Richard A. Clarke Quotes
When these attacks occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them.
The Bush administration were busy making their appointments and setting some domestic priorities. In 4 months 9-11 would make them wish that they had taken these warnings more seriously. See {637530}.
Richard A. Clarke, National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism for President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush E-mail to Bush’s National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, May 29, 2001
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
36 days later, September 11, he did strike. See {617467} for some of the specific contents. The memo was kept secret by the Bush administration until public pressure as a result of the 9-11 Commission hearings forced the declassification and release. At that point it became clear that there was no reason that the memo could not have been released much earlier except that it was embarrassing. See {637530} and {637533} for two other Bin Laden Warnings that Bush and his team ignored.
Bush claimed he did not remember the conversation. His incoming National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was also briefed about bin Laden by the Clinton anti-terrorism director, Richard Clarke. The Bush Administration ignored the warnings until bin Laden struck on 9-11
Richard Alan Clarke is an American former government official. He was National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism for the United States between 1998 and 2003.
