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Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
I blame Freeh. And if Clarke knew about airplanes in 1996, why did he not mention it to anyone in the Clinton admin for 4 years (or, if he did . . . )
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He was the chief counterterrorism official. If you read his book or
Sacred Terror, you see that he was agitating for change -- money and attitudes -- throughout the late 90s, with great success.
Sacred Terror points out that spending on counterterrorism soared during that time, in an era of flat budgets.
Doubtless he thinks more should have been done. You can't blame Cassandra when people don't listen to the warnings.
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I still can't believe the pols. actually gave this committee as much authority and money as they did. Who comes out of it looking good? There's simply no way to make Bush look like the fall guy when 9/11 was so early in his presidency. It's not like he abandoned all the efforts Clinton had set up, but just ran out of time to complete a/o 1/20/01. (And, obviously, how did the R's figure to profit when the attacks happened on their watch?)
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I'll be curious to see what comes out of this process. I don't think it's been railroaded by the partisans, and I think they'll have a lot to say that we haven't heard yet. Don't forget, they're getting a lot of info that we're not privy to. I expect they'll recommend structural change for the FBI -- setting up the equivalent of MI-5 here. Bush will be criticized, and Clinton will be too. Ashcroft is going to look really bad. But there'll be no one fall guy, even if the media will be looking to report it that way at first.
