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Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Read the Time article, or just what I quoted from it. They could have done all the other things Clarke was proposing that they eventually did after 9/11.
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Here is what I got from the Time article:
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Clarke's proposals called for the "breakup" of al-Qaeda cells and the arrest of their personnel. The financial support for its terrorist activities would be systematically attacked, its assets frozen, its funding from fake charities stopped. Nations where al-Qaeda was causing trouble-Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Yemen-would be given aid to fight the terrorists. Most important, Clarke wanted to see a dramatic increase in covert action in Afghanistan to "eliminate the sanctuary" where al-Qaeda had its terrorist training camps and bin Laden was being protected by the radical Islamic Taliban regime. The Taliban had come to power in 1996, bringing a sort of order to a nation that had been riven by bloody feuds between ethnic warlords since the Soviets had pulled out. Clarke supported a substantial increase in American support for the Northern Alliance, the last remaining resistance to the Taliban. That way, terrorists graduating from the training camps would have been forced to stay in Afghanistan, fighting (and dying) for the Taliban on the front lines. At the same time, the U.S. military would start planning for air strikes on the camps and for the introduction of special-operations forces into Afghanistan. The plan was estimated to cost "several hundreds of millions of dollars." In the words of a senior Bush Administration official, the proposals amounted to "everything we've done since 9/11."
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All of that is to be done overseas. How could that have prevented the terrorists, who were already in the US, from acting? I guess if it would have meant the capture of some high level AQ leaders and then they talked and gave information about the terrorists that were already here, that might have prevented 9/11. But that is pretty darn speculative.
I think if the terrorists who were already here saw stepped up activities by the US, that could very well have caused them to accelerate their plans.
Remind me why Clarke's plans weren't put into effect during the Clinton admin? Paula Jones' lawsuit?
I still maintain that the thing that would have helped prevent 9/11 is better domestic intelligence about terrorists already in the US. But that was stifled by PC nonsense.
