Posted 12:33 AM by Scoobie Davis

Hate To Break The News
I just found out from my Sitemeter stats that this site is one of the top sites that pops ups for a Google search of the words "Richard+Clarke+lies." Sorry to break the news to my web-searching friends but Richard Clarke is telling the truth. Dick Clarke is the real deal. However, if you want right-wing talking points on Clarke, go to NewsMax, WorldNutDaily, or listen to Hannity or El Rushbo. . .Quick notes: Didn't you just love it on Hannity & Colmes last night when guest Charlie Rangel said that the difference between Clarke and Condi Rice is that Clarke is willing to speak under oath? Hannity's lame response: "That's a cheap shot.". . .Joe Conason's latest:

Within days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the White House public-relations office began to shroud those events behind personality propaganda, heroic mythology and even religious mysticism. Over the years to come—and until now, perhaps—stirring words and images would serve not only to repackage George W. Bush, but also to obscure the plain facts about his administration’s fateful errors.

The President’s chief political strategist and his National Security Advisor claimed falsely that Al Qaeda had targeted Air Force One on that terrible late-summer morning, thus transforming his prudent flight from Florida to Nebraska into a dramatic escape from peril. The President’s supporters suggested that God had chosen George W. Bush to lead America, in anticipation of national crisis.

During the ensuing year, while the air was filled with such mystifying nonsense, the President and the Vice President warned Congress against an independent investigation of the circumstances leading up to the disaster. After public clamor for an investigation finally prevailed over that intimidation, the White House tried every conceivable tactic to hinder the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, even while claiming to support the commission unreservedly.

Clearly, the President preferred flattering myths to hard facts about 9/11. Now, with the publication of Richard Clarke’s memoir, Against All Enemies, we know why.

Mr. Clarke is a nonpartisan professional who has devoted his life to national security, serving four Presidents of both parties during a distinguished public career that spanned 30 years. Unlike most of those who have rushed to criticize him, he rose to the highest levels of government strictly on merit rather than family or political connections. His devotion to duty and his qualifications in his field may be measured by his role on Sept. 11, 2001. He ran the Situation Room in the hours immediately after the attacks, while the President flew to Offutt Air Force Base and the Vice President sat in a fortified bunker; and when the White House was evacuated in fear of another suicidal crash assault, he stayed there to continue his work.

The rest of Consaon's essay is here.