:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 3.24.2004 ::

:: More On Dubya ::

From VOANews.com:
Ex-Terror Czar: Terrorism Not Urgent Concern in Early Months of Bush Administration
By Meredith Buel

A former high-ranking counterterrorism official says in the months before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Bush administration considered the threat of terrorism important, but not urgent. Richard Clarke made the comments before a special commission investigating the failure of U.S. intelligence to prevent the attacks.

Mr. Clarke, the former National Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the White House, began his testimony before commission members by apologizing to people in the audience who had lost family members in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"Your government failed you," he said. "Those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed."

Mr. Clarke served as a top counter-terrorism official under four presidents.

He told members of the commission that fighting terrorism was an extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration, but was not an urgent concern in the early months of the Bush administration prior to the attacks on New York and Washington.

"I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," he said.

Mr. Clarke also criticized President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, saying it has undermined the war on terrorism.

Mr. Clarke's testimony was much anticipated because in a series of interviews and in a recently released book he has alleged that President Bush paid too little attention to the al-Qaida terrorist organization before the September 11 attacks, and then focused too much on a possible link with Iraq.

posted by me

:: 9:10:00 PM [+] ::
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