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A Credible, Class Act

March 26th, 2004

In his own words:

KING: Was 9/11 preventable?

CLARKE: Well, we’ll never know. But let me compare 9/11 and the period immediately before it to the millennium rollover and the period immediately before that. In December, 1999, we received intelligence reports that there were going to be major al Qaeda attacks. President Clinton asked his national security adviser Sandy Berger to hold daily meetings with the attorney general, the FBI director, the CIA director and stop the attacks. And every day they went back from the White House to the FBI, to the Justice Department, to the CIA and they shook the trees to find out if there was any information. You know, when you know the United States is going to be attacked, the top people in the United States government ought to be working hands-on to prevent it and working together.

Now, contrast that with what happened in the summer of 2001, when we even had more clear indications that there was going to be an attack. Did the president ask for daily meetings of his team to try to stop the attack? Did Condi Rice hold meetings of her counterparts to try to stop the attack? No.

And if she had, if the FBI director and the attorney general had gone back day after day to their department to the White House, what would they have shaken loose? We now know from testimony before the Commission that buried in the FBI was the fact that two of the hijackers had entered the United States. Now, if that information had been able to be shaken loose by the FBI director and the attorney general in response to daily meetings with the White House, if we had known that those two — if the attorney general had known, if the FBI director had known, that those two were in the United States, Larry, I believe we could have caught those two. Would that have stopped…

CLARKE: Some people in the FBI knew. And if Condi Rice had been doing her job and holding those daily meetings, the way Sandy Berger did, if she had a hands-on attitude to being national security adviser, when she had information that there was a threat against the United States, that kind of information was shaken out in December 1999, it would have been shaken out in the summer of 2001, if she had been doing her job. — Transcript of the whole interview

Watching this guy, he comes across not just as credible, but as amazingly credible. In that his answers are clear, crystallized and consistent. Even in the face of all the mud thrown at him, he answered the charges with eminent believability and clarity. While Rice and Cheney’s claims are scattershot and inconsistent, Clarke’s response is well-thought out and demanded respect. I know, maybe that’s me, but it came across so strongly, I tend to believe it is not just me.

The man is not just criticizing Bush. He criticizes Clinton, and he criticizes himself. That is something Bush’s people are not doing–they are excusing themselves, covering for themselves. But no one, no one else has apologized to the American people the way Clarke has, so publicly, and so heartfelt–that was first-class, all the way. No one else has managed to be as non-partisan as Clarke has, criticizing anyone who deserved it, even himself, whatever their political affiliations. Right now, Clarke is coming across as the single most credible witness in the whole affair, and I am glad that he is making himself available as much as he is. I will be taking some points from his testimony and television appearances, and focus on his message in posts to come.

And here is the apology he made at the start of the hearings; while everyone else took that opportunity to lay out their version of events, Clarke chose to do this. See for yourself, and ask yourself if you can really say that this is not a class act:

I welcome these hearings because of the opportunity that they provide to the American people to better understand why the tragedy of 9/11 happened and what we must do to prevent a reoccurance.

I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologize to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11.

To them who are here in the 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.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I’ll be glad to take your questions.

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