Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism

[curtoid]

On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address "the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday" -- but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=1802&e=1&u=/washpost/20040401/ts_washpost/a40697_2004mar31)

more...

The text also implicitly challenged the Clinton administration's policy, saying it did not do enough about the real threat -- long-range missiles.

"We need to worry about the suitcase bomb, the car bomb and the vial of sarin released in the subway," according to excerpts of the speech provided to The Washington Post. "[But] why put deadbolt locks on your doors and stock up on cans of mace and then decide to leave your windows open?"

...

Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism rated lower on the list of priorities, as outlined by officials in their own public statements on policy.

...

In the speech prepared for Sept. 11, Rice intended to point out that the United States had spent $11 billion on counterterrorism, about twice as much as it spent on missile defense, during the previous year, although the speech did not point out that that was when President Bill Clinton was still in office.

Not sure if this will change anything out there - for some it will be more of the "much ado about nothing," while others it will be another log for the fire. I'm convinced history will look back on Richard Clark in a favorable light. He's this generation/this administration's Daniel Ellsberg. (http://www.ellsberg.net/)



http://img21.photobucket.com/albums/v64/curtoid/45.gif
[b][i]Much thanks to M1 for the siggie...!i][b]

[SuperClerk]

The last thing I remember being a top news story befor 9/11 was the damn twenty-something year old little leaguer.

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0873/main.jpg
Nothin???

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

And Rudy Guiliani's divorce.

<IMG SRC=http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v53/monster6sixty6/guests/alice2_sig.jpg>

It's a cat house! A CAT HOUSE! Thanks M1!

[curtoid]

The biggest story on September 11, 2001 was (no lie) Michael Jordon coming back to the NBA.



http://img21.photobucket.com/albums/v64/curtoid/45.gif
[b][i]Much thanks to M1 for the siggie...!i][b]

[NewYorkDragons80]

China was definitely the first priority of the administration. Both administrations (Clinton and Bush) bear an indirect responsibility for 9/11. Clinton did a lot of damage by underfunding and neutering intelligence capabilities. Bush seemed pre-occupied by China. To be honest, I was sure that a new arms race was building before 9/11. That being said, I think Clarke's attacks are based on his own partisan effort to unseat a Republican president.

<marquee>
"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." -Senator Barry M. Goldwater "If gold should rust, what will iron do?" -Geoffrey Chaucer "Worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings.-Romans 12:1</marquee>
<img src=http://members.aol.com/cityhawk80/images/nydragonssig.bmp?mtbrand=AOL_US>

[42nd-delay]

That being said, I think Clarke's attacks are based on his own partisan effort to unseat a Republican president.


I hear this charge a lot, but Clarke's a registered Republican who served two Republican presidents and voted for Bush in 2000. Maybe he's just convinced Bush is taking the country on the wrong course?

------------------------------
"42nd-delay is the only person who's making sense." - Ron, 3-12-02

[Doomstone]

Uh, he said he voted for Gore.

But he is a Republican, so saying he's a partisan trying to unseat a Republican president is just silly talk. As has been noted many times, he is critical of Clinton in his book as well as Dubya.

<center><img src="http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/0903/snoopy114025/ds_sig.jpg">
Thanks to M1 for the sig!</center>

[42nd-delay]

Uh, he said he voted for Gore.


My mistake - he voted in the Rep. primary but voted for Gore in the end.

------------------------------
"42nd-delay is the only person who's making sense." - Ron, 3-12-02

[TheMojoPin]

I remember shark attacks being a pretty big story....and I STILL think our government hasn't done enough about that.

I don't pay my shark tax for nothing!

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=TheMojoPin">
2% << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[NewYorkDragons80]

But he is a Republican
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/2035667.jpg
So was this guy
As has been noted many times, he is critical of Clinton in his book as well as Dubya.
I haven't read the book to be honest, but I assume that you have. What I know is what I have seen in interviews, which was him claiming that Clinton was "obsessed" with bin Laden (which strikes me as a strange grammar choice since Clinton used that exact phrase about a year and a half ago). He may or may not be critical of both in his book, but his interviews paint a much different picture. Sadly, what the vast majority of America will remember is what is repeated in electonic media, not the print media.

<marquee>
"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." -Senator Barry M. Goldwater "If gold should rust, what will iron do?" -Geoffrey Chaucer "Worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings.-Romans 12:1</marquee>
<img src=http://members.aol.com/cityhawk80/images/nydragonssig.bmp?mtbrand=AOL_US>

[Doomstone]

Wes Clark was <b>never</b> registered as a Republican. Stop lying.

