Clarke Smeared by Neocon Slime Machine

[jbfam4]

March 26, 2004
Clarke Smeared by Neocon Slime Machine

by Juan Cole http://antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=2194

Dick Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 Commission turned into a political ping pong match, with John Lehman, former secretary of the navy, insisting that Clarke has a "real credibility problem."


That Clarke, while in office, tried to put a positive face on the Bush administration, in which he was serving, does not detract from the credibility of his memoir, Against all Enemies. Only the most naive observer could fail to be able to distinguish between the discourse of a public servant and that of a private citizen released from such duties, and now able to speak his mind. Washington rhetoric is often so simple-minded that it is insulting to those of us west of the Potomac, as if we are little children who will swallow any tall tale fed us.

Clarke's integrity in standing against the Neocons' and Rumsfeld's outrageous politicization of intelligence and peddling of false charges that Saddam was behind 9/11 or in cahoots with al-Qaeda more generally, is extremely admirable. But, clearly, he was reduced to a second or third tier player, and could not counteract the enormous influence of Feith, Hannah, Libby, and others, who worked through Cheney to get up a phoney case against Iraq.


John Lehman, by the way, is the one with credibility problems. He tried to blame the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 at Aden on a failure of the CIA and the State Department, and alleged that an anti-US and anti-Israel state was behind it (read: Iraq). In fact, the USS Cole bombing was a purely al-Qaeda affair in which Iraq was in no way involved. And, as Clarke explains, it happened in part because the Navy decided to start refueling at Aden without passing the plan by any of the civilian counter-terrorism officials, including himself. Lehman's brother, Chris, served in Douglas Feith's Office of Special Programs, which cherry-picked intelligence so as to manufacture huge Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs and extensive collaboration with al-Qaeda, both of them fantasies.

[BigBigBear]

1. Tom Maertens

has confirmed his story, as has Rand Beers.

93 years counterterror experience. Sure, they're just making it all up.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Clarke did what McClellan does every day

scotty puts the biggest positive spin on administration actions and works overtime to reduce the negative. He then criticizes Clarke relative to the background papers. In other words:

MCCLELLAN IS CRITICIZING CLARKE FOR DOING WHAT HE HIMSELF DOES EVERY DAY HE HOLDS A PRESS CONFERENCE.

[yolatengo]

4. yes

If he DIDN'T spin for BushCo, he'd've been out on his ass so fast his
head would STILL be spinning from 2002!

Yet, since he DID spin for BushCo, he's a lying sack of sh*t, not to be
trusted by ANYONE.

Welcome (again) to Newspeak. Unf*ckingbelievable. All of America
are little children who believe the 100% honest truth of our politicians.

That they insult us with this speaks volumes. Yes, Scott, you *sshole,
we'd LIKE it if you were put on sodium pentathol and hooked up to
a lie detector machine before every press conference, but we KNOW
that doesn't happen, so stop the bullsh*it. Clarke's 'two stories'
are NOT mutually exclusive given the context!

God, these f*ckers make me sick. They are POISONING our national
discourse FOREVER.

Bigby

[readmylips]

3. Even old big head Fred Thompson...

was on Fox attacking Clarke. Hope the Law& Order show kicks him out.

[enough]

5. Funny you should mention it.

Tony Auth's cartoon today (Philadelphia Inquirer)