WASHINGTON, 30 March 2004 — A book of barely more than 300 pages written by Richard A. Clarke, once the Bush administration’s chief terrorism adviser, may be the key to how the 2004 elections will turn out. From the time Clarke was sworn in on the second day of the March 23 hearings formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Clarke dominated the proceedings.
In a masterful display of timing, Clarke’s book was released the day before the public hearings commenced. Clarke’s testimony kept the audience enthralled. From the beginning to the end virtually no one left the proceedings.
A master of drama and suspense, Clarke started in using hushed tones and issued an apology to the packed hearing room, which was filled with the relatives of victims of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. “Your government failed you,” he said. “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.”
The audience was visibly moved by this dramatic beginning to his frank testimony. Their attention never wavered while Clarke was grilled, cross-examined and grilled again by commission officials who realized that everything else in the two-day session would only be an anti-climax.
Bush stalwarts were aware that Clarke’s testimony was almost certain to be a devastating attack on Bush himself and they were ready to meet it directly. They had lined up virtually the entire administration to attack Clarke’s credibility and they had spent hours, and perhaps days, in preparing for the hearings. It began to appear as if the administration’s case on how it handled terrorism threats before the 9/11 attack might rise or fall on Clarke. Clarke seemed to be an unprepossessing bachelor until he began to speak. His intensity can rivet a room and he has used this talent over many years in the National Security Council. He spent his entire life, almost right out of college, in high-pressure government jobs.
Everything Clarke said in his testimony seemed to be of grave importance. He was involved in the investigation of Oliver North, on the side of North. Much more pertinent now is the fact that Clarke served in the Reagan, Bush presidencies and the entire eight years of the Clinton administrations. Then he served for more than two years in George W. Bush’s administration until his retirement a year ago.
During the Clinton era Clarke became, in his own words, “obsessed with the danger of Al-Qaeda.” He was aware that because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the possibility of impeachment, President Clinton was unable to cope with the Al-Qaeda danger. Clarke assumed that Bush would turn his attention to the Al-Qaeda threat and also assumed that the Clinton’s National Security Adviser Sandy Berger would highlight this problem in the transition from Clinton to the Bush administration. Clarke also assumed that Dr. Condoleezza Rice would turn her attention to the problem, because Clarke thought it was so crucial that something had to be done immediately.
None of this happened, as the new Bush administration took over. Clarke then asked Condoleezza Rice for some high-level time to map out what he felt had to be done right away. Rice was not able to carry out his proposals until much later. When Clarke finally had Rice’s attention, it was only days before the 9/11 catastrophe occurred.
Ironically, and astoundingly, when President Bush and his national security team assembled after the attacks, two things happened. First, Condoleezza Rice put Clarke and some members of his staff in charge of the situation room. Rice and other members of the Bush team moved to an off-site location because of the fear that more attacks might still be coming.
When that alarm ended and members of the Bush team reappeared, Bush made an astonishing request. He asked Clarke and one or two of Clarke’s aides to join him in a small adjacent room next to the Oval Office. He asked Clarke to check everything that might shed light on whether Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 events. Clarke said there was no connection but Bush insisted that Clarke should try to recall anything that would connect the two. Bush was so insistent that Clarke took it as a direct order to re-check everything bearing on the problem.
Clarke did what he was told and a day or two later he reported there was no way to connect 9/11 with Iraq. Bush dropped the subject for the moment but it did not deter Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or Rumsfeld’s deputy Paul Wolfowitz to bring up the subject over and over again. Nor did it stop Vice President Richard Cheney from making the same nonexistent linkage on several occasions.
Eventually Bush acknowledged that there seemed to be no direct connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, presumably because Secretary of State Colin Powell asked him to. Amazingly, Cheney has continued to go right on connecting Iraq with the fight against terrorism and Al-Qaeda as if such a linkage had been established.
Now it is up to the Bush administration to blunt the extraordinary damage Clarke has created for Bush. At the moment it appears to have turned into overkill, making everyone realize that something important has happened. Anyone who missed Clarke’s book, his testimony, and his appeal will force people to put their attention on the matter.
It is quite possible that following the extraordinary interest focused on Clarke’s book, a large number of readers will make up their minds about which way to vote in the forthcoming election. The conventional wisdom has been that this will be a “horse race” from the beginning to the end. Or it may be that nothing that follows can change the verdict of the voters as a result of this extraordinary week.
— Richard H. Curtiss is the editor of the Washington Report.