<center><img src="http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/0903/snoopy114025/ds_sig.jpg">
Thanks to M1 for the sig!</center>

[smeagol]

Richard Clarke, at War With Himself (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,604598,00.html)

..."polemical, partisan mean-spiritedness that lies at the heart of Clarke's book, and to an even greater degree, his television appearances flacking it....a shame, since many of <Clarkes> contentions about the years of political and intelligence missteps that led to 9/11, the failure of two Administrations to destroy al-Qaeda and the potentially disastrous consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq deserve a wide and serious airing. From now on, the country would be best served if Clarke lets the facts speak for themselves."

[NewYorkDragons80]

Wes Clark was <b>never</b> registered as a Republican. Stop lying.
You're right. After looking deeper into it, he was a registered independent. Now, I want EVERYONE who reads this topic to post their opinion of whether I was lying or if I made an honest mistake. Then, I want everyone to post whether they think Doomstone is a complete and total mother fucking tool who should be banished to a land of tooldom only fit for someone as big of a reactionary tool as him.

<marquee>
"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." -Senator Barry M. Goldwater "If gold should rust, what will iron do?" -Geoffrey Chaucer "Worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings.-Romans 12:1</marquee>
<img src=http://members.aol.com/cityhawk80/images/nydragonssig.bmp?mtbrand=AOL_US>

[mikeyboy]

Cut the crap. Discuss the issues without attacking each other.

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=mikeyboy">
Ron & Fez Show Log (http://www.osirusonline.com/ronfez.htm)
I'm dull and too low-energy!

[HBox]

Smeagol, that Time article is complete and utter trash. In the first paragraph alone the author throws out 3 ridiculous accusations, one of which was already disproven in the 60 minutes piece. The other two, how Clarke wasn't "in the loop" and how he "doesn't know what he's talking about," well, if an admnistration is keeping its top counterterrorism official out of the loop, what does that tell you about their priorities? Of course, just by reading his book you'd know he was very much in the loop.

Frankly, the whole piece reads as if it was written by White House PR guys. He spends 4 paragraphs agonizing over the wording Clarke used in interviews and his book. The fact is, Clarke makes the same point in the book as he does in interviews, and no selective quoting by this author will change that.

http://members.aol.com/joepersico/myhomepage/sig1.jpg?mtbrand=AOL_US

[smeagol]

I thought the TIME one was very specific in identifying inconsistencies in the facts behind various things Clarke said. And also in putting the whole thing in context by making a case that Clarke is, more or less, a master at politics. I'm not usually a fan of TIME (I wouldn't pay money for it) but I kind of liked that particular item.

Another view:
Dick Clarke Is Telling the Truth (http://slate.msn.com/id/2097685/)

[42nd-delay]

And another...

Framework of Clarke's Book Is Bolstered (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48455
-2004Apr3.html)

"But the broad outline of Clarke's criticism has been corroborated by a
number of other former officials, congressional and commission
investigators, and by Bush's admission in the 2003 Bob Woodward
book "Bush at War" that he "didn't feel that sense of urgency" about
Osama bin Laden before the attacks occurred.

In addition, a review of dozens of declassified citations from Clarke's
2002 testimony provides no evidence of contradiction, and White
House officials familiar with the testimony agree that any differences
are matters of emphasis, not fact. Indeed, the declassified 838-page
report of the 2002 congressional inquiry includes many passages that
appear to bolster the arguments Clarke has made."

------------------------------
"42nd-delay is the only person who's making sense." - Ron, 3-12-02

This message was edited by 42nd-delay on 4-4-04 @ 7:13 PM

[FUNKMAN]

The last thing I remember being a top news story befor 9/11 was the damn twenty-something year old little leaguer.


Gary Condit and the missing girl...

it was on the news every day before 9/11, but i have to say i've not seen an inkling of it since...


<img src="http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v53/monster6sixty6/guests/fm_sig.jpg">
sig by #1 Monster

[Doomstone]

Exile's War Nerd on Richard Clarke: (http://www.exile.ru/187/war_nerd.html)



Intelligence--that's what's missing with us in Iraq. And I mean both definitions of "intelligence." Starting with the military kind, as in "spies and snitches," or just plain "knowing who's shooting at you." Our intelligence in Iraq is as low as Geraldo Rivera's. No, below that, even--because that moron is at least making money out of this stupid war...and us taxpayers are going to end up paying trillions for it.

