Remember: Richard Clarke Was The Only

[Hissyspit]

member of the Bush Administration who provided an apology to the family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks.

"To the loved ones of the victims of 9/11, to them who are here in this room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.""

Family members at the hearing were moved.

"Clarke is the first person who's ever apologized," said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband was killed at the World Trade Center. "I felt like crying."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0324-11.htm

New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman was more blunt, calling the attacks on Clarke "a campaign of character assassination."

Some White House attempts to discredit Clarke were inconsistent, specifically, the day after Clarke's revelations Vice President Dick Cheney went on the Rush Limbaugh radio program to claim that Clarke's account of the events leading to the 9/11 attacks was not credible because Clarke "wasn't in the loop" on pre-9/11 counter-terrorism planning, while at the same time National Security Adviser Rice was telling reporters that Clarke was the center of all counter-terrorism efforts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Clarke

[Samantha]

1. I met him twice and will always remember the experiences

He was the only credible voice during this time who actually spoke out. Bush* said he would never work in Washington again. Clarke is a hero.

Sam

[Lugnut]

2. Against All Enemies is a must-read.

I read it when it was released in 2004. Clarke's revelations confirmed what I had suspected.

[Brother Buzz]

3. I seem to remember Richard Clarke was running the show the best he could at the White House while...

Condoleezza Rice was cowering down in the White House bunker.

[Unknown Beatle]

4. Nearly all warhawks

that never served in the military are cowards. When the going gets tough, hide and cower.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. When my Republican mother asked if I thought the Bush Adm was responsible for the 9/11 attack . . .

I said I thought they knew there would be an attack, but that they likely didn't know it would be so devastating. And I use Clarke as the expert who was ignored.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

6. Sure, Clarke wasn't in Cheney's loop...

..."Clarke "wasn't in the loop" on pre-9/11 counter-terrorism planning", said Darth Cheney. Of course, they never bothered/risked to let Clarke in on their LIHOP/MIHOP/Reichstag fire/Pearl Harbor planning.

[ellisonz]

7. Amen.

I just finished Ali Soufan's The Black Banners which is also damning of the CIA and the White House for not doing more to try to stop Al Qaeda and of the torture policy.

I wonder why it seems lately that we're starting to get some perspective of the last decade - I blame Hollywood. Zero Dark Thirty was so factually bad we feel a need to correct the record

[johnnyreb]

8. Richard Clarke 2009: "They got away with it."

Richard Clarke agonizes over why some CIA folks did not tell him about two hijackers that they knew were in the country:

"If they had, even as late as September 4, told me; We would have conducted a massive sweep. We would have conducted it publicly. We would have found those assholes. There's no doubt in my mind. Even with only a week left. They were using credit cards in their own name. They were staying in the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, for heaven's sake. We Would Have Found Them. If we'd taken those pictures and put 'em out on the AP wire, those guys would have been arrested within twenty-four hours."

"Look at it this way-- they'd (George Tenet, Cofer Black, Rich Blee) been able to get through a Joint House Investigation Committee, and get through the 9/11 Commission. And this has never come out. They got away with it."

more:

Former Counterterrorism Czar Accuses Tenet, Other CIA Officials of Cover-Up
11 August 2011, By Jason Leopold
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2614:former-counterterrorism-czar-accuses-tenet-other-cia-officials-of-coverup#13612623080561&action=collapse_widget&id=6348654

[Skittles]

9. a decent man

[AngryOldDem]

10. He is.

The only one in that whole shitbag of an administration with any kind of decency and conscience.