1. He got three ovations
2. His opening statement included an apology [on behalf of him and the government] to the victim's families of 9/11
3. His answers and the praise put on him by some of the panel made it VERY clear that Clarke was VERY competent in his job. In fact the current Deputy Chief of Staff in HIS testimony defended Clarke and trashed the idiotic accusations that 9/11 was the previous Administrations fault just because they were there longer....as if the Clinton Administration was just sitting there with its thumb up its ass while Al Queda grew and grew.
The obvious but apparently forgotten bottom line is Clarke and his department worked within the framework created by the intelligence in front of them:
1. He was very critical of the FBI, less critical of the CIA.
2. He requested covert operations in Afghanistan after the USS Cole, but was denied.
3. He tried to get numerous actions NOW in place [armed Predator drones is one example] in Jan of 2001 to the Presidents attention, but was told it had to go through the Principals [a very lengthy process which finished 4/11] first. Why go directly to the President? Because the intelligence the government had in Jan 2001 suggested Al Queda was about to strike.
Basically, Richard Clarke kicked so much ass in his testimony that he had one of the panel members thanking him very profusely for testifying. Another member asked him if he would make himself available for further Commissions when the time comes to brainstorm how to improve the way the government inter-communicates.
