Richard Clarke

Template:TOC-right Richard E. Clarke (1951-), a specialist in counterterrorism and critical infrastructure, began his career as a U.S. civil servant in the Department of Defense, rising into the Senior Executive Service He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence in the Reagan Admistration, Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs in the George H.W. Bush Administration. He then became Nationa Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff in the Clinton Administration, continuing in that role into the George W. Bush Administration.

George W. Bush Administration

After the transition between the Clinton and Bush Administration, Clarke briefed those people he knew from the George H. W. Bush Aministration, that "al Qaeda is t war with us, it is a highly capable organization, probably with sleeper cells inthe use, and it is clearly planning a major series of attacks against us; we must act decisively and quickly, deciding on the issues prepared after the attack on the USS Cole, going on the offensive. Each responded differently: Vice President Dick Cheney, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Condoleeza Rice and her deputy, Steve Hadley, and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In early 2001, the U.S had done an intelligence-community-wide exercise, run by Richard Clarke and Charles Allen (Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Collection) to identify where al-Qaeda would be likey to hide chemical weapons, if they had them. The analysts identified one area, and mapped it thoroughly: a valley in Afghanistan called Tora Bora.

9-11 operations

When the 9-11 attack took place, he led the Counterterrorism Security Group, the staff organization responsible for planning response. The Counterterrorism Coordinator job was downgraded early in the George W. Bush Administration. He moved to the critical infrastructure protection role in October 2001, and resigned in March 2003.

He was involved in considering strategies against al-Qaeda in both the Clinton and Bush Administrations. One of his concerns was that the Bush Administration was more concerned with Iraq than with al-Qaeda on taking office, and proper priorities were not set. He was especially critical of Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney for overemphasizing the need for starting the Iraq War.

Clarke does not assume it would have been possible to stop the 9/11 attack. Even if it had been stopped, he believes that there would have been another attack had there not been an aggressive programm to eliminate al-Qaeda — and perhaps not even then.

Reagan Administration

He was credited with developing psychological strategies against Libyan terrorism in 1986.

George H.W. Bush Administration

He left his post over charges and countercharges that he had accepted Israeli sales of strategic technology to China.

Clinton Administration

In the Clinton Administration, he was deeply involved with early attempts to neutralize al-Qaeda and kill Osama bin Laden. He was involved in the U.S. responses to a number terrorist incidents including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,. In the case of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, he was critical of the response of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Louis Freeh.

The 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa, according to Clarke, was clearly linked to al-Qaeda, but the retaliatory missile strikes missed bin Laden. }}</ref> He insists Clinton's response was not affected by the ongoing Monica Lewinsky scandal. He advocated, but did not get retaliation for the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Critic of George W. Bush Administration

His 2004 book, Against all Enemies, was criticized as alarmist, or bitter against the George W. Bush Administration, by some observers. Condoleeza Rice said he had engaged in a "retrospective rewriting of the history. She did say Clarke developed "a broad comprehensive strategy for dealing with the al Qaeda threat, and he eventually did that. And I think he did a very good job." White House press spokesman Scott McClellan questioned the timing of the release of the book during the 2004 election campaign. Bush's opponent, John Kerry, did not comment; former Democratic primary candidate, retired GEN Wesley Clark, said he had worked with Clarke and found him "credible."

Some of his statements on television after the book release, according to Time Magazine, were either more dramatic than in the book, or questioned by other counterterrorism officials.