Clarke wants his previous testimony declassified.

Clarke wants testimony, records declassified
Sunday, March 28, 2004 Posted: 1:39 PM EST (1839 GMT)



Former White House aide Richard Clarke criticized Bush anti-terrorism policy last week before a bipartisan commision on 9/11 attacks.


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former White House counterterrorism aide Richard Clarke, whose criticism of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policy has triggered a ferocious response from the White House, said Sunday he supports Republican calls for declassifying testimony he gave Congress in 2002.

At issue is testimony Clarke gave behind closed doors in a July 2002 hearing before House and Senate intelligence committees jointly investigating the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Clarke also testified Wednesday before the independent National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which also is investigating the 9/11 attacks, and harshly criticized Bush anti-terrorism policies.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Friday that Clarke "has told two entirely different stories under oath."

On Sunday, Clarke told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the release of his previous testimony will prove false any claims that his earlier testimony contradicts statements in his new book, "Against All Enemies."

"I would welcome it being declassified," Clarke said. "But not just a little line here and there -- let's declassify all six hours of my testimony."

Clarke called on the White House to end what he called "vicious personal attacks" and "character assassination" in response to his accusations.

"People on the taxpayers' rolls are engaged in a campaign to destroy me personally and professionally, because I had the temerity to suggest that the American people should consider whether the president has done a good job in the war on terrorism," he said.

Clarke also told NBC he wants even more information declassified, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission. The White House has said Rice cannot testify publicly because of her position, but the commission has disagreed and asked the administration to change its stance.

Clarke also called for a document mentioned in the commission's staff report this week to be declassified -- a "strategy paper" he sent to Rice shortly after she assumed office in January 2001. Rice and Clarke have characterized the document very differently, with Clarke insisting it shows the administration's failure to act on "urgent" calls for action and Rice saying it was largely a list of anti-terrorism steps left over from the Clinton administration.

"Let's go further," he told NBC. "The White House is now selectively finding my e-mails, which I would have assumed are covered by some privacy regulations, and selectively leaking them to the press. Let's take all of my e-mails and memos that I sent to the national security adviser and her deputy from January 20 to September 11, and let's declassify all of it."

In his book and in testimony to the commission this week, Clarke said the Bush administration did not act on repeated warnings before September 11, 2001, that an al Qaeda attack could be imminent. He told the commission the administration considered terrorism an important issue, but not an "urgent" issue.

He reiterated that assessment on NBC, adding, "They had 100 meetings before they were willing to have one on terrorism."

Although the administration vigorously denied Clarke's assessment, Clarke quoted Bush, in an interview with reporter Bob Woodward, acknowledging that before September 11 he did not consider terrorism an "urgent" issue.

Speaking a week after his interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" jolted the former counterterrorism aide into the public eye, Clarke arrived at NBC armed with several documents to support his statements and rebut what the administration said about him this week.

Among them was a hand-written note the president wrote him upon his resignation in early 2003. "Dear Dick, you will be missed. You served our nation with distinction and honor," the note says, according to Clarke. "You have left a positive mark on our government."

The positive sentiments contrast with statements from top officials that Clarke was not in the loop on security issues, may hold a personal animus against Rice, is upset over having been demoted, and could have timed his book for political purposes to support Sen. John Kerry for the White House.

Clarke said the White House should end its attacks on his credibility and focus on the issues.

"This is about the president's job in the war on terrorism," he said. "This is about how going into Iraq hurt the war on terrorism. This is not about Dick Clarke," Clarke said.

Clarke, who has served under four presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan, said he would support neither President Bush nor Democratic challenger John Kerry in November and would not accept a position in a possible Kerry administration.

His "actual motivation" for writing the book, he said, was to help advise the country on how not to repeat certain mistakes. He knew important information and "had to get it off my chest," he said.

Clarke denied having been demoted by the administration, saying he asked to be transferred to a position in charge of battling cybersecurity partly due to his frustration with "the administration's lackadaisical attitude" toward terrorism.

As for Rice, he said, "I have great respect" for her. "I've known Condi a long time, I think she's a very good person."

But he said her statements that she instructed him to assemble domestic agencies for terrorism preparations in June 2001 are false. "No, I told her I was going to do it," he said. Whereas her predecessor in the Clinton administration, Sandy Berger, held daily meetings after being warned of a possible terrorist attack, "Dr. Rice chose not to do that," he said.

Clarke acknowledged having given a background briefing to reporters in 2002, speaking positively about the administration's actions in the war on terrorism, reiterating what he told the commission this week -- that top officials asked him to accentuate the positive, and it wasn't his place at the time to publicly criticize.

"When you're in the White House, you spin," he said. "I have no obligation any more to spin."