Mary... Help!
Posted on 11/07/2003 5:37:33 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
CNN'S SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: "A speech made in New Hampshire Monday night, you said that there was a memo that was circulating within the administration after 9/11 which talked about overturning the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. Did you see this memo? Do you know that, in fact, this memo exists?"
CLARK: "Well, the people that told me about it would not have told me about it had it not existed. Now, what's happened to it since, I don't know. But it's been the subject of the sort of neoconservative talk network for some time. And the President's obliquely referred to it." (CNN's "American Morning," 11/6/03)
LATEST WHOPPER: CLAIMS TO KNOW OF SECRET INVASION PLANS
Claims Bush Administration Planned To Invade "As Many As Seven" Countries After 9/11. "Clark ... renewed his charge that soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration contemplated overturning as many as seven Middle Eastern and African governments. Clark ... told an audience . . . that he learned while visiting with Pentagon acquaintances in the fall of 2001 that such thinking had already been put on paper ... [H]e reeled off the countries that he had heard were on the administration's potential hit list ..." (Paul Barton, "Clark Again Tells Of Post-9/11 Hit List," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/4/03)
Asked To Back Up Claim, Clark "Acknowledged" He'd Never Seen Proof, Just Heard "Gossip." "Questioned afterward, Clark acknowledged he never saw the Pentagon memo or paper himself. 'But they told me there was something, some kind of a memo or something. I never saw it. I said, "Stop, I don't want see anything more. I just didn't want to get into it."' When asked if it was prudent to make the charge when he hadn't seen the Pentagon paper, Clark insisted it was. 'It's in my book,' he said, adding, 'You only have to listen to the gossip around Washington and to hear what the neoconservatives are saying and you will get the flavor of this.'" (Paul Barton, "Clark Again Tells Of Post-9/11 Hit List," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/4/03)
CLARK MAKES HABIT OF RELYING ON RUMORS RATHER THAN FACTS
Claimed Rumsfeld Leaked "His Own Memo." "Clark asserted that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld 'had to leak his own memo,' . . . . Asked how he knew that Mr. Rumsfeld was behind the leak, he replied, 'Well, that's what the rumor is, and it's been talked about on the Sunday talk shows.'" (Katharine Q. Seelye, "Clark Lays Responsibility For 9/11 At Bush's Feet," The New York Times, 10/29/03)
Claimed White House Tried To Get CNN To Fire Him But Had No Evidence. CLARK: "The White House, actually back in February, apparently tried to get me knocked off CNN. And they wanted to do this because they were afraid that I would raise issues with their conduct of the war." FOX NEWS' CARL CAMERON: "Clark said he had no evidence, only rumors, which he nonetheless made public." (Fox News' "Special Report," 8/26/03)
Claimed "People Around The White House" Told To Him To Hype Saddam-9/11 Connection. CLARK: "I think there was an immediate determination right after 9/11 that Saddam Hussein was one of the keys to winning the war on terror. ..." NBC's TIM RUSSERT: "By who? Who did that?" CLARK: "Well, it came from the White House, it came from people around the White House. It came from all over. I got a call on 9/11. I was on CNN, and I got a call at my home saying, 'You got to say this is connected. ... This has to be connected to Saddam Hussein.' ..." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 6/15/03)
ü Then Claimed His Wife Got A Call From Head Of "Middle East Think Tank" In Canada, Then He "Personally Got A Call" From Canadian, But There Is No Such Think Tank In Canada, So Clark Changed Think Tank Location To "Outside The Country." After all of these shifts in his claim, Clark actually claimed, "There's no waffling on [his story]. It's just as clear as it could be." (WDUN's "The Martha Zoller Show," 7/1/03; Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," 7/1/03; Matthew Continetti, "Drafting General Clark," The Weekly Standard, 9/1/03; Wesley K. Clark, Letter To The Editor, "Hussein And 9/11," The New York Times, 8/13/03)
And to think some on this forum thought he was just a shill for the Hildabeast! Where do such ideas come from? We ALL know Hildy would never resort to those tactics.
By my count, he is right. Afghanistan, Iraq, and Liberia. But, I doubt Taylor was on Bush's targt list in September of 2001.
You beat me to it. What Clark is saying probably isn't COMPLETE fantasy considering that, if you look hard enough, you could dig up "plans" to invade just about every nation on earth. The Pentagon is a place where they plan things, and they have a LOT of people. So a LOT of plans get made, and then filed away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.