Richard A. Clarke - Post Government Career

Post Government Career

Clarke is currently Chairman of Good Harbor Consulting, a strategic planning and corporate risk management firm; an on-air consultant for ABC News, and a contributor to the Good Harbor Report – an online community discussing homeland security, defense, and politics. He is an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School and a faculty affiliate of its Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has also become an author of fiction, publishing his first novel, The Scorpion's Gate, in 2005, and a second, Breakpoint, in 2007.

Clarke wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post on May 31, 2009 harshly critical of other Bush administration officials, entitled "The Trauma of 9/11 Is No Excuse". Clarke wrote that he had little sympathy for his fellow officials who seemed to want to use the excuse of being traumatized, and caught unaware by Al-Qaeda's attacks on the USA, because their being caught unaware was due to their ignoring clear reports a major attack on U.S. soil was imminent. Clarke particularly singled out former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

Clarke released his newest book, Cyber War, in April 2010.

In April 2012, Clarke wrote an op-ed in the New York Times addressing cyberattacks. In stemming cyberattacks carried out by foreign governments and foreign hackers, particularly from China, Clarke opines that the U.S. government should be authorized to "create a major program to grab stolen data leaving the country" in a fashion similar to how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security currently searches for child pornography that crosses America's "virtual borders." Moreover, he suggests that the president of the United States could authorize agencies to scan Internet traffic outside the United States and seize sensitive files stolen from within the United States. Clarke then states that such a policy would not endanger privacy rights through the institution of a privacy advocate who could stop abuses or any activity that went beyond halting the theft of important files. The op-ed did not offer any evidence that finding and blocking sensitive files while they are being transmitted is technically feasible.

In September 2012, Clarke claimed without evidence that Iran was behind hacking incidents on banks. During that same year, he also endorsed Barack Obama's reelection for President of the United States.