For me, the last straw was when Richard Clarke told the patriotic truth and nobody cared. This guy is what I mean when I say there's a big difference between a patriot and a sucker. Clarke is an old-school patriot, the kind of man America used to be proud of, a guy who's spent his whole life defending the country, who loves the flag and doesn't give a shit for all the combat-dodging frat boys who dragged us into this Iraqi shit-swamp.

Clarke is the real thing, tough as whitleather, the way Americans used to be. He said the one simple thing nobody has the guts to say: Bush has ruined America by going after Iraq, when everybody knew Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Now the Iraqis are kicking our asses in public--the Iraqis, goddamn it, the worst soldiers in the world! We turned them into warriors by invading their country with no spies, no snitches, no clue!

And you know why we didn't have that stuff? Because Bush and Wolfowitz really thought the Iraqis would thank us for invading them. There were no plans for counterinsurgency warfare because nobody was even allowed to mention the possibility that the Iraqis might not welcome us with open arms.

You hear a noise like geese honking? That's the French laughing at us! The Iraqis are beating us in the field and the French are smirking at us--can anybody come up with a worse-case scenario than that? Bush and Wolfowitz should be hanged for treason!

I tried arguing all this stuff at the office. You know what they said? "Clarke's just trying to sell books!" All the Christian assholes nodded their little heads and smiled and walked away, with that "I'll be praying for you, Gary!" smile I hate more than anything in the world.

I'm living with 280 million morons. The XL Omega Man, that's me.




<center><img src="http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/0903/snoopy114025/ds_sig.jpg">
Thanks to M1 for the sig!</center>

[TheMojoPin]

I think it's important to listen to what Clarke is saying...but he IS a total tool. My dad's been telling me stories of what he was like when they had to deal with him at the Agency...THEN he told me what it was like to roll into Vegas with him.

WACKY!

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=TheMojoPin">
2% << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[NewYorkDragons80]

I think it's important to listen to what Clarke is saying...but he IS a total tool.
Right. I tend to agree with people who say that Bush's focus was China, but I think Clarke is taking it to another level which has less substance to it.

<marquee>
"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." -Senator Barry M. Goldwater "If gold should rust, what will iron do?" -Geoffrey Chaucer "Worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings.-Romans 12:1</marquee>
<img src=http://members.aol.com/cityhawk80/images/nydragonssig.bmp?mtbrand=AOL_US>

[42nd-delay]

Right. I tend to agree with people who say that Bush's focus was China, but I think Clarke is taking it to another level which has less substance to it.


Read the Clarke book. It very interesting, and the case he makes is very convincing. I actually found his comments on Iraq and the War on Terror to be the most illuminating and disturbing, but certainly from his account (which seems to be supported by facts and other accounts) it doesn't seem like the Bush team took the threat of Al Queda very seriously.

------------------------------
"42nd-delay is the only person who's making sense." - Ron, 3-12-02

[Yerdaddy]

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48425-2004Apr3.html" target="_blank">Spread of Bin Laden Ideology Cited - Iraq Invasion Said To Alter Dynamics Of Local Militants </a>

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=bonedaddy5">
<marquee behavior=scroll direction=right>http://hometown.aol.com/bonedaddy5/images/duo2.jpg</marquee>

[smeagol]

Doom, this war nerd guy is wild! I kept reading his stuff and thinking..."this is dark humor at it's best"...then "wait a minute, he's not kidding here is he? He could be...I don't know, maybe" the views of a true war buff, good dose of disdain for everyone and everything except what he likes and how he thinks, and no apologies. good stuff.


Meet the War Nerd (http://www.exile.ru/139/war_nerd.html)

"The best war is when you can hate both sides, and that's how it was with the WTC. I cheered those jets. I work in like a ten-story version of those towers, and I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who perks up every time a plane gets close to the building. Everybody cheers the planes now. Until those planes hit the WTC nobody dreamed you could knock down an American corporation building. Nobody ever thought one would come down. And when they did, damn! It was like the noche triste, when Aztecs made the Conquistadors bleed for the first time and said, "Hey these aren't magic six-legged metal monsters, they're just a bunch of victims like us!"

"Then you saw the ragheads having tailgate parties to celebrate the big WTC bbq, and it's like, Whoa! I get to cheer when Americans die but that doesn't mean you can, you hairy-ass goats. Bad soldiers too, you could see that because they kept shooting AKs in crowded streets. That's a 7.76mm round, you idiots, if you fire it into the air it comes to earth you know not where, like on some little kid's soft-skulled head, and that's the end of the kid. They're too stupid to even figure that much out.

