Montreal man linked to Clark controversy - Presidential candidate claims pressure

The Star ^ | 9/18/03

[areafiftyone]

WASHINGTON—A Montreal man has emerged as the key figure in a controversy that has dogged Democratic presidential aspirant Wesley Clark during the summer months.

Questions have swirled since June when the former NATO commander alleged on national television that he was pressured to link the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in a mystery phone call he received.

Clark first implied the call, not long after the attacks, might have come from White House, then later said it came from a Middle Eastern think tank in Canada. He has never identified the caller.

As Clark kicked off his campaign yesterday in Little Rock, Ark., Thomas Hecht, founder of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, told the Star he placed the call to Clark and drew his attention to a potential link between Saddam and the Al Qaeda suicide hijackers.

But Hecht said he did not pressure the former army general, who became a CNN commentator after retiring from the military, to make the link and said the matter was raised in a phone call inviting Clark to come to Montreal for a speech.

Clark's original claim and its subsequent variations had drawn much press and Internet attention in the United States as it became increasingly clear he was set to become the 10th candidate for the Democratic nomination.

Clark told the widely watched NBC show Meet the Press June 15 that the pressure to make the link "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 is state-sponsored terrorism. This has to be connected to Saddam Hussein.'"

Clark, in the interview, said he asked for evidence of the link and received none and still hasn't seen any evidence.

As he prepared for his presidential bid, Clark backed away from his comment, denying he was drawing a link to the White House, telling Fox News in July: "I personally got a call from a fellow in Canada who is part of a Middle Eastern think tank who gets inside intelligence information. He called me on 9/11."

Later in July, in another television interview, he said: The call came from "a man from a Middle East think tank in Canada, the man who's the brother of a very close friend of mine in Belgium. He's very well connected to Israeli intelligence and he follows Middle Eastern events very closely."

Hecht said his sister, who lives in Brussels, knows Clark socially.

One columnist, George Will of the Washington Post, took Clark to task because, he said, there was no Middle East think tank in Canada.

The Begin-Sadat Centre has its headquarters in Israel and its only office elsewhere is the one Hecht established in Montreal. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney is on its board, but strictly in a ceremonial role, Hecht said.

Hecht said he called Clark either Sept. 12 or Sept. 13 — not the morning of the attacks, as the former general said — but he merely passed on information he had received from Israel which drew a purported link.

Hecht said Clark called him in Montreal Sept. 7 this year to clarify the conversation the two men had, perhaps in anticipation of the question being raised again as part of his campaign.

"I told him the Begin-Sadat Centre is a center for strategic studies in Israel and has made various studies on the Iraqi threat to the state of Israel and therefore we have carried out analyses of what connection there could be between Saddam Hussein and other militant Islamic groups," Hecht said.

"I don't know why I would be confused with the White House. I don't even have white paint on my house," he added. "I saw those comments he made and I just chuckled."

The Clark campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

[Peach]

You can write a screenplay off that.

[Admin Moderator]

I have no problem opening the link in #11.
Give Diaspora a say on Jerusalem's future: Hecht
As for the second link you mentioned
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/redirect?link=66798
it doesn't open a page for me but it looks like a redirect message page link like one you would see when you click on a thread that was moved to chat.

[onedoug]

Clark apparently remembers very little of his West Point education and its Honor Code. This is called "quibbling", and it would've been enough...then, at least, to get him thrown out.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET

1-HILLARY blasts BUSH over Energy

2-HILLARY Booksigning in Shaker Heights/Cleveland, Ohio Area where HILLARY for President Petitions are suddenly handed out

3-Massive Eastern USA-Canada Power Blackout begins 15 miles from HILLARY's Booksigning in Ohio.

4-Friend of HILLARY Canadian Prime Minister CHRETEIN announces thru TV that Power Blackout is due to a "Lightning Strike" on a Niagra Falls Power Station that NEVER happened. (Note: BILL CLINTON had just paid a visit to his Friend Canadian Prime Minister a few weeks before the Power Blackout!!!)

5-USA Lightning Map for that 1st Power Black-Out day shows no Lightning Strikes north of the Carolina's.

6) HILLARY blames BUSH for Power Blackout over and over again on National TV.

7) Sources confirm origin of Massive Power Blackout was just 15 miles from HILLARY's Shaker Heights/Cleveland, Ohio Booksigning & HILLARY for President Rally.

8) Freerepublic.com remembers that HILLARY for President Operatives sit on the Shaker Heights City Council and have treated former GORE 2000 Chairman TONY COELHO for his Epilepsy over the decades.


Shaker Heights = HILLARY for President hotbed

Shaker Heights = Origin of Massive Power Blackout in USA & Canada

.....1+1 = 2..?

[Osage Orange]

You wrote:

"We can lead them to water, but we cannot make them drink (or read, apparently)."

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{

Or....."I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you."

[Mo1]

Hecht said Clark called him in Montreal Sept. 7 this year to clarify the conversation the two men had, perhaps in anticipation of the question being raised again as part of his campaign.

Hmmm .. trying to cover his butt huh???

[Peach]

See this link on FR now. Brit Hume asks Clark to answer some questions. Clark makes a phone call to see if he can answer Brit's questions. Someone tells Clark "no" and so off he goes. Hilarious!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/985103/posts

[billhilly]

"BS.

He flat out said it. I heard him.

He implied NOTHING."

Well, that settles it for me. When it comes to plain speaking, Howlin is the equal of Harry Truman

[BlessedByLiberty]

BTW, your tag line is one of my all time faves!

So, does anyone know of any prior to 9/11 contacts between Weasly Clark and the Administration? I reiterate if they had no contact prior to that date, why would anyone contact him? Or is it his ego screaming that he is in the loop, in the know and therefore ready to be Pres?

[Peach]

You got it. (Good tagline).

[Howlin]

I don't need to be mocked today, bill.........LOL. I'm watching my trees SWIRL around the cars!

[billhilly]

Has anyone considered the problem that this thread must present to DU? They want to support Clark, but that might push him ahead of their own preference in the Presidential sweepstakes. You have to love it.

[Peach]

Thank you. I'm hoping more people will remember those pardons which stunk at the time but post 9/11 are impossible to defend and will keep Hitlery out of the White House.

I'm thinking there was NO contact between the Bush administration and Clark, ever. He's a fired, disgraced general. Yes, he served admirably in Vietnam and has the thanks of me and a lot of people. But since that time, his actions have been considerably less than admirable.

I think the whole story is his ego at work, frankly. A classic narcissist.

[OldFriend]

General Shelton carried a message to Clark from SecDef Cohen.

Get your effing face off TV.

[Peach]

Hopefully you'll keep your power. When is the worst of it supposed to hit your area?

[Dog]

Look at what Mo highlighted in post 108..

Seems Clark called Hiecht to grt their stories straight..

[Peach]

It's going to be interesting to see how the DU'ers react to Clark and his "service" in Kosovo - the "safe" war that killed more civilians than was necessary but kept the Clinton White House happy because there weren't boots on the ground.

[OldFriend]

Clark has also stated that the White House demanded that CNN take him off the air during the war because he was a candidate for president.

CNN has denied this.