The Many Truths of Richard Clarke

Authored by Michael Pate on March 24th, 2004 at 5:02 PM

The key thing, though, is this: Both sets of traits tell me he’s too shrewd to write or say anything in public that might be decisively refuted. As Daniel Benjamin, another terrorism specialist who worked alongside Clarke in the Clinton White House, put it in a phone conversation today, “Dick did not survive and flourish in the bureaucracy all those years by leaving himself open to attack.” - Fred Kaplan

This guy’s working for Rove. By the time he’s done imploding, Bush will have discredited the media and all his critics. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The other possibility is that Clarke held an important national security job for years while being dumb as a post, so dumb that he would write a book making explosive accusations against the White House while knowing — or forgetting? — that all sorts of contradictory evidence was on the record and bound to come out. Otherwise, wouldn’t he at least have tried to explain this stuff up front? - Glenn Reynolds

Why would people conduct terrorism in the United States? One reason is blackmail. A major terrorist attack occurs involving chemical weapons or computers, then someone reliably says they did it and adds that, if the United States continues its support for Israel or eradicating coca on the Upper Huallaga valley in Peru or whatever, it will happen again. Perhaps their motive is revenge. The Iraqis attempted to assassinate former President George Bush in Kuwait in 1993, and many other people around the world feel they also have justifiable reasons for revenge against the United States. Maybe attacks in the United States would be part of a regional war, just as in the Solar Sunrise scenario, where the United States may be rushing troops to another part of the world and someone wants to make that difficult to do. - Richard Clarke

It may be improbable that cyberspace can be seriously disrupted, that war in cyberspace can occur. But it can occur and the question is: what are we going to do about it now, before it happens. I don’t think the United States has to have a major disaster to deal with this. I hope we don’t have to have a digital Pearl Harbor or a digital Exxon Valdez. - Richard Clarke

I think the largest threat is obviously posed by international narcotics smuggling, which costs a number of lives and costs an enormous amount of money. But more and more, we see that the people who are engaged in international narcotics smuggling are also engaged in other businesses, other illegal activities. And whether it’s counterfeiting or IPR violations or trafficking in women or drug violations, it all comes back to money. The reason that international criminals do what they do is to make money. And what the President asked us to do four years ago was to follow the money. And we have done that significantly in the Treasury Department programs, particularly over the course of the last year and a half. - Richard Clarke

The software industry has an obligation to do a better job producing software that works. It’s no longer acceptable that we can buy software and run software on sensitive systems that is filled with glitches. - Richard Clarke

And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we’ve now made public to some extent. And the point is, while this big review was going on, there were still in effect, the lethal findings were still in effect. The second thing the administration decided to do is to initiate a process to look at those issues which had been on the table for a couple of years and get them decided. - Richard Clarke

It has been an enormous privilege to serve you these last 24 months. I thank you again for the opportunity to serve you have provided me and wish you good fortune as you lead our country through the continuing threats. - Richard Clarke

Therefore, it is essential to the health of the nation ‘s economy and the security of the country that we aggressively implement the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. It can not be the job of the Department of Homeland Security alone. Every major Federal agency has a role. White House leadership will remain essential. Congressional attention, support, and oversight must continue. Active partnership with and by the Private Sector will be crucial. - Richard Clarke

Clarke, who retired from public service in February and is now a private consultant on security matters, has served every President since Ronald Reagan. He has won a reputation as a tireless advocate for action against Al Qaeda. Clarke emphasized that the C.I.A. director, George Tenet, President Bush, and, before him, President Clinton were all deeply committed to stopping bin Laden; nonetheless, Clarke said, their best efforts had been doomed by bureaucratic clashes, caution, and incessant problems with Pakistan. In the course of several hours, Clarke revealed details of previous intelligence failures that had allowed bin Laden to escape, many of which the Bush Administration continues to classify as top secret. - Jane Mayer

Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he’s done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We’ll never know.” - Richard Clarke

Richard Clarke is not necessarily an evil man, but he is a liar and (apparently) a bad judge of people. From what I can tell, he seems to be best described as a frustrated bureaucrat. He got his one shot at being someone when Bill Clinton appointed him to a high public office. Instead of focusing on terrorism, he seemed more pre-occupied with giving keynote speeches at Hacker conventions. His fascination with the coming cyberwar (or some complex chemical or biological attack) left us unprepared for things like inflatable rafts or jetliners. After completing his pet project, he retired, leaving behind a somewhat tarnished legacy. And now, when he has a book to sell, his story changes. Dramatically.

One or two more and even the staunchest Bush supporters are going to wonder if we wouldn’t be better off with Kerry. - Dave Winer

I have no idea whether Richard Clarke is endorsing Kerry (although his close friend and teaching colleague, Rand Beers, is Kerry’s National Security advisor and may have recruited Clarke by now), but if the idea is to realign U.S. foreign policy so as to avoid irritating al Qaida, I think it is fair to ask whether this might work. Isn’t that what so many people call appeasement? Can appeasement be made to work? If so, then Kerry is clearly the guy to make a case for it. - Eric Scheie