Richard Clarke
I’m at an interview with Richard Clarke right now. I hope to get to ask a question. What he says is quite striking. He says (quote approximate):
Al Qaeda is currently training people who could stand next to you in the security line at Dulles airport and wouldn’t raise an eyebrow…this is not a theoretical threat, it is a very real threat…and the number one reason for it is that we went into Iraq instead of focusing on Al Qaeda.
I may have more later. This is the best session I’ve been to so far. I highly recommend his book, Against All Enemies, to anyone who hasn’t read it.
Update: Richard Clarke believes that global warming is a big national security threat, because it will lead to mass migrations and food shortages, which can cause mass instability worldwide. He also says (quote approximate again):
A hundred years from now, when people look back on the failures of the Bush administration, the worst failure will not be the War on Terror, it will be his failure to deal with global warming. We’ve lost seven years, and they may prove to be the most critical seven years for this issue.
Another interesting exchange…an audience member asked Clarke if he thought that Bush deliberately let Osama bin Laden escape in Tora Bora to justify further actions such as Iraq. Clarke replies (quote approximate again):
It may strain the imagination to conceive of how incompetent the Bush administration has been here…but I think this really was just incompetence.
Sounds great. I’m in a session with Paul Krugman and others about the Media. I hope to have some video up at some point - he Q&A is great.
You can watch both sessions and most sessions at this link
http://www.netrootsnation.org/node/982
[...] (listen to Texas Monthly’s interview). There were some serious moments like listening to Richard Clarke, Captivating moments listening to Al Gore answer a [...]