March 29, 2004

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Other former Washington insiders support Clarke's criticism
Nostril rapings, beheadings to begin at dawn tomorrow.

Clarke, in his book, echoes other accounts, such as Ron Suskind's book on former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, that key administration officials appeared unduly focused on Iraq in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks -- and then leaped to the conclusion that Iraq was somehow involved.

Clarke's complaint resonates with some other former administration officials. Rand Beers, who served as counterterrorism chief after Clarke, has voiced the same complaint and is now foreign-policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Flynt Leverett, a former CIA analyst and Middle East specialist who left Bush's National Security Council staff a year ago, also agrees.

"Clarke's critique of administration decision-making and how it did not balance the imperative of finishing the job against Al-Qaida vs. what they wanted to do in Iraq is absolutely on the money,'' Leverett said.



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