'Terror threat political game' - Clarke

[dArKeR]

Berlin - Former White House counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke on Sunday accused members of the US administration of using terror warnings to manipulate voters ahead of the presidential election in November.

Clarke, who resigned last year, said the conflicting assessments of the risk of terror attacks presented by US Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge and US Attorney General John Ashcroft last week showed how some officials sought to inflate the threat for political gain.

"That was ass-covering, or perhaps, dare I say it, politics in an election year," said Clarke, who was in Berlin on a book tour to promote his unflattering account of US President George W Bush's anti-terrorism policies, entitled The Price of Loyalty.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1538546,00.html

[Fenris]

1. I am SHOCKED!

/sarcasm

[nolabels]

14. That't what * said too

But I think he is bringing false witness.

May 5, 2004
Washington’s hypocrisy over Iraq torture
World Socialist Web Site

Forced to confront the catastrophic impact that the photographs of naked and hooded Iraqis being sexually abused and tortured by US troops has had in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, official Washington has feigned horror.

(snip)
President Bush, speaking to the press in Michigan on Monday, said he was “shocked” by the photographs. “I was stunned by it all,” declared Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, adding that actions taken against Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad were “un-American.”
(snip)
http://www.worldrevolution.org/article/1361

[ezee]

2. Strange, Clarke wrote "Against All Enemies

Paul O'Neils' book is The PRice of Loyalty

[TacticalPeek]

3. Picky one, aren't you?

Probably just literary license by the translator, obviously a friend of Suskind.

:silly:

[liveoaktx]

5. Not picky to expect more than laziness in a report

If someone were to rush out to buy the book based on the erroneous title, s/he would be mightily disappointed, as most of The Price of Loyalty (aside from a few good parts portraying Bush as an incurious lump) is a snooze unless you're an economics junkie.

[Just Me]

6. I'm not an "economics junkie",...and I valued the read: cover to cover.n/t

[liveoaktx]

7. Glad you did-I preferred, as a read "Against All Enemies" by Clarke

but did like the parts showing Bush's hands-off style of running the country in "Price of Loyalty".

[Merlin]

8. Extremely sloppy reportage. Especially in the internet age.

But we must remember that this is TV news, where makeup is more important than getting facts straight. Still, you'd think the reporter could have spent 30 seconds googling Clarke's book title.

Aside from that, this is an important statement by Clarke. Wonder if it will get any US airing. Probably not.

[Just Me]

4. This man is speaking TRUTH!!!!

Ewwwww,...I just wanna' plant a big, wet kiss on his face!!!

Thank you, Clarke!!! KEEP YOUR PIE-HOLE OPEN!!! :bounce:

[Generator]

15. I love this guy

he pulls no punches.

[Jade Fox]

9. Go, Clarke!

[napi21]

10. Glad to hear Clarke say that! I thought that as soon as I heard

it on the news. Real confirmation cane a day or so later when the news also aired about the ruffle between Ridge and Ashcroft.

I sove it when they fight with each other. Better entertainment than the WWF.

There is a BIG problem though. If there really is a valid threat, no one's going to pay any attention. This stupid game they're playing could hurt a lot of people!

I don't care what they do to each other, but playing chicken little is the wrong game.

[RedSock]

11. Ari admitted this in May 2002

Back in May 2002, when the mainstream media first reported that the Bush administration had known of bin Laden's threats to hijack airplanes for terrorist activity, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer admitted the terror warnings at that time were issued to change the subject.

When asked if the warnings were to "raise the awareness (or) to arouse the American people to a new danger, Fleischer said: "(I)t was just more as a result of all the controversy that took place last week."

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0222/gray-web1.php

[dmr]

13. Thanks for the link, RedSock,

there's another good link in that article:
Where Fear Is Always on Sale—and the Truth Is Made to Order
Bush's Little Shop of Horrors
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0210/gray.php


Guess these guys over at the Bushco* compound forgot about the story of the boy who cried wolf.

[nolabels]

16. Remember kiddies, time for Duck and Cover (quack)

That was a nice link dmr, a little excerpt

(snip)
The Bush administration likes to brand the fight against terrorism as a new kind of war, with new enemies and new rules, but using fear to push policy has been an actual play in the White House book since the Truman administration began commissioning behavioral studies on "emotion management" during the early days of Cold War hysteria.

In 1948, Truman oversaw a secret and unusual study, Project East River, which looked into ways of using paranoia to control behavior. The results, according to political scientist Andrew Grossman, who uncovered reams of information for his book, Neither Dead nor Red, were simple.

"Fear is good, panic is bad," Grossman says. "The Project found that fear could be used—channeled—to mobilize the people and push Cold War policy. With panic, however, they figured the shoe might fall off."

To prevent hysteria, the Project suggested calibrating the unease of the public by performing "ritualized training behavior," or civil defense. This meant duck-and-cover drills, bomb-shelter preparation, and asking citizens to keep a careful watch on others. Such measures gave people a sense of control over their fate, just as Pat and Susan Smith's getaway Suburban helps them believe the effects of doomsday catastrophe can at least be outrun.
(snip)
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0210/gray.php

There are probably at least a thousand threads on this subject matter on DU, but if you haven't heard yet, try this one

We all know the media sucks, but who believes they engage in covert...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=729470

[boobooday]

12. I hope Clarke will keep speaking out

We need every voice.



http://www.wgoeshome.com