From Cox and Forkum:
CNN reported yesterday: Bush administration rejects Clarke charges.
Top members of the Bush administration sharply rebuffed their former counterterrorism chief Monday, calling his assertions in a new book about the White House’s handling of terrorism and Iraq “deeply irresponsible” and “flat-out wrong.”
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Richard Clarke had engaged in a “retrospective rewriting of the history.”
In his book “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” published Monday, Clarke accuses the Bush administration of ignoring repeated warnings about an al Qaeda threat in 2001 and looking for an excuse to attack Iraq at the expense of battling terrorism.
InstaPundit has a number of links regarding Richard Clarke and his accusations:
From Secular Blasphemy blog: Richard Clarke: Now who was obsessed with other threats?
The truth is that from a public perspective at least, Dick Clarke did not run around before 9/11 warning everybody about Bin Laden bringing about a new Pearl Harbour. He warned that computer viruses or hackers would bring about a “digital Pearl Harbour!”
From Spokane 4 Bush blog: Clarke’s claims don’t hold water
Q: As far as international crimes go, what’s the one largest threat to U.S. citizens right now?
MR. CLARKE: I think the largest threat is obviously posed by international narcotics smuggling, which costs a number of lives and costs an enormous amount of money.
From Stephen Hayes at The Weekly Standard: On Richard Clarke
Clarke’s testimonials are, in a word, bizarre. In his own world, Clarke was the hero who warned Bush administration officials about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda ad nauseam. The Bush administration, in Clarke’s world, just didn’t care. In Clarke’s world, eight months of Bush administration counterterrorism policy is more important than eight years of Clinton administration counterterrorism policy.
And Little Green Footballs noted this CNN American Morning transcript in which National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice defends herself and the Bush Administration against Clarke’s allegations. She also notes:
[W]hat’s very interesting is that, of course, Dick Clarke was the counterterrorism czar in 1998 when the [African] embassies were bombed. He was the counterterrorism czar in 2000 when the Cole was bombed. He was the counterterrorism czar for a period of the ’90s when al Qaeda was strengthening and when the plots that ended up in September 11 were being hatched. The fact is, we needed a new strategy, and that’s what we asked Dick Clarke to give us.