Richard Clarke appreciation thread: He schooled us on Iraq truth in 2004.

We knew about the abysmal lies in our gut before his book came out in 2004, of course. And many of us marched against the coming "Shock and Awe" in spring 2003 and before, when we saw what was coming, only to be relegated with contempt to the bottom of page 7A in The Washington Post and elsewhere, even though more than 100,000 of us took to the streets.

Now we may finally be confronting that immoral disaster, and good of it. The GOP is tied up in knots; went shopping today and heard Rush defend that invasion (and of course blame President Obama). I have the book, "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," and I intend to read it again to remind me what an honest patriot has to say. (He reminds me of George Ball, another great person who fought against the Vietnam War and wrote a great autobiography, "The Past Has Another Pattern," which I commend to all DUers.)

Anyway, an accurate Wikipedia summary of his remembrances, and experiences. And mine, too, with much less knowledge. If he doesn't win a Profiles in Courage Award, something is wrong.

Clarke argues that he made numerous urgent requests for a meeting about dealing with terrorism, had CIA Director George Tenet include numerous details about Al-Qaeda in daily briefings, found an unprecedented level of terrorist "chatter" before September 11.

Soon after 9/11, he says that defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld wanted to bomb Iraq, even though there was no evidence of their involvement, because they had more "good targets" than Afghanistan, which was actually involved.

Clarke also says that on September 12, 2001, President Bush asked him to try to find evidence that Saddam Hussein was connected to the terrorist attacks. In response he wrote a report stating there was absolutely no evidence of Iraqi involvement and got it signed by all relevant agencies (the FBI, the CIA, etc.). The paper was quickly returned by a deputy with a note saying "Please update and resubmit," apparently unshown to the President.

Clarke also recalls a meeting where then Defense Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz expressed doubt that Osama bin Laden could have carried out the attacks on September 11 without state sponsorship. Clarke writes that Wolfowitz attempted to connect Saddam Hussein to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 — a theory based on the writings of Laurie Mylroie that, according to Clarke, has been exhaustively investigated and disproven.

But perhaps most damagingly, Clarke claims that the administration has done "a terrible job" fighting terrorism, even since September 11. In particular, he feels the 2003 invasion of Iraq played right into Osama bin Laden's hands. For years, bin Laden had been producing propaganda saying that the US wants to invade and occupy an oil-rich middle eastern country, which was essentially validated by the US invasion of Iraq. As a result, says Clarke, it's not surprising that Al-Qaeda and its offshoots are having much greater success recruiting new members. . .