wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Chris O from New York City May 27, 2008 - 12:12PM

  I heard a stunning statistic recently that something like 90% of the money the US spends on intelligence goes to private contractors. (I believe this was 90% of $40 Billion.) Could this be true? And is it not improper, is not this a core government function?

  
  
• [2] Cindy B from Ridgewood May 27, 2008 - 12:27PM

  Can you ask him about the "black out" we had a couple years ago?

  This seems to have been buried by everyone but it happened and it seemed like a HUGE breach of national security.

  
  
• [3] mc from Brooklyn May 27, 2008 - 12:29PM

  Cindy B,

  Are you talking about the blackout of '04? Look up "Blackout Traced to Dim Bulb in the White House." It gives you a good timeline.

  
  
• [4] hjs from 11211 May 27, 2008 - 12:32PM

  Clarke always trying to shock unitedstaters awake but no one hears him.

  
  
• [5] Susan from Kingston, New York May 27, 2008 - 12:39PM

  Leonard, I love the fact that you and Brian continue to have these high quality guests on to tell us how the US government hoodwinked the majority of Americans into support the war in Iraq. However, when will action be taken to prosecute members of the Bush Administration for their actions?

  
  
• [6] hjs from 11211 May 27, 2008 - 12:40PM

  does anyone think the CIA just killed clarke?

  
  
• [7] Taher from Croton 0n Hudson May 27, 2008 - 12:47PM

  Richard Clark must in out of space or he is simply delusional. An adequate large enough force argument is totally ludicrous. No people like to be occupied. You can not have a large enough force to keep down a population by an occupier who’s aim to colonize and to rape resources.

  The force argument comes from those who have no understanding of nor know contemporary Iraqi history. I recommended Mr. Clark read “ Defeat” by Jonathan steele.

  
  
• [8] mc from Brooklyn May 27, 2008 - 12:50PM

  Sorry, the blackout was '03, not '04. The title is "Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in the White House."

  http:www.commondreams.org/views03/0815-07.htm

  Here is Dennis Kucinich's telling of his encounter with these guys.

  http://lessig.org/blog/2003/08/lights_out_on_

  deregulation.html

  
  
• [9] Raymond Forsch May 27, 2008 - 12:51PM

  Haven't we heard enough from this two-bit phoney. If Richard A Clarke had done his job their wouldn't have been a second WTC attack on 9-11. Now he is the big expert on security. The heads of all our security agencies should have been rounded up and thrown in jail for their derilliction of duty and incompetence. Instead they are making millions from publishers and doing the talk show circuit.

  
  
• [10] hjs from 11211 May 27, 2008 - 12:54PM

  Taher,

  iraqis might not have minded so much if we had kept the streets safe, which we did not or if we had left quickly, we did not.

  
  
• [11] hjs from 11211 May 27, 2008 - 12:55PM

  Raymond,

  don't discount bush's incompetence.

  
  
• [12] CP from wantagh May 27, 2008 - 12:59PM

  what's with the abrupt cut off? very suspicious!

  
  
• [13] Raymond Forsch May 27, 2008 - 03:50PM

  Refresh my memory Hjs - How many attacks occured under Richard Clarke when he was Cheif Counter-Terrorism Advisor? If he had done his job there would never have been a 9-11.

  Bush has made his mistakes, but it's been nearly 7 years and we have not been attacked. So if that is incompetent I will take it. vs. Monday Morning Quaterback Clarke who couldn't keep us safe when he was in office, but he's the big expert since he retired.

  He should take his phoney apology that he gave in front of the 9-11 commission and shove it up his ***.

  
  
• [14] hjs from 11211 May 27, 2008 - 04:51PM

  Raymond

  so i guess he has nothing to add to the discussion then

  
  
• [15] mc from Brooklyn May 27, 2008 - 05:02PM

  Seems to me giving Bush credit for there not being more attacks is pushing it. Could be luck. Could be coincidence. We went 8 years before, maybe we're due in '09.

  
  
• [16] Raymond Forsch May 27, 2008 - 06:24PM

  when did we previously go 8 years?

  72-80? - numerous kidnappings, attacks on embassies and diplomats, Iranian Hostage Crisis

  80-88? Bombing of Marine base in Lebanon, embassy and night-club bombing, hostages, assasination of diplomats

  88-96? - 1st Trade Center attack, embassy attacks,

  96-2000 - Embassy bombing, USS Cole attacks, Saddam firing at our planes patroling the no-fly zone.

  
  
• [17] Raymond Forsch May 27, 2008 - 06:30PM

  (14) soemthing to add to the discussion - Yes, if he was honest about it, we could learn from his failure. But all we get is finger pointing and blame "the system" alibis. If you want an honest examination of why and how we were attacked read some of Michael Schueur's books.

  
  
• [18] Raymond Forsch May 28, 2008 - 04:25PM

  Richard asks why we had success during the Cold War. And why we have had failure after failure in the past ten years.

  First and foremost. We took our enemy in the cold war seriously. We saw it for what it was – Us or Them. We had brilliant people like Richard Bissell, Allen Dulles, William Colby who believed that our society had to survive, even if it meant running a coup in Iran, to prevent the Soviets from gaining a foothold in the middle east. Today we have airheads like Clark and Valerie Plame watching our backs. Leaders like Bill Clinton who are more worried about world opinion than the safety and security of the American people.

  Michael Schuer (CIA officer in charge of capturing bin Laden) recounts that on one occasion they not only knew where bin Laden was, they knew what building he was in, what room he was in, and what chair he was sitting in. Clinton didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger. You know darn well that FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, Nixon, Ford, Regan, or either of the Bush’s would have given the go ahead. A trillion dollar defense is useless, if you have a President who is too weak kneed to use it. I think a whole lot of people around the world (even those who denounce our Cowboy diplomacy) are secretly praying President Bush will take out Iran’s nukes before he leaves office. Because McCain is going to lose and the other two don’t have the guts.