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In their March 23, 2004, ''Washington Post'' article [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040323/ts_washpost/a16192_2004mar22 "The Book on Richard Clarke"], Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus provide a profile of Clarke and comment on his recently released book [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743260244/qid=1079975323/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-3329591-8683854?v=glance&s=books ''Against All Enemies''].
"Strong opinions are the norm when it comes to Dick Clarke. A 30-year veteran bureaucrat, Clarke rose to the uppermost ranks of the national security establishment under presidents of both parties but also managed to anger numerous colleagues with his brusque style and bursts of temper. His previous boss, former national security adviser [[Samuel R. 'Sandy' Berger]], has said he regularly had to turn down demands from colleagues that Clarke be fired. [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040323/ts_washpost/a16192_2004mar22]
"Clarke's brash manner is on full display in ''Against All Enemies'', a searing portrait of missteps and misjudgments in the [[war on terror]]. While laying some blame on the former Bush and Clinton administrations, Clarke is most explicit in his criticism of [[George W. Bush]] and his top advisers, particularly Defense Secretary [[Donald H. Rumsfeld]] and his deputy, [[Paul D. Wolfowitz]]. They are portrayed as indifferent to [[al Qaeda]] but obsessed with [[Iraq]] and [[Saddam Hussein]], even in the wake of attacks carried out by [[Osama bin Laden]]'s [[terrorist]] organization." [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040323/ts_washpost/a16192_2004mar22]
:"Sir [[Christopher Meyer]], in an interview with the US public broadcasting system last night, said that the prime minister ([[Tony Blair]]), arriving in Washington the week after an inconclusive discussion between George Bush and his key advisers at Camp David, swung in behind the US secretary of state, [[Colin L. Powell]], who saw Afghanistan as the prime target."
The question, then, is this: Where did the Bush White House come by the idea that Iraq was "the" threat? Peter Bergen emphasized that "the belief that [[Saddam posed an imminent threat]] to the United States amounted to a theological conviction within the administration, a conviction successfully sold to the American public," and then pointed directly to [[Laurie Mylroie]] in his December 2003 ''Washington Monthly'' article [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0312.bergen.html "Armchair Provocateur": Laurie Mylroie: The Neocons' favorite conspiracy theorist"].
:"She laid out her case in ''Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America'', a book published by [the [[American Enterprise Institute]]] in 2000 which makes it clear that Mylroie and the [[neocon]] hawks worked hand in glove to push her theory that Iraq was behind the '93 Trade Center bombing. Its acknowledgements fulsomely thanked [[John R. Bolton]] and the staff of AEI for their assistance, while [[Richard Perle]] glowingly blurbed the book as 'splendid and wholly convincing.' [[I. Lewis Libby]], now Vice President [[Dick Cheney]]'s chief of staff, is thanked for his 'generous and timely assistance.' And it appears that Paul Wolfowitz himself was instrumental in the genesis of ''Study of Revenge'': His then-wife is credited with having 'fundamentally shaped the book,' while of Wolfowitz, she says: 'At critical times, he provided crucial support for a project that is inherently difficult.'
:"None of which," Bergan opines, "was out of the ordinary, except for this: Mylroie became enamored of her theory that Saddam was the mastermind of a vast anti-U.S. terrorist conspiracy in the face of virtually all evidence and expert opinion to the contrary. In what amounts to the discovery of a unified field theory of terrorism, Mylroie believes that Saddam was not only behind the '93 Trade Center attack, but also every anti-American terrorist incident of the past decade, from the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to the leveling of the federal building in Oklahoma City to September 11 itself. She is, in short, a crackpot, which would not be significant if she were merely advising say, [[Lyndon LaRouche]]. But her neocon friends who went on to run the war in Iraq believed her theories, bringing her on as a consultant at the Pentagon, and they seem to continue to entertain her eccentric belief that Saddam is the fount of the entire shadow war against America."
Sean Aday's ''The Gadflyer'' March 22, 2004, blog entry [http://gadflyer.com/campaign/index.php?Week=200413#132 "Mr. Left Hand, I'd Like You to Meet Mrs. Right Hand"] reveals an even more strange view on the Bush administration's almost schizophrenic handling of response to Clarke's "revelations":
:"You had to love these back-to-back graphs in today's ''Washington Post'' story about former Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke's claim that President Bush demanded he find a link between the Trade Center attacks and Iraq:
*Oliver Willis, [http://www.oliverwillis.com/ "Substance, Not Slime,"] ''oliverwillis.com'', March 22, 2004. Follow updates to original posting.
*''Katherine R.'', [http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2004/03/corroboration_o.html "Corroboration of Clarke's account,"] ''Obsidian Wings'', March 22, 2004.
*Paul Waldman, [http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=44 "Bush's 9/11 Balloon is Punctured. And it's about time,"] ''The Gadflyer'', March 22, 2004.
*Dana Milbank and Mike Allen, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16200-2004Mar22.html "White House Counters Ex-Aide. Advisers Call Clarke Disgruntled, Partisan,"] ''Washington Post'', March 23, 2004: "Sen. [[Chuck Hagel]] (R-Neb.) said he believes the White House has to respond directly to Clarke's allegations rather than question his credibility. 'This is a serious book written by a serious professional who's made serious charges, and the White House must respond to these charges,' he said."
*Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus, [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040323/ts_washpost/a16192_2004mar22 "The Book On Richard Clarke,"] ''Washington Post'', March 23, 2004.
