Trashing Condi

Moreen Dowd recently wrote a sneering column about Bush promoting unqualified women. One of her examples was Condoleeza Rice. Why was she incompetent? Because she didn't stop 9/11.

This has become a reflexive reaction among the left to Condi. She should have stopped the plot. After all, she was the security advisor. If she had just paid attention to the August memo "Bin Laden determined to strike inside the US" she would have deduced everything else.

Ok, at some level the person on top does take responsibility for what happens on her watch, but is this critisism justified?

Let's look at Richard Clark. He was the person in charge of monitoring Al Qaida during both the Clinton and early Bush administrations. While it was Rice's job to evaluate all threats to the US, it was his job to watch Bin Laden. If Rice didn't know about 9/11, it is because Clark didn't know about it to tell her.

Clark has an excuse. He blames everything on Bush. He claimed that Bush didn't shake the trees. Clinton was supposed to have asked all of his cabinet members constantly what they had done to stop terrorism. They in turn, asked the people below them. Eventually it got down to the guards at the Canadian boarder who recognized the millennium Bomber and arrested him. If Bush had just done as Clinton had done, 9/11 would not have happened.

Clark's account does not match what really happened. The boarder guard in question was never given any instructions about terrorists. He was looking for drug smugglers. When he saw someone who was visibly nervous he searched the man's car and found a bomb instead of drugs.

So Bush is off the hook. Shaking the trees didn't stop bombers, tight boarder control did. That puts Clark back on the hook.

So who cares? Clark left government service years ago while Rice is Secretary of State.

Except, Clark was also an advisor to John Kerry. Had Kerry won the election, Clark would certainly have gotten the job of National Security Advisor. This was a campaign point for Kerry. Everyone knew that the man who missed 9/11 would be given a high post on the Kerry administration.

So why no outrage? Why didn't any of Condi's many critics say anything? Because they don't really believe what they are saying. It's just an excuse.