Terry Everett, March 29, 2004

During a time in Washington when political rhetoric and partisanship seem to have reached the limit, along comes a former career bureaucrat, who in an attempt to sell a new book, is alleging that the Bush Administration could have prevented the horrific events of 9/11 but showed little interest in terrorism. The accusations of Richard Clarke have set a new low for cheap exploitation of tragedy for personal gain.

Former Clinton and Bush administration aide Richard Clarke has released a book called "Against All Enemies" in which he charges both administrations failed to recognize the threat posed by Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden to America. He reserved the harshest criticism for President Bush, who he personally accused of ignoring terrorism in favor of a defense strategy focused largely on Iraq. Under tough scrutiny, his claims fall short and even conflict with his own earlier recorded statements.

It had to be more than coincidental that former White House aide Clarke's new book was released just as the on-going 9/11 Commission hearings reached high gear last week. Clarke, who eagerly appeared before the commission in a public hearing on March 24, looked more like someone on a book promotion tour than a sworn witness. He even played to the audience by offering his personal apology for their government having "failed" them. While such theatrics might sell books, they do the public a disservice.

He says in his book and in testimony before the 9/11 Commission that the Bush administration did not consider terrorism an urgent issue. Yet in 2002 Clarke said, "Immediately upon coming into office, this President directed the administration to provide - or to pursue a comprehensive strategy to eliminate Al Qaeda, not roll it back. And that process began very early on."

Media reports last week noted a March 2002 interview with PBS in which Clarke seemed to contradict his recent statements that he had been demoted by a White House uninterested in terrorism. Clarke told PBS: "Shortly after the Bush administration came into office, we were asked to think about how we organized the White House for a number of issues, including cybersecurity, computer security, homeland security, and counterterrorism." "I was asked for my advice, and I proposed that the counterterrorism responsibility be broken off to be a separate job. ... I wanted to start working on cybersecurity, which I think is terribly important. That was later approved by the President."

The records show that the Bush Administration - which had only been in office for eight months before 9/11 - was working on a comprehensive strategy to deal with Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I was actively involved in the 2002 House-Senate investigation into the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. While hindsight is 20/20, the newly sworn-in Bush Administration was doing its best with the intelligence information it had at that time.

As the Joint Intelligence Committee report concluded, our intelligence community, while extensive, is spread out over too many departments and lacks necessary coordination to quickly identify emerging threats and implement adequate counter action. This was painfully evident in the years leading up to 9/11 as the pieces of the 9/11 puzzle were presented to our intelligence agencies, yet no one put them together.

Clarke should know this, yet he has chosen to embark on a book selling campaign to exploit 9/11 for his personal profit. After hearing his inconsistent testimony, I'm inclined to agree that the Administration made one mistake - it didn't fire him.

Congressman Terry Everett represents the 2nd Congressional District of Alabama in the U.S. House of Representatives.