Cheney on Clarke: "....he was out of the loop"

[9215]

All I can say is read the first chapter of of Clarke's book and that proves he was, as somebody else said, "the loop". The guy ran the show during 9/11.

But even if the head of counterterrorism is out of the loop that says oodles about the Bush admin being out to lunch when it comes to fighting terrorism. It shows an adminstration that was incommunicative and disinterested in fighting terrorism.

When I think of the way the White House has sought to assasinate Clarke's character it reminds me of the quote: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer". That is what Bush was doing with Clarke.

Clarke was always the Bushies enemy because, IMO, he was an attack dog on terrorism, like the late John O'Neill of the FBI. In his book Clarke describes O'Neill as his best friend in the FBI. Both of these men's efforts to go after terrorists were rebuffed by the Bushboy. This and all the other suspicious links the Bushies have with countries that sponsor terrorism like Saudi Arabia lead me to think that Clarke, O'Neil (both of them) and the rest were viewed as enemies.

Now why would those who fought terrorism so strongly be marginalized by Bush? As sick as it sounds it looks to me like the latter did not want to stop terrorism. When you realize that the war on terror is what Bush depends on for his political survival one must ask why he would want to be successful in eliminating it? Bush doesn't anymore want to root out the real causes of terrorism anymore than Big Brother wanted to root out the real Emmanuel Goldstein.

IMO, this country is being run by terrorist puppeteers!

[Catfight]

1. Clarke on Bu$h-he's out of his mind!

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. if Clark was out of the loop

and he was the counter terrorism "go to "guy

then this proves that what he has been sayingis true?

seems so to me

[sangh0]

2. Rice on Cheney

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/politics/25COND.html

"It is a strange occurrence in Washington when members of the well-ordered Bush White House publicly disagree with each other, but it happened on Wednesday.

Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, took exception to Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that Richard A. Clarke, the administration's former counterterrorism chief, was "out of the loop."

On the contrary, Ms. Rice said, Mr. Clarke was very much involved in the administration's fight against terrorism.

"I would not use the word `out of the loop,' " Ms. Rice told reporters in response to a question about whether she considered it a problem that the administration's counterterrorism chief was not deeply involved "in a lot of what was going on," as Mr. Cheney said on Monday in an interview on Rush Limbaugh's radio program..."

[stopbush]

7. It's their typical MO

they send the minions out and get EVERY side of the issue covered, seeding confusion about their actual position. When the smoke finally clears, they point to the words of whichever liar came closest to the truth and act like none of the other lies were ever spoken. When they're actually confronted with their lies - à la Rumsfeld on FTN the other week or Hadley on 60 Minutes during the Clarke interview - they stare blankly and mumble that they're "sticking to my position," or that "that's just a difference of opinion," as if it's acceptable to be a knowing liar as long as you refuse to back down. Yep, Americans love all that spine that enables the RW liars!

It's worked for them since Day 1. Why abandon a winning strategy?

[9215]

10. Excellent link. IMO

this is meant to confuse the issue as stopbush points out. It is also unclear whether Rice was refuting Cheney's take conciously or was unaware of what Cheney had said previously.

They should be drilled by reporters on this contradiction.

[Oreegone]

3. No Kidding

To say that your guy on Counterterrorism was out of the loop for the largest terrorist attack doesn't exactly make you look like the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Did you see Clarke...I'd like to see a debate between him and any one of those poor saps in the White House....like that poor excuse Richard Armitage who came after him in testimony....I didn't see nothin' I don't know nothin' and I never did, poor patsy.

[asjr]

5. Condi Rice

accuses Clarke of not attending meetings, and Cheney says he was out of the loop. Can't have it both ways. The number of people who still believe the lies of the administration is too many. I think they are out of the loop.

[Luvpurp]

6. Again and again

Again and again we see with these fascists that the only excuse for their failures is either malfeasance or non-feasance. I am sorry but it is not an excuse that your lead on terror was out of the loop prior, during and after 9-11. If anyone should have been in the loop it was freaking Clarke! Another example was when Mclellan tried to cast doubt on Clark by saying that Dumya wasn't in the situation room on 9-12. Well why the hell not! You mean to tell me that Dumya couldn't be pulled away from his Tee-ball boxscores to make an appearance in the situation room the day after the biggest domestic attack in American history? Again I say malfeasance (they are lying) or nonfeasance (they did nothing). Yet another example is Condi Rice's excuse that she did not read the CIA memo on the Niger uranium claim. Well why the hell not Condi, you are the freaking NSA! Again we are left with malfeasance or nonfeasance. These clowns make Nero and Caligula seem accountable.

[thingfish]

8. That was the heart of the problem, wasn't it?

That he was out of the loop, while worthless others took center stage?

[9215]

9. Clarke also said that

the plan that he presented to Bush in January 2001 for dealing with Al Qaeda was put in place, with few alterations, just after 9/11. IOW's just after it became virtually useless as a preventative measure.