I don't mean that Cheney is telling the truth. But his blatant distortions are giving license and incentive for others to tell what they know in order to correct his distortions.
Yesterday, Cheney told the National Press Club (from Sam Stein, HuffPost):
"Richard Clarke was the head of the counter-terrorism program in the run up to 9/11," Cheney declared. "He obviously missed it."Cheney also put a lot of blame on George Tenet, saying they were relying on what he told them. Of course it has been revealed that Cheney was the one throwing his weight around at the CIA, demanding to get the answers he wanted -- even demanding they give him and Rumsfeld the raw data without the CIA's analysts' input as to what was reliable.
It was about as harsh an attack as the former vice president could muster -- blaming the death of 3,000 Americans on a single person. It is also deeply debatable. There is, of course, the August memo, handed to the president, which declared that al Qaeda was determined to attack the United States. Clarke himself wrote in his book that in the run-up to 9/11 he expressed deep concern over such an attack, but to no avail.
Reminded of this, Cheney replied, "That is not my recollection. But I haven't read his book.
Careful, Mr. XVP. You're just asking for it -- and I hope Clarke and Tenet and everyone else feel perfectly free to tell all.
Ralph
I'm sure you know this, but Richard Clarke let Cheney have it on Sunday, so it's little surprise that he returned the Salvo. And what a nasty one it was - "He obviously missed it." The timeline at history commons is filled with documentation of Clarke's very specific [and increasingly frantic] warnings. I've been thinking that Cheney has become more reckless with these distorted comments and outright lies, but when I look back, it's just business as usual. He's not getting worse. We're getting better at instant refutation...
ReplyDeleteRight. Clarke said Cheney may have been surprised by the attacks on 9/11 -- but it was because he had not listened (to Clarke's warnings). And he said the Bush administration rejected the tactics of the Clinton administration and instead adopted ones that were unnecessary and counterproductive.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty pointed, but I'm hoping for more specifics about what Cheney said and did.