Richard A. Clarke retiring from government

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/24/terrorism.adviser.ap/index.html


Clarke noted for blunt style


WASHINGTON (AP) --Richard A. Clarke, a blunt-spoken White House adviser who
raised warnings about Islamic terrorism and biological weapons years before
they became nightmare headlines, will resign from government soon, people
familiar with his plans said.

Clarke, the president's counterterrorism coordinator at the time of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, was disinclined to accept a senior position in
the new Homeland Security Department and planned to retire after three
decades with the government, these people said. He has not yet solicited an
outside job, they said.

These people, working both inside and outside government, spoke on condition
of anonymity but said Clarke personally described his plans to them. Clarke
did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press over three days.

Clarke, currently the nation's top cyber-security adviser, is best known for
his success in identifying emerging issues and outlasting his critics. He
has focused most recently on preventing disruptions to important computer
networks from Internet attacks. But he has tempered warnings about a
"digital Pearl Harbor" after some industry experts mocked them as overblown.

With much of the White House evacuated for safety in the hours after the
September 11 attacks, Clarke worked in the situation room there with
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney as
stunned leaders planned what to do next. His supporters said Clarke played a
central role in the unprecedented decision to quickly ground the nation's
airliners.

Clarke previously led the government's secretive Counterterrorism and
Security Group, made up of senior officials from the FBI, CIA, Justice
Department and armed services, who met several times each week to discuss
foreign threats.

"It was really the engine room of the anti-terrorism effort," said Sandy
Berger, Clinton's former national security adviser and Clarke's former boss.
"He's not an easy guy. He's very demanding. More than once people would come
to me and complain, but that's why I wanted Dick in that job: He was pushing
the bureaucracy."

Clarke also had the ear of President Clinton about the risks from a
biological attack, years before anthrax poisoned the U.S. mail.

"Dick was the single most effective person I worked with in the federal
government," said Jonathan M. Winer, a former deputy assistant secretary of
state. "When he was given the authority, he would stay with something every
day until it got done. He's efficient and tough-minded. I never saw anyone
else as good."

Clarke is known for his aggressive -- sometimes abrasive -- personality and
for his willingness to bypass bureaucratic channels. Under Clinton, he was
known to contact Special Forces and other military commanders in the field
directly, irritating the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon.

Clarke was "a bulldog of a bureaucrat," wrote former national security
adviser Anthony Lake in a book two years ago. He said Clarke has "a
bluntness toward those at his level that has not earned him universal
affection."

Some senior CIA officials under Clinton complained that Clarke pressed them
to launch covert programs without adequate preparation or study, said
Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.

"He gave the impression he was somewhat of a cowboy," Cannistraro said.
"There was no love lost between Clarke and the CIA."

Clarke managed largely to avoid Washington's finger-pointing over failures
to anticipate the September 11 attacks, even though he was the top
counterterrorism adviser and he was replaced by the White House in that role
less than one month later.
<snip>

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