Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:29 pm
While speaking at the National Press Club today, former vice president Dick Cheney, passed blame for 9/11 away from the Bush administration and on to former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke. Cheney said, Dick Clarke, who was the head of the counterrorism program in the run-up to 9/11. He obviously missed it.”
This stated with an op-ed that Clarke wrote in yesterday’s Washington Post. Clarke wrote, “Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — but it was because they had not listened. And their surprise led them to adopt extreme counterterrorism techniques — but it was because they rejected, without analysis, the tactics the Clinton administration had used. The measures they uncritically adopted, which they simply assumed were the best available, were in fact unnecessary and counterproductive.”
Here is the video of Cheney’s response courtesy of Think Progress
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Cheney said, “You know, Dick Clarke. Dick Clarke, who was the head of the counterrorism program in the run-up to 9/11. He obviously missed it. The fact is that we did what we felt we had to do, and if I had to do it all over again, I would do exactly the same thing.” Cheney is ignoring the findings of the 9/11 Commission that Richard Clarke had been trying to warn Cheney and Bush for months before the attacks.
According to Philip Shenon’s book The Commission – The Uncensored History Of The 9/11 Investigation, “Emails from the National Security Council’s counter-terrorism director, Richard Clarke, showed that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats. He was trying to get her to focus on the intelligence she should have been reading each morning in the presidential and senior briefings:
“Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack” (May 3)
“Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot” (May 23)
“Bin Ladin’s Networks’ Plans Advancing” (May 26)
“Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent” (June 23)
“Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats” (June 25)
“Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile Attacks” (June 30),
“Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays” (July 2)”
Dick Cheney is lying when he claims that Richard Clarke missed it. The people who missed it, or a better way to put it would be ignored it, were Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and Condi Rice. Cheney’s lies are all part of his campaign to rehabilitate the image of the Bush administration, but there are mountains of evidence to contradict the statements of the former vice president.
Cheney is living in his own delusional little bubble where the Bush administration did nothing wrong. Every time he speaks, he reveals a complete inability to take any responsibility for the past eight years. The Bush administration treated the American people like they were stupid, and even out of office, Cheney continues to treat the public like fools.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
