"Out, out damn spot!"
Guardian (UK): In a riveting television performance, Mr Clarke called on his principal critic and former employer, the national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice, to release the entire record of their emails in
the months up to the September 11 terror attacks to
prove his contention that the White House did not then
take the threat of al-Qaida seriously.
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Published on Monday, March 29, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Clarke Challenges Rice to Reveal Secret Emails
Richard Clarke, the former terrorism adviser whose
revelations threaten to torpedo George Bush's
re-election strategy, launched a counterattack
yesterday at a White House that he said was determined
to destroy him.
Former anti-terrorism czar Richard Clarke's bombshell
allegations about the Sept. 11 attacks have thrust
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice into a
high-profile media role and increased pressure on her
to testify publicly at a U.S. commission probing the
attacks. Photo by William Philpott/Reuters
In a riveting television performance, Mr Clarke called
on his principal critic and former employer, the
national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to
release the entire record of their emails in the
months up to the September 11 terror attacks to prove
his contention that the White House did not then take
the threat of al-Qaida seriously.
He also agreed to Republican demands to declassify
testimony he gave to the Senate two years ago - to
"prove" there were no inconsistencies. "Let's take all
of my emails and all the memos I sent to the national
security adviser and her deputy from January 20 to
September 11 and let's declassify all of them," Mr
Clarke told NBC television.
Mr Clarke's bravura presentation surprised the Bush
administration. The decision to stand his ground could
also be destructive to Ms Rice. She has been under
intense scrutiny for a week - largely for being the
focus of Mr Clarke's charges that the Bush government
did not see al-Qaida as a priority before September
11, but also because she refused to testify before the
commission.
Yesterday, the commission's chairman, Thomas Kean,
called for Ms Rice to testify in public. "We recognize
there are arguments having to do with separation of
powers. We think in a tragedy of this magnitude that
those kind of legal arguments are probably
overridden," he said. But he said he would not force
the issue with a court order.
Even leading Republican figures are criticizing Ms
Rice's refusal to appear, saying it looked as if she
had something to hide. "I think she'd be wise to
testify," said Richard Perle, a former Pentagon
adviser.
Further damage was inflicted yesterday in a Los
Angeles Times report discrediting a prewar claim by
the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had trucks
capable of dispersing dangerous substances such as
anthrax. The report claimed the information came from
a single discredited source and reached US
intelligence agents third-hand.
In Israel, meanwhile, a parliamentary committee
investigating exaggerated prewar claims over Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction concluded that western
agencies had dealt in speculation not facts.
The committee said claims that Saddam was expanding
his armory were based on evaluations shared among
intelligence agencies in Israel, the US, Britain and
elsewhere, that reinforced "dubious interpretations"
of the few facts available.
But the report released yesterday by the foreign
affairs and defense committee said that while there
was a "serious intelligence failure" there was no
evidence of deliberate deception to build a false
case.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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