Transcript of "Meet The Press" with Richard Clarke (Mar 28, 2004)

[LastDemocratInSC]

For all who, like me, couldn't see it this morning:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4608698/

[RedEagle]

1. Thanks for the Link. Does Anyone Know...

...if this contains any errors. Read the stories about misquoting in other papers that was blamed on transcripts. However, if the papers in question really were doing their job, they also taped the appearance by Clarke before the commission.

[gristy]

2. Reading it now.

Does Clarke speak in complete sentences or what? Excellent points. Awesome interview.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Here's the one time Russert cut Clarke off...

MR. CLARKE: (listing three reasons Iraq hurt the war on terror):

And that's the second reason. The attack in Madrid showed the vulnerabilities of the rails in Spain. We have all sorts of vulnerabilities in our country, chemical plants, railroads. We've done a very good job on passenger aircraft now, but there are all these other vulnerabilities that require enormous amount of money to reduce those vulnerabilities, and we're not doing that.

MR. RUSSERT: And three?


What they don't want is the public to realized is that the $77 Billion that went to Iraq means we can't afford to harden our infrastructure against terror attacks. And that's because if there is a terror attack...

Guess what Kerry's position on this should be? :evilgrin:

[Florida_Geek]

4. AFP Picture

Former White House counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke shows a thank you note received from US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) after he resigned from the White House, during an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' at the NBC studios in Washington, DC. Clarke talked about his charges on how the Bush Administration underestimated the threat of the al Qaeda network before 9/11.(AFP/Getty Images/Alex Wong)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040328/photos_ts_afp/040328180826_qmtzf07l_photo0&e=6&ncid=705

[Oddman]

5. Thanks for the link

and the photo of Clarke with the bu$h note of thanks . . .

[Oddman]

6. Does anybody know

what the note from bu$h to Clarke said??

[Junkdrawer]

7. It's in the transcript,,,

"Dear Dick, you will be missed. You served our nation with distinction and honor. You have left a positive mark on our government."

[Katha]

9. Well, those last two statements are certainly true.

Go, Dick Clarke!

[never cry wolf]

8. Thanks

I missed it live. This guy is very good!

[Robin Hood]

10. Kick.

must read.

[Generic Other]

11. Bet there were some sour faces at breakfast this morning!

Wow. The transcript is brutal. It's all there in black and white.

And tonight we get the counterpunch. Condi on "60 Minutes." And then Clarke on Tweety tomorrow!

Mutiny on the SS Condi...

[Fridays Child]

16. Just finished it. This is devastating! I can't help it. I gotta...

...sneak over to the darkside and get a whiff of freeper desperation.

[Greyskye]

12. Amazing transcript - MUST READ!

Yet another :kick:! Thanks for the link.

[kaitykaity]

13. Amazing.

Thanks. :thumbsup:

[Tactical Progressive]

14. There's something about that guy, Dick Clarke

His message just never seems to age.

[Fridays Child]

15. LOL! Cute!

:)

[Oddman]

18. Love that photo of Rumsfeld!

He's as bad as the rest of the clan.

"Don't make a move or chimpy gets it!"

[Mike Niendorff]

17. devastating.

-----

MR. RUSSERT: You did tell Time magazine that the review that the administration did moved as fast as could be expected.

MR. CLARKE: I said it was the normal process for the consideration of issues. Now, it's not a normal issue, however.  Every day George Tenet was going in to see the president in the Oval Office.  Because George Tenet, the director of Central Intelligence, now gives the president his daily briefing. And almost every day the president was hearing from George Tenet that there's an impending al-Qaeda attack.  As far back as February, George Tenet testified before the Congress that al-Qaeda was the major national security threat.  And yet, they have 100 meetings before they get around to dealing with it.

MR. RUSSERT:  On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate President Bush's performance on the war on terror prior to September 11?

MR. CLARKE:  Well, there wasn't any personal performance by the president prior to September 11.  Now, the only thing that I was ever able to detect that he did on the war on terrorism was after Tenet had been briefing him day after day after day after day about an al-Qaeda threat, the president said, in May, "Well, let's, you know, get a strategy."  That's the only thing I ever heard that he got involved in personally. And when he said that, Dr. Rice called me and said, "The president wants a strategy." And I said, "Well, you know the strategy was what I sent you on January 25, and it's been stuck in these low-level committees."   And she said, "Fine.  I'll deal with that." Well, she didn't deal with it until September.

And, interestingly enough, the president never said after that May conversation, "Where's the strategy?"  And, again, if you go back to what the president himself says to Bob Woodward, he said, "I knew there was a strategy in the works. But I didn't know how mature the plan was."  He's saying this on September 11.  He didn't know where the strategy was.  The strategy that he had asked for in May?  He'd never come back and asked where it was.  You know, basically, it wasn't an urgent issue for them before September 11.

MR. RUSSERT:  It sounds like a failing grade.

MR. CLARKE:  Well, I think they deserve a failing grade for what they did before because, frankly, they didn't do -- they never got around to doing anything.  They held interim meetings, but they never actually decided anything before September 11.


(much more)

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MDN

[LibertyorDeath]

19. I loved every minute

It was a thing of beauty.

Ask yourself this. Would you want to fuck with Richard Clarke.

Do you feel lucky Punk.....Well do YA!!