign issue in Bush's re-election effort against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The report from the 10-member commission, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, is due July 26, just as the Democratic convention opens in Boston, so the pressure of politics in its deliberations is only just beginning.

The White House reacted angrily to Clarke's testimony. Rice, Clarke's former boss, said he had made "scurrilous allegations'' that Bush had somehow ignored the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

On Wednesday, Republicans pointed to the text of an August 2002 telephone background briefing that Clarke had given reporters to charge that the longtime anti-terrorism expert had changed his position on several issues to help boost his new book, "Against All Enemies.'' In that briefing, which came five months before he left his White House post, Clarke spoke favorably of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts.

The usual ground rule for such briefings is that the White House official being interviewed can't be quoted by name. But the White House said Wednesday that Fox News had approached it this week for permission to name Clarke, who now says Bush downplayed the terrorist threat before Sept. 11 and was fixated on attacking Iraq, and the OK was given.

"You will admit that what you said is inconsistent with your book, won't you?'' asked GOP commission member James R. Thompson, a former Illinois governor who was also a federal prosecutor.

"Not at all,'' fired back Clarke, whose book came out Monday amid a blizzard of publicity that has prompted a ferocious White House response. "It's a matter of tone.''

But Thompson said, "It suggests there is a standard of candor and morality for White House special assistants and another standard for the rest of the nation.''

Clarke said his opinion hadn't changed and said he had been trying to be a loyal White House staffer when he spoke in August 2002.

"It's not a question of morality at all. It's a question of politics,'' added Clarke, who said as a White House aide he had three choices when asked to brief the press over a policy he thought was being poorly executed -- quit, lie or carefully parse words. He said he had chosen the third route.

A commission Democrat, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, defended Clarke. "Everything you've said today has not damaged your credibility in my mind,'' he said.

But Kerrey blasted Fox, which critics say trumpets a politically conservative view, for airing the Clarke briefing. Mocking the news channel's slogan, he said, "Fox should say 'occasionally fair and balanced' in releasing something like this.''

Clarke, who said he is a registered Republican and wouldn't accept a position in a possible Kerry administration, reiterated his praise of Clinton.

"My impression was that fighting al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden was an extraordinary high priority in the Clinton administration,'' he said.

In contrast, he said, during the eight months of the Bush administration until Sept. 11, 2001, top officials "either didn't believe that there was an urgent problem or wasn't prepared to act as if there was an urgent problem.''

Most of Clarke's book deals with the war in Iraq, which he said had angered him. "By invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism,'' Clarke told the commission.

Clarke opened his testimony by deciding not to read his prepared six-page prepared statement. Instead, the longtime anti-terrorism official apologized.

"This is finally a forum where I can apologize to the families of the victims of 9/11,'' he began.

"... Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you, and I failed you,'' he said. "For that failure, I ask for your understanding and your forgiveness.''

Outside the hearing room, Sept. 11 family members fumed about the questioning of Clarke.

"I find it offensive that the Republicans used their time with him (Clarke) for a political agenda,'' said Mindy Kleinberg of East Brunswick, N.J., whose husband, Alan, was killed in the World Trade Center.

Mary Fetchet of New Canaan, Conn., whose son Brad died in the trade center collapse, said, "I think it was appalling that we have a commission that questions when someone steps forward and talks about the challenges he faces in protecting our country. ... This has become a political issue.''

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan defended the decision to allow Fox to use Clarke's name in connection with the briefing.

He told reporters, "We always listen to your request when you come to us and ask if something can be put on the record," McClellan said. "And there are times when we are able to fulfill those requests.''

"Let's remember why are we are having this conversation -- because Mr. Clarke made assertions that we have said are flat-out wrong," he said. "And it's important for the American people to have the facts.''

Rice spoke to reporters after Clarke's appearance and said his story had changed constantly. "This story has so many twists and turns, he needs to get his story straight," she said.

Clarke's testimony and the vigorous effort by the White House to undercut his views overshadowed the release by the commission's staff of two reports criticizing the CIA's work against terrorism as well as the government's lack of coordination in the fight against terror.

