Jun 24 2008
Richard Clarke sounds off on Charlie Black’s comments
In case you haven’t heard about it yet, yesterday McCain advisor Charlie Black stepped in it big time. He basically said that another terrorist attack on the U.S. would likely help the McCain campaign. You argue about whether or not that’s true (ginning up the fear machine sure worked for the Republicans back in 2002 and 2004), but you can’t really argue that that really isn’t something that someone affiliated with a presidential candidate should say. In last night’s episode of Countdown, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke indicated why this is such a big gaffe. Here’s a snippet of what he said, as well as the video of the segment:
Well, Charlie Black knows a lot about politics but he doesn’t know much about terrorism. If he did, he would know that Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and all the al Qaeda leadership, watch U.S. politics very closely. We’ve even had cases where in interviews, bin Laden quoted opinion polls from European public opinion polls.
So, yes, they understand that they can manipulate politics as they tried to in the Spanish election with the attacks there. And to say, “Yes, you can manipulate our politics, come and do it,” is an invitation that the McCain campaign shouldn’t be anywhere near.
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