Daily Reality Check: White House plays dirty, Clark comes out clean

[Martin Eden]

<<snip>>
Republican commission member James Thompson attempted to blindside Clarke with a copy of a Fox News report from April 2002 in which he did not raise his concerns about Iraq. Of course, Thompson's charge is ridiculous for several reasons.


The report Thompson relied upon was prepared by Clarke while he was still a member of the Bush administration as a "background briefing." Here's how Clarke characterized the purpose of the report: "I was asked to highlight the positive aspects of what the administration had done and to play down the negative aspects. When one is a special assistant to the president, one is asked to do that sort of thing. I've done it for several presidents." Surely Thompson cannot believe that a background briefing for the press would be the most opportune time for Clarke to voice his concerns.


Thompson is attempting to paint Clarke as a hypocrite for not voicing his concerns over the administration's handling of terrorism, but the fact is that Clarke did express his displeasure with the Bush team's response. On September 4, 2001, for example, Clarke wrote a letter to Condoleezza Rice warning her of the dangers of a terrorist attack on the US, and asking her "to imagine a day after a terrorist attack, with hundreds of Americans dead at home or abroad, and ask themselves what they could have done."

Just how did Thompson know to associate Clarke with this report, which was supposedly produced on background? Simple. The White House authorized its release as a tool to help paint Clarke as a two-faced liar. In effect, Clarke did the White House's bidding by attempting to accentuate their positive steps forward on terrorism, but once he raised questions, they cut him loose and fed him to the wolves. What's less surprising: that the administration relied on cutthroat political tactics, or that they involved Fox News in their machinations?
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Read more:
http://www.bushrecall.org/DailyRealityCheck.asp?ID=100

[Lisa]

1. well, it just showed another aspect of their daily operations ...

"Highlight the positive", indeed. If they're demanding that someone as respected as Clarke would have to -- what's the term -- "sex up" his reports to make them seem appealing .... just imagine what they're making people who work for the EPA or Health and Human Services (and other agencies that Bush actively disdains) do!

I think that their attempt to discredit him backfired, because it only demonstrated how manipulative they are.

[Grins]

2. The real question..

The real question is how does Fox keep its damn broadcasting license?

They got caught staging that 39-hour horror show last fall on the Bush court nominees, and now this.

What's truly evil is the relationship between the White House and Fox, not to mention how Bush and other republicans picked the commissioners. Especially repulsive is obstructionist Philip Zelikow.

"To the Moms, the problems with the 9/11 commission were always apparent. ...The Moms had tried to get their most pressing questions to the commission to be asked of Mr. Rumsfeld, but their efforts had foundered at the hands of Philip Zelikow, the commission’s staff director.

Indeed, it was only with the recent publication of Richard Clarke’s memoir of his counterterrorism days in the White House, Against All Enemies, that the Moms found out that Mr. Zelikow - who was supposed to present their questions to Mr. Rumsfeld - was actually one of the select few in the new Bush administration who had been warned, nine months before 9/11, that Osama bin Laden was the No. 1 security threat to the country. They are now calling for Mr. Zelikow’s resignation.

<http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/frontpage2.asp>

From from today's Washington Post:

Republican commission members - armed with fresh information on Clarke released by the White House yesterday through Fox News...commissioner Bob Kerrey sought to build the witness's credibility and objected to the Fox News report one Republican commissioner was using to undermine Clarke. ...Shortly before the hearing, the White House violated its long-standing rules by authorizing Fox News to air remarks favorable to Bush that Clarke had made anonymously at an administration briefing in 2002...

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22218-2004Mar24.html>