"So they had it coming, and there was lots of good footage of the USAF getting ready to give it to them. It should've been perfect, the lead-up to bombing the shit out of Afghanistan, but Bush almost ruined it. He couldn't even do a revenge speech right. Seriously, how hard can it be when all you have to say is, like, "We're coming for you, towelhead fuckers!" How hard is that? And he couldn't even do it right. If Coppola had been directing this he would've fired Dubya the first day of filming like he did Harvey Keitel the first day of Apocalypse Now. Bring Martin Sheen over, like from the West Wing, and let him do it, he'd have the Afghans converting to Presbyterianism in a couple of days.

[42nd-delay]

Update on the speech:

"The White House has refused to provide the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with a speech that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was to have delivered on the night of the attacks touting missile defense as a priority rather than al-Qaida, sources close to the commission said Tuesday.

With Rice scheduled to publicly testify Thursday before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, the commission submitted a last-minute request for Rice's aborted Sept. 11 address, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity. But the White House has so far refused on the grounds that draft documents are confidential, the sources said. "

Rest of the article here. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4669499/)

So, more stonewalling the Commission. It's strange that the White House doesn't want to release the text of a speech, something created to be read in public... What reason could there be for it to have to be confidential?

------------------------------
"42nd-delay is the only person who's making sense." - Ron, 3-12-02

[NewYorkDragons80]

Wes Clark was <b>never</b> registered as a Republican. Stop lying.
Tonight on Hardball, Chris Matthews was interviewing Clark and said at least twice that Clark was a Republican, and Clark didn't correct him

<marquee>
"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." -Senator Barry M. Goldwater "If gold should rust, what will iron do?" -Geoffrey Chaucer "Worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings.-Romans 12:1</marquee>
<img src=http://members.aol.com/cityhawk80/images/nydragonssig.bmp?mtbrand=AOL_US>

[furie]

people watch hardball?


<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/furie1335/.Pictures/rfsigs/rush30.gif">
<a href="http://fallingtowardsapotheosis.blogspot.com/">mental vomit</a>

[Yerdaddy]

people watch hardball?

I did, but only because he was winning his sixth straight Tour de France.

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=bonedaddy5">
Fuck it from behind.

[Tall_James]

I did, but only because he was winning his sixth straight Tour de France.

Not to derail this but fuck you Lance Armstrong for leaving your wife and 3 kids. I hope Sheryl Crow bites your other nut off.


<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~cheeseeatingbird/kerry1.jpg>

[A.J.]

My dad's been telling me stories of what he was like when they had to deal with him at the Agency...THEN he told me what it was like to roll into Vegas with him.

"What happens in Langley STAYS in Langley."

<img src=http://img40.photobucket.com/albums/v124/Canofsoup15/Sigs/AJinDC-Sig.jpg>

A Skidmark/canofsoup15 production.

Red Sox Nation

[TheMojoPin]

"Requisition me some beautiful babies...NOW!!!"

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=TheMojoPin">
1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[NewYorkDragons80]

Not to derail this but fuck you Lance Armstrong for leaving your wife and 3 kids. I hope Sheryl Crow bites your other nut off.
I think the divorce system is fucked up and favors women, but in this case I have zero sympathy. Take all of his fucking endorsement money, Mrs. Armstrong.

P.S. And yes, I'm totally fucking derailing this.

<marquee>
"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." -Senator Barry M. Goldwater "If gold should rust, what will iron do?" -Geoffrey Chaucer "Worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings.-Romans 12:1</marquee>
<img src=http://members.aol.com/cityhawk80/images/nydragonssig.bmp?mtbrand=AOL_US>

This message was edited by NewYorkDragons80 on 7-27-04 @ 7:44 PM

[Yerdaddy]

Not to derail this but fuck you Lance Armstrong for leaving your wife and 3 kids. I hope Sheryl Crow bites your other nut off.
I think the divorce system is fucked up and favors women, but in this case I have zero sympathy. Take all of his fucking endorsement money, Mrs. Armstrong.
Since this thread's already been de-railed more times tha Robert Downy Jr, does anyone actually know the details of Armstrong's divorce? Reason I ask is: successful people get divorced from unsuccessful spouses all the time, (Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey. People usually assume they're abandoning their families for fame and fortune, but do they really know the circumstances of the divorce?

Maybe she was a nagging cheating whore? Maybe she couldn't deal with the success or the time he spent training? Maybe she was too selfish to put up with him banging three hot strippers a night. I don't know and I don't care, honestly. I respect the man for his achievements, not for a personal event that happens to half of all marriages, and that I don't know anything about. Maybe if his attention had been focussed on terrorism instead of pedaling his tight-shorted ass all over the French countryside...

<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=bonedaddy5">
Fuck it from behind.