Richard Clarke Lays Out His Dark Vision

NY Sun ^ | January 11, 2005 | BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun

[Jim Robinson]

WASHINGTON - In the next six years, Al Qaeda will launch terrible attacks on America's casinos, shopping malls, and rail lines. The federal government will intern tens of thousands of Muslims in remote facilities and issue national identification cards. The price of oil will spike to more than $80 a barrel, and rebel forces will launch a successful coup in Saudi Arabia. And one more thing: Iran will obtain an A-bomb.

That's the vision of the future in a lengthy cover story in the current Atlantic Monthly by former counterterrorism tsar Richard Clarke, who predicts the American economy - not to mention civil liberties - will decline precipitously after a second wave of attacks that he says Al Qaeda will launch this year.

Written as the transcript for a fictional lecturer, Roger McBride, giving a 10th annual September 11 address to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Mr. Clarke drives his point home when he writes, "No one could stand here today, in 2011, and say that America has won the war on terror."

Mr. Clarke made headlines last year at the September 11 commission hearings when he said the White House was not sufficiently focused on Osama bin Laden in the eight months before September 11, 2001, and was too preoccupied with the dangers of Saddam Hussein. In those hearings, he said the current war in Iraq had distracted America's resources from its proper target, the terrorist organization Mr. bin Laden created out of the Mujahadeen who helped oust the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

[johniegrad]

former counterterrorism tsar Richard Clarke

Emphasis on the "former".

[Darkwolf377]

I have to admit after all this time I simply don't know what to make of this guy--genius or kook or something in between.

[Smokin' Joe]

$80/bbl for oil? Looks like I'll have to raise my day rate...

[Jim Robinson]

He's a dork.

[johniegrad]

I think he's gone from the serious opinion stage to the "income from news as entertainment" stage.

[Darkwolf377]

He seems to forget how quickly one's personal experience in these matters shrinks in significance once you're not getting daily briefings. You start making guesses based on where you THINK things developed from when you were last in the know. The farther away from the hard facts you get, the less reliable are your assumptions.

[elhombrelibre]

He was a failure as a counter terrorism expert, but he's doing quite well as a self-promoting chatterbox.

[PatrickHenry]

Written as the transcript for a fictional lecturer, Roger McBride ...

Odd choice of names. The libertarian candidate for President in 1976 was Roger McBride.

[Darkwolf377]

He certainly does seem to think very highly of himself. I just wish I could find more evidence of his greatness.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Nicely stated. The same can be said for the retired Generals the major media cite as "experts".

[AmishDude]

"Roger McBride" is a double entendre.

[elhombrelibre]

You can't find the evidence. There is none. Had he not turned on Bush we'd have never heard of him and 60 MINs would never have pushed his book even though the parent company VIACOM published it.

[NetValue]

"I have to admit after all this time I simply don't know what to make of this guy--genius or kook or something in between."

Probably both. Read his book. You'll see that he is very intelligent. Look at what he did in criticizing this President and you will see how misguided he is.

Conclusion: If he sticks to security analysis, he can make a contribution. Politics will be his downfall.

[Darkwolf377]

LOL Why do I have a feeling the DUers will be falling all over his comments and calling him an expert?

I like to figure out people like him, though. If I'm remembering him correctly, wasn't he the guy who wanted a big job under Bush, didn't get it, and sulked away? (Weird how less than a year ago he was all the rage and now I can hardly remember all the details.) I don't understand how a guy goes from terrorist fighter #1 to this.

[MEG33]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1104918/posts
The Clarke Effect- another Leftover from The Decade of Frauds
various FR links | 03-25-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[MEG33]

#16 will refresh your memory..I saved this to my favorites list.

[Darkwolf377]

Thank you. I'm sitting here reading this and having deja vu--that was two apartments ago for me.

[elhombrelibre]

He's not that hard to figure out. Bashing Bush is his new rice bowl. The Liberal press loves him for it even though he's personally one of the biggest failures in the pre-9/11 arrangement.

[SkyPilot]

Richard Clarke says....

I cannot take a man seriously who has a serious addiction to homosexuality seriously and spends his leisure time hanging out with people like this.

Moreover, during Clarke's assault on the Bush Administration, many in the MSM were waiting to pounce on even the slightest leak from the Executive branch that Clarke is a homosexual. They were waiting to turn him into a "martyr" at the slightest provocation. The White House did not take the bait.

Clarke has serious issues, and unfortunately, his therapy is a public rant to scare the American people in order for him to feel relevant and superior.