Clarke's vindication

Just weeks ago, Bush officials were solemnly accusing former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke of being a liar and a self-promoter. But Bob Woodward's book proves that Clarke was right -- and that it was his opponents who were the liars.

By David Sirota

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Apr 20, 2004 | The one person who should be happiest about the publication of Bob Woodward's new book is surely former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke. After insisting that President Bush had begun planning the Iraq invasion soon after Sept. 11, Clarke was denounced by the White House and on the floor of the Senate as a lying, disgruntled profiteer. But with Woodward's undisputed revelations that Iraq War planning began almost immediately after 9/11, Clarke has been vindicated as a truth-teller. It is now the White House that must explain why the public was deliberately lied to about the war.

Clarke and Woodward are not the first to confirm that the invasion of Iraq was being planned soon after or even before Sept. 11.

  • CBS News reported on Sept. 4, 2002, that "barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq -- even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks."

  • The Washington Post reported on Jan. 12, 2003, that six days after Sept. 11 Bush signed an order "directing the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq."

  • Former British ambassador Christopher Meyer confirmed that "President Bush first asked British Prime Minister Tony Blair to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power at a private White House dinner nine days after" Sept. 11.

  • Ambassador Meyer reported on Dec. 2, 2001, that "President Bush has ordered the CIA and his senior military commanders to draw up detailed plans for a military operation" against Iraq that could involve "U.S. forces fighting on the ground."

  • Former Bush State Department official Richard Haas noted that at a meeting with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in July 2002, she replied, "Don't waste your breath" when he asked about diplomatic efforts on Iraq.

  • Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill published documents proving that the president "ordered the Pentagon to explore the possibility of a ground invasion of Iraq well before" Sept. 11 -- an account corroborated by another White House aide.

    • In other words, Clarke's account and Woodward's independent confirmation are only the most recent evidence that the Bush administration used 9/11 as a platform to pursue the predetermined goal of war in Iraq. But before Woodward's book, top White House officials paraded on national television in a coordinated effort to discredit those who had come forward with the facts.

    White House press secretary Scott McClellan was first. In his March 23 briefing, he was asked point-blank whether, immediately after 9/11, "the president was already directing the Pentagon to prepare plans for the invasion of Iraq." He replied, "That's part of his revisionist history." The reporter then asked, "Are you saying [Clarke's charges] are not true?" "Yes, that's right. I am. That's just his revisionist history to make suggestions like that."

    McClellan's answer had clearly been parsed, poll-tested and approved beforehand by Karl Rove's political shop in the White House, which had used such phraseology before to defend its Iraq policy. McClellan did not stop there. He went on to tell reporters that Clarke's well-substantiated assertions about Iraq planning "are deeply irresponsible and they are flat-out wrong."

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