Exploiting failure
Jim Hoagland:
...
"Clarke is 'stunning continuity' in human form. He led White House counterterror teams for both administrations and worked in others as well. He in fact had the greatest bureaucratic responsibility of any single individual to prevent 9/11. He now exploits his failure in a brilliant marketing campaign of media synergy: Clarke's kiss-and-tell memoir is published by the same conglomerate (Viacom) that owns the television network that promoted the book so relentlessly last weekend.
"Clarke is a clever operator. His blanket apology to the families of 9/11 victims at the opening of his testimony did not lead to his accepting responsibility for any specific planning or operational failures that he then identified. These failures unerringly turned out to be the fault of others. Challenged repeatedly on why he did not warn the nation publicly or Congress privately of Bush's glaring deficiencies, he finally slipped into candor to note: 'It is a question of politics.'
"Clarke's litany led a parade of 'what ifs?' and 'if onlys' through the hearings. If only the CIA had alerted Clarke that al Qaeda operatives were in America. If only the CIA had armed the Predator drone and taken responsibility for using it earlier. "
Jim Hoagland:
...
"Clarke is 'stunning continuity' in human form. He led White House counterterror teams for both administrations and worked in others as well. He in fact had the greatest bureaucratic responsibility of any single individual to prevent 9/11. He now exploits his failure in a brilliant marketing campaign of media synergy: Clarke's kiss-and-tell memoir is published by the same conglomerate (Viacom) that owns the television network that promoted the book so relentlessly last weekend.
"Clarke is a clever operator. His blanket apology to the families of 9/11 victims at the opening of his testimony did not lead to his accepting responsibility for any specific planning or operational failures that he then identified. These failures unerringly turned out to be the fault of others. Challenged repeatedly on why he did not warn the nation publicly or Congress privately of Bush's glaring deficiencies, he finally slipped into candor to note: 'It is a question of politics.'
"Clarke's litany led a parade of 'what ifs?' and 'if onlys' through the hearings. If only the CIA had alerted Clarke that al Qaeda operatives were in America. If only the CIA had armed the Predator drone and taken responsibility for using it earlier. "
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