Responses From The Bush Administration
On March 22, 2004, vice president Dick Cheney claimed that Clarke was "out of the loop" in the fight against terror. Condoleezza Rice later contradicted this, claiming the opposite: Clarke was the loop, so any failure in terrorism-preparedness was his. Later, in a direct response to Cheney's statement, she said "I would not use the word 'out of the loop,'... He was in every meeting that was held on terrorism."
Press Secretary Scott McClellan claimed that Clarke timed the publication of his book in order to have an impact on the upcoming election. Clarke pointed out that his book had been finished since the previous year; it was only released at that time because the White House took months to review it for classified information.
Some alleged that Clarke had published the book to win a spot in a possible John Kerry administration. Clarke responded by swearing under oath that he did not want another job in the government and would not accept one.
Others pointed to the fact that Clarke taught a class with Rand Beers, an advisor to John Kerry. Clarke explained that he was a long-time friend of Beers, who had also worked extensively in the government on counterterrorism for Bush and other administrations, and would not give up his friendship simply because his friend had a new job.
Another major criticism of Clarke was that he had been more supportive of the Bush administration when he worked there as a special advisor to the President. Fox News Channel released a transcript from an August 2002 briefing that Clarke gave to reporters while he was still working for the White House, as background (meaning not for attribution). In it Clarke says that "there was no plan on al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration," and otherwise puts the Bush administration in a more favorable light. Questioned about this apparent inconsistency, Clarke said the differences were "really a matter here of emphasis and tone. I mean, what you're suggesting, perhaps, is that as special assistant to the president of the United States when asked to give a press backgrounder I should spend my time in that press backgrounder criticizing him. I think that's somewhat of an unrealistic thing to expect."
The White House initially claimed that Bush never set foot in the Situation Room on September 12, and so could not have told Clarke to find evidence of Iraq's involvement. But after additional witnesses confirmed the story and critics pointed out that it was rather embarrassing for the President to have never entered the Situation Room on such an important day, the White House retracted this claim.
Read more about this topic: Against All Enemies
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