9/11 Testimony

Former National Coordinator For Counterterrorism Richard Clarke's opening statement to the 9/11 commission:

"Your government failed you. �Those entrusted with
protecting you failed you. �I failed you. �We tried hard, but we
failed you...I ask for your understanding, and your forgiveness. "

The full text transcript of Clarke's testimony can be found here. The video can be watched here.

(thanks to Matt for the quote)

UPDATE: Clarke just said under oath that he WOULD NOT ACCEPT a position in the Kerry administration should one be offered to him.

Under oath.

That should put any accusations of partisanship to bed.

UPDATE II: Check out the dig Bob Kerrey took at Fox News during the hearings:

And let me also say this document of Fox News earlier, this
transcript that they had, this is a background briefing. And all of us
that have provided background briefings for the press before should
beware. I mean, Fox should say occasionally fair and balanced after putting something like this out.
(LAUGHTER) Because they violated a serious trust. (APPLAUSE) All of us
that come into this kind of an environment and provide background
briefings for the press I think will always have this as a reminder
that sometimes it isn't going to happen, that it's background.
Sometimes, if it suits their interest, they're going to go back, pull
the tape, convert it into transcript and send it out in the public
arena and try to embarrass us or discredit us. So I object to what
they've done, and I think it's an unfortunate thing they did.

Note the remarks generated LAUGHTER and APPLAUSE.
The context is that the White House leaked a transcript of a background
briefing that Clarke gave in the summer of 2002. In the briefing,
Clarke supposedly lauded the administration's conduct of the war
against terrorism, in words which are not exactly consistent with the
picture painted in his book. For a so-called "news organization" to
play such a blatently partisan role is pretty vile, and it's about time
someone took them to task for this type of behavior.
Incidentally, Former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson tried to challenge
Clarke's credibility with said briefing, and was summarily reduced to a
greasy paste by Clarke's calm, lucid and utterly authoritative manner.
It was a hell of a show.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 24, 2004 at 02:40 PM | Permalink