A great title for a post, but the credit goes to Real Clear Politics and Powerline. Both posts begin to address all the whoppers Clinton managed to spew in his tirade during his interview with Chris Wallace. One of those, which seems to have been given traction in the way it was portrayed in the telemovie "Path to 9/11" is the one about Richard Clark being demoted. A claim, it would seem according to Kevin Groenhagen and Richard Clark, himself, just isn't true.
Via Powerline:
Our friends at RealClearPolitics have posted a tough column by Ronald Cass begins to address Clinton's rewriting of the record. Reader and former Marine intelligence analyst Kevin Groenhagen has also taken a look at the assertion that the Bush administration demoted and fired Richard Clarke -- the man who apparently was the key to fighting terrorism in every administration since the Reagan administration. (See Miniter's comments on the Clinton administration's use of Clarke -- who was a significant source for Miniter's book -- at pages 78-80. How has the Bush administration succeeded so far in averting another terrorist attack on American ground without Clarke in the government?) Groenhagen contrasts Clinton's comments on the Bush administration's alleged mistreatment of Clarke with Clarke's comments in Against All Enemies:
Clinton claimed that Richard Clarke had been demoted and then later said he was fired.
On page 234 of "Against All Enemies," Clarke writes:
"I had completed the review of the organizational options for homeland defense and critical infrastructure protection that Rice had asked me to conduct. There was agreement to create a separate, senior White House position for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Security, outside of the NSC Staff. Condi Rice and Steve Hadley assumed that I would continue on the NSC focusing on terrorism and asked whom I had in mind for the new job that would be created outside the NSC. I requested that I be given that assignment, to the apparent surprise of Condi Rice and Steve Hadley."
If Clarke was demoted, he requested the demotion.
Clinton also seems to imply that Clarke was "demoted" prior to 9/11. However, on page 239 of Against All Enemies, Clarke writes the following:
"Roger Cressey, my deputy at the NSC Staff, came to me in early October, after the time that I had intended to switch from the terrorism job to Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Security. The switch had been delayed by September 11."
In other words, the Bush administration kept Clarke at NSC beyond the period Clarke had planned on being there.
In a footnote on page 240, Clarke makes it clear that he left the administration under his own volition:
"Cressey and I did spend over a year working on the cyber security problem, producing Bush's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, and then quit the Administration altogether."
I'm not a big Clark fan and I must admit, I thought the demotion story was fact, but then I didn't read Clark's book. Perhaps I will get it today. How 'bout you?
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