The ‘National Commission on Terrorist attacks upon the United States’ looking into the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington may well turn out to be one of the decisive factors in the Presidential elections. The Commission over the past few days grilled senior officials of the Clinton Administration as well as the current policy makers. It is the testimony of former White House terrorism expert, Richard Clarke that has clearly defined the battle lines. With the carefully timed release of his book “Against all Enemies: America’s war on terror”, Clarke had launched a powerful indictment of the Bush Administration. His main contention is that the White House did not take seriously the threats of an impending Al Qaida attack and that even after 9/11 terror attacks the main focus of the Bush administration was on engineering a regime change in Iraq.
This is after all the election year and the war on terrorism and national security are the twin electoral planks for President Bush in his re-election bid. In fact polls reveal that these are probably the only two issues on which President Bush leads the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee Senator Kerry. Thus for the Bush administration defending and even countering Richard Clarke’s testimony is proving to be a major challenge. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, after initial reluctance has agreed to testify before the Commission. While she might have had some technical arguments on the turf to avoid testifying, it now has become a political necessity. Having been put on the defensive, for the first time on the conduct of the war against terrorism, the Bush Administration has adopted a two pronged counter attack. One is to question the personal credibility of Mr. Clarke by releasing confidential documents which detail Clarke’s own assessments, during his tenure, that the administration was doing a good job of fighting terrorism. The other is to make a reasonable case that the Administration was fully engaged with the challenge of al Qaida even before the attacks on September 11.
With the election promising to be a bitter one, and the Democrats determined to undercut, by all means the President’s claim to be a successful wartime president, all eyes in the U.S. will now be focused on Ms. Rice when she testifies before the Commission on Thursday. Given the high political stakes, expect some fireworks, through media leaks, even before she is grilled by the Commission.
This is after all the election year and the war on terrorism and national security are the twin electoral planks for President Bush in his re-election bid. In fact polls reveal that these are probably the only two issues on which President Bush leads the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee Senator Kerry. Thus for the Bush administration defending and even countering Richard Clarke’s testimony is proving to be a major challenge. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, after initial reluctance has agreed to testify before the Commission. While she might have had some technical arguments on the turf to avoid testifying, it now has become a political necessity. Having been put on the defensive, for the first time on the conduct of the war against terrorism, the Bush Administration has adopted a two pronged counter attack. One is to question the personal credibility of Mr. Clarke by releasing confidential documents which detail Clarke’s own assessments, during his tenure, that the administration was doing a good job of fighting terrorism. The other is to make a reasonable case that the Administration was fully engaged with the challenge of al Qaida even before the attacks on September 11.
With the election promising to be a bitter one, and the Democrats determined to undercut, by all means the President’s claim to be a successful wartime president, all eyes in the U.S. will now be focused on Ms. Rice when she testifies before the Commission on Thursday. Given the high political stakes, expect some fireworks, through media leaks, even before she is grilled by the Commission.
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