The reports said Clinton's efforts to capture or kill bin Laden had been hampered by mixed signals top policy-makers sent to CIA operatives. The report also criticized the then-new Bush administration for moving too slowly during the summer of 2001, when intelligence reported a wealth of indicators that al Qaeda planned a major attack.

"Some CIA officials expressed frustration about the pace of policymaking during the stressful summer of 2001,'' the report said.

"Two veteran Counter-Terrorism Center officers who were deeply involved in bin Laden issues were so worried about an impending disaster that one of them told us that they considered resigning and going public with their concerns,'' it added.

But Clinton national security adviser Sandy' Berger told the commission it should have been abundantly clear that bin Laden was a legal target for death under the rules of war -- and the president's policy directives gave the CIA "every inch of authorization that it asked for."

"There could have not been any doubt about what President Clinton's intent was after he fired 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at bin Laden in August 1998," Berger said, referring to unsuccessful strikes at a camp in Afghanistan where the al Qaeda leader was believed to have been.

In his testimony before the commission, CIA Director George Tenet -- like Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration -- said that even if bin Laden had been killed in the 1998 attack or other aborted tries, Sept. 11 might not have been averted.

"This plot line was off and running ... Decapitating one person, even bin Laden, would not have stopped this plot,'' said Tenet. His testimony on that point mirrored statements Tuesday from Secretary of Sate Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their predecessors under Clinton, Madeleine Albright and William Cohen.

The commission plans three more two-day sets of hearings in Washington and New York before issuing its report.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from Sept. 11 commission hearings
Here are excerpts from Wednesday's hearings before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the Sept. 11 commission:

CIA Director George Tenet:

"I have worked for two different administrations, two different political parties. Both sets of policy-makers care deeply about the challenge of terrorism. The first group lived through the terrorist phenomenon and wrestled with difficult issues thoughtfully and diligently. The second group, this administration, was working hard before Sept. 11 to devise a comprehensive framework to deal with al Qaeda based on the best knowledge that we in the intelligence community could provide, and during this time, the intelligence community did not stand still. . . ."

"As a country, you must be relentless on offense, but you must have a defense that links visa measures, border security, infrastructure protection and domestic warnings in a way that increases security, closes gaps and serves a society that demands high level of both safety and freedom. . . ."

"We collectively did not close those gaps rapidly or fully enough before Sept. 11. We have learned and are doing better in an integrated environment that allows us to respond faster and more comprehensively than three years ago. And much more work needs to be done."

Sandy Berger, national security adviser to President Bill Clinton:

"Let me say, first of all, there could not have been any doubt about what President Clinton's intent was after he fired 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at (Osama) bin Laden in August '98. I assure you they were not delivering an arrest warrant. The intent was to kill bin Laden.

"No. 1, his overall intent was manifest in August '98.

"No. 2, I believe the (CIA) director understood, and I think he reiterated it today, that we wanted him to use the full measure of the CIA's capabilities. Only the CIA can judge what its capabilities are, and that then defines the scope of the authorization.

"We gave the CIA every inch of authorization that it had asked for. If there was any confusion down the ranks, it was never communicated to me nor to the president. And if any additional authority had been requested, I am convinced it would have been given immediately."

Richard Clarke, former National Security Council counterterrorism coordinator:

"My impression was that fighting terrorism, in general, and fighting al Qaeda, in particular, were an extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration -- certainly no higher priority. There were priorities probably of equal importance, such as the Middle East peace process, but I certainly don't know of one that was any higher in the priority of that administration. . . . I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue. . . ."

". . . Let me talk about partisanship here, since you raise it. I've been accused of being a member of John Kerry's campaign team several times this week, including by the White House. So let's just lay that one to bed. I'm not working for the Kerry campaign. Last time I had to declare my party loyalty, it was to vote in the Virginia primary for president of the United States in the year 2000. And I asked for a Republican ballot.

"I worked for Ronald Reagan. . . . I worked for the first President Bush. And he nominated me to the Senate as an assistant secretary of state, and I worked in his White House, and I've worked for this President Bush. And I'm not working for Sen. Kerry. . . . The White House has said that my book is an audition for a high-level position in the Kerry campaign. So let me say here, as I am under oath, that I will not accept any position in the Kerry administration, should there be one -- on the record, under oath."

©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ

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