RICHARD CLARKE: A PROPHET WITHOUT A FOLLOWING

The much maligned Richard Clarke is now revealed as someone who knew his shit, and nobody listened. National Archives has just released his early report on terrorism.

January 25, 2001 Richard Clarke Memo:
"We urgently need . . . a Principals level
review on the al Qida network."

Clarke's memo requests an immediate meeting of the National Security Council's Principals Committee to discuss broad strategies for combating al-Qaeda by giving counterterrorism aid to the Northern Alliance and Uzbekistan, expanding the counterterrorism budget and responding to the U.S.S. Cole attack. Despite Clarke's request, there was no Principals Committee meeting on al-Qaeda until September 4, 2001.

The January 25, 2001, memo, recently released to the National Security Archive by the National Security Council, bears a declassification stamp of April 7, 2004, one day prior to Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission on April 8, 2004. Responding to claims that she ignored the al-Qaeda threat before September 11, Rice stated in a March 22, 2004 Washington Post op-ed, "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration."

Clarke knew his stuff, nobody bothered til it was way too late. The report also notes that the Clinton people were sleeping as well. The 9/11 attack WAS another Pearl Harbor in the sense that we should have been prepared for something (not planes crashing into the Trade Center Towers) and been acting against Bin Ladin. What the report neglects is the refusal of the Left to endorse any kind of action without PROOF. Even the World Trade Center attack wasn't really enough proof for many. The Ivy trained "Deconstructionists" attacked the Bush speech and policy immediately

"In four short months, our nation has comforted the victims;

And, tragically, created still more, including thousands of Afghan civilians.

. . .begun to rebuild New York;

It would indeed be wonderful if the federal government were really beginning to rebuild New York and other decaying urban areas, where public health, mass transit, schools, housing, and basic infrastructure are notably inferior to those of other Western industrialized nations; this is largely the result of decades of excessive military spending and fiscal policies favoring the wealthy, trends being accelerated by the Bush administration. Unfortunately, the rebuilding of New York is largely limited to areas of the financial district in lower Manhattan near where the World Trade Center once stood.

One other example of the "deconstruction"

. . .captured, arrested and rid the world of thousands of terrorists;

While U.S. forces have indeed "captured, arrested, and rid the world" (the final piece a euphemism for killing) of thousands of people in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the number who could actually be considered terrorists, even by a very liberal definition, is probably only in the hundreds. Most of the others were Afghan soldiers and civilians, most of whom were neither terrorists nor supporters of terrorism.

So if you think Clinton or Bush could have possibly rallied any support til after the planes hit you must be in a different galaxy; lucky you. We have a hate the government Left that is in full agreement with the goals of the ACLU (see the red piece at the top of this blog).