Vulnerable:

In the 9/11 Commission public hearing today, John Lehman challenged Richard Clarke?s credibility:

LEHMAN: Until I started reading those press reports, and I said this can't be the same Dick Clarke that testified before us, because all of the promotional material and all of the spin in the networks was that this is a rounding, devastating attack -- this book -- on President Bush. That's not what I heard in the interviews. And I hope you're going to tell me ... that this tremendous difference -- and not just in nuance, but in the stories you choose to tell -- is really the result of your editors and your promoters, rather than your studied judgment, because it is so different from the whole thrust of your testimony to us.

CLARKE: ... as to your accusation that there is a difference between what I said to this commission in 15 hours of testimony and what I am saying in my book ... I think there's a very good reason for that. In the 15 hours of testimony, no one asked me what I thought about the president's invasion of Iraq.

That's not convincing. Clarke's criticism of the Bush administration is not confined to the decision to invade Iraq. Clarke says there were problems with the administration's pre-9/11 anti-terrorisms actions and policies. So why didn't he make those views known in 15 hours of testimony? Something isn't right.

To clarify: There were six hours of testimony before a joing congessional committee - not the 9/11 panel - where Clarke, speaking as a member of the administration, presented the administration's position. Fair enough. But Lehman is referring to 15 hours of testimony before the 9/11 panel at a time when (presumably) Clarke is a private citizen, and would be expected to make his critical views known.

posted by Quiddity at 3/25/2004 01:04:00 AM