Richard Clarke

Richard E. Clarke, 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.

He was involved in the U.S. responses to terrorist incidents including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. He was also involved in the pre-9/11 hunt for Osama bin Laden.

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.

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."