In the Administration’s efforts to discredit Richard Clarke’s accusations about terrorism pre-September 11, they say some odd stuff. Cheney on Limbaugh today:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I wasn’t directly involved in that decision. He was moved out of the counterterrorism business over to the cyber security side of things, that is he was given a new assignment at some point here. I don’t recall the exact time frame.
Q Cyber security, meaning Internet security?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, worried about attacks on the computer systems and the sophisticated information technology systems we have these days that an adversary would use or try to the system against us.
Q Well, now that explains a lot, that answer right there explains — (Laughter.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, he wasn’t — he wasn’t in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff. And I saw part of his interview last night, and he wasn’t —
The guy who’s in charge of counterterrorism at NSA wasn’t in the loop? Then I would accuse you and your boss, Mr. Cheney, of absolute incompetence, except that that’s a damned lie anyway. As Josh Marshall points out, Clarke wasn’t assigned to cybersecurity until after 9/11. In fact,
Now the way I read a calendar, Oct. 16, 2002 is 13 months after Sept. 11, 2001, so Clarke was still in charge of counterterrorism, and thus was indeed nominally “in the loop.”
Cheney is a liar or a fool or both. Personally, I lean towards liar; I don’t think he’s quite a fool.
Well, yes, I think Cheney is a fool, too. Wise men see the value of integrity. Cheney doesn’t. He’s a fool.
that little invisible man was over here in NJ last night raising money for the Republican Party…
He tied up the roads with his motorcade for a long time, and the NJ drivers were pissed…
Still he raised a few bucks and talked about Lincoln..oops I mean Kerry…
and yielded a few chuckles..
Then the wooden man was airlifted away to an undisclosed place..
To Outer Space and Beyond……