“Look into Iraq, Saddam,” the president said testily and left us.īush admin knew Iraq not a threat, & had no time for terror Iran plays a little, as does Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Yemen.” “But you know, we have looked several times for state sponsorship of Al Qaeda and not found any real linkages to Iraq. “Absolutely, we will look-again.” I was trying to be more respectful, more responsive. “I know, I know, but - see if Saddam was involved. I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. He told us, “I know you have a lot to do and all, but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. He looked like he wanted something to do. On September 12th, I left the video conferencing center and there, wandering alone around the situation room, was the president. Instead, he noted that what we needed to do with Iraq was to change the government, not just hit it with more cruise missiles, as Rumsfeld had implied.Ĭlarke: Bush insisted on connecting 9-11 with Saddam At first I thought Rumsfeld was joking.īut he was serious and the President did not reject out of hand the idea of attacking Iraq.

Rumsfeld complained that there were no decent targets for bombing in Afghanistan and that we should consider bombing Iraq, which, he said, had better targets. “Having been attacked by al Qaeda, for us now to go bombing Iraq in response would be like our invading Mexico after the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor.” “I thought I was missing something here,” I vented. Relieved to have some support, I thanked Colin No decent targets in Afghanistan, so bomb Iraqīy the afternoon on Wednesday, Secretary Rumsfeld was talking about broadening the objectives of our response and “getting Iraq.” Secretary Powell pushed back, urging a focus on al Qaeda. Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, chapter 1 It was too sophisticated and complicated an operation, they said, for a terrorist group to have pulled off by itself, without a state sponsor-Iraq must have been helping them. Was guilty of the attacks, but Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were not persuaded. On the morning of the 12th DOD’s focus was already beginning to shift from al Qaeda. Since the beginning of the administration, indeed well before, they had been pressing for a war with Iraq. Then I realized with almost a sharp physical pain that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were going to try to take advantage of this national tragedy to promote theirĪgenda about Iraq. Instead, I walked into a series of discussions about Iraq.Īt first I was incredulous that we were talking about something other than getting Al Qaeda. I expected to go back to a round of meetings examining what the next attacks could be, what our vulnerabilities were, what we could do about them in the short term. Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke: on War & PeaceĬlarke: Rumsfeld took advantage of 9-11 to push Iraq agenda

Against all enemies by richard a clarke