Thanks, Dick Clarke

March 23, 2004

Yes, the Clarke book provides us with further evidence that the Bush Administration is poorly managed and weak on terror. Here are two pieces furthering those ideas:

Paul Krugman: Lifting the Shroud

But something remarkable has been happening lately: more and more insiders are finding the courage to reveal the truth on issues ranging from mercury pollution — yes, Virginia, polluters do write the regulations these days, and never mind the science — to the war on terror.

Matthew Yglesias: Counter Intelligence

The release of a new book by Richard Clarke, counterterrorism chief at the end of Bill Clinton's administration and the beginning of George W. Bush's, accompanied by an interview with him on 60 Minutes, threatens to alert the mainstream media to a story that should have been clear for some time now: the Bush administration's terrible record on counterterrorism.

Brad DeLong: George W. Bush Wants to Do More Than Swat Flies

If there is one thing clear from reading Against All Enemies, it is that Clarke is f***ing apeshit. I've never seen anyone so apeshit. Clarke had thought he was leading a successful counterterrorism effort against al Qaeda, and then at the start of 2001 these idiot neocon Cold Warriors came in and messed everything up with bureaucratic bull****. Because the Bush administration blocked his plans, September 11, 2001 happens and 3,000 Americans die. And then the White House takes 911 as a poiltical football and runs with it. And then it uses 911 as a phony excuse to launch a war on Iraq that--in Clarke's estimation--greatly strengthens al Qaeda.

David Neiwert: Clarke, Clinton and terrorism

It is almost astonishing -- but not really, when you think about it -- the extent to which the White House is attacking former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke for speaking out about the Bush administration's multiple failures in coming to grips with terrorism both before and after Sept. 11, 2001.

None of the attacks so far have attempted to counter even a single one of Clarke's facts.

Fred Kaplan, in Slate.com: Dick Clarke Is Telling the Truth

I have no doubt that Richard Clarke, the former National Security Council official who has launched a broadside against President Bush's counterterrorism policies, is telling the truth about every single charge. There are three reasons for this confidence.

Posted by Andrew Raff at March 23, 2004 3:43 PM