General Wesley Clark – Countdown with Keith Olbermann
July 11, 2007
Transcription by Melange
Amy Robach: Turning now to the upcoming NIE, the National Intelligence Estimate. Newsweek today reporting that it will include al Qaeda has “reconstituted its core structure and become stronger.” The Associated Press today also quoting unnamed intelligence sources saying al Qaeda’s resurrection has been so successful that America’s number one threat is now operating at a level last seen six years ago in the summer of 2001, just prior to the attacks of September 11th. This coming as a top CIA official testified before Congress today that al Qaeda is not, as Mr. Bush has claimed, on the run but has settled back in on the Pakistan border with more money, training and communications. All of this in the 24 hours after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff sparked a wave of ridicule when he explained to the Chicago Tribune how he has analyzed past al Qaeda patterns and recent al Qaeda communications.
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Michael Chertoff: All these things give me a…kind of a gut feeling that we’re in a period of…not that I have a specific threat, you know…that, uh I have in mind right now, but that we are entering a period of increased vulnerability.
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Amy Robach: Meanwhile Newsweek reports that other US officials are offering concrete reasons for al Qaeda’s resurgence, specifically a truce that Pakistan struck with extremists on the border, allowing them to operate unfettered and give al Qaeda what the CIA official described as a safe haven. We turn now to retired 4-star General Wesley Clark, MSNBC Analyst and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, as well as a 1-time Democratic presidential candidate. General, thanks for your time tonight.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Good to be with you, Amy.
Amy Robach: So if the AP’s reporting is correct, America’s intelligence community now believes that al Qaeda has a safe haven, shelter, money, training and as much strength as it did six years ago. How did that happen?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, this administration’s strategy has been woefully inadequate from the start. We should have gone to Afghanistan. There was no plan to take out al Qaeda. They let al Qaeda escape across the border into Pakistan. We then went into Iraq – that was an unnecessary war, it was an elective war and it diverted attention from al Qaeda. It did serve as a recruiting magnet for al Qaeda. So it’s not…Amy, if you look at this latest report, it’s not just the base area in Pakistan that should be of concern. That is of concern and it’s true that Musharraf cut a truce in North Waziristan, pulled back his troops, couldn’t take the casualties, couldn’t maintain the heat on the militants there, but the war in Iraq has generated so much sympathy for al Qaeda. It’s brought new recruits to the organization. They’ve been brought into Iraq. They’ve fought against Americans. They’ve been indoctrinated. They’ve proved themselves. They’ve bonded and now they’re spreading back out around the world.
So it’s actually probably worse than the report that’s being articulated on the Hill.
Amy Robach: And General, just yesterday we heard President Bush talk about Musharraf, saying he was a great ally and yet our time spent in Iraq, many say that’s time we could have put into the real fight and perhaps impaired America’s ability to deal with Pakistan from a position of strength. Would that have been a good strategy?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It would have been a good strategy to have dealt with Pakistan effectively right after we intervened in Afghanistan. In fact, the war in Iraq as you…as you suggest had the opposite effect. We pulled our special forces back, we pulled out some of our intelligence collection means. So we took our mind, our eyes, our capabilities off of al Qaeda during a crucial two, three-year period and we allowed that reconstitution of that central base area. It’s there now and this administration has…has got a real challenge on its hands <crosstalk> because Musharaff is weaker now than he was right after 9/11.
Amy Robach: And Secretary Chertoff talking about this gut feeling that he said he felt like we were in danger, that al Qaeda typically at least recently has struck during the summer month uh, but saying there’s no specific threat and yet this same report says that US intelligence has gaps in it. How would you describe the state of our security today?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I’d feel a lot more secure if we’d fully implemented the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, but as you know, we don’t have the Homeland Security posture or the commitment of resources that that report called for. Democrats on the Hill have voted for that, everyone’s consistently called for it. It simply hasn’t been done by the administration. The idea that you could fight them there so you don’t have to worry about them here, well that…that just doesn’t work.
I’ve been very concerned. I listened to Secretary Chertoff last night. I thought ‘I wonder if he’s just trying to raise the political flag and run the fear factor up’ because I think a little of that happened…maybe a lot of it happened before the 2004 election. But I do think…I do hope the American people will understand that there is a real threat out there. The fact that we don’t have any credible specific threat worries me a great deal, if it’s true that we don’t have any credible specific threat because you would hope that we would have if it were there. We just don’t know and that is a matter of concern because if what we do know is that the US standing in the world has sunk appreciably as a result of the activities the United States has undertaken in Iraq, that al Qaeda has gained new strength, new converts and new efforts have been undertaken to support terrorists. So, I’d be concerned.
And I hope the people will lay it…the blame where it belongs on the Bush administration for a bad strategy.
Amy Robach: General Wesley Clark, MSNBC Analyst. Thanks so much for joining us tonight.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.