protect against all enemies foreign and domestic

He argues that he realized there was systemic opposition to finding an accurate narrative of the forces leading up to the attack once he submitted a report concluding that there was no evidence whatsoever of the involvement of Iraq. Clarke uses various case studies of terrorist figures to demonstrate that the real threat was more or less contained in Iraq’s neighbor, Afghanistan.Īfter excoriating the intelligence community’s key leaders for inaction, Clarke reinforces his argument by recalling September 12, 2001, when President Bush recruited him to gather proof that Saddam Hussein was connected to the attacks. He alleges that Rumsfeld valued fabricating a sense of American optimism over defending against confirmed perpetrators of terrorist acts. He accuses Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of bombing Iraq despite a lack of evidence for its involvement, simply because Iraq had a higher volume of identified threats that were easier to take out to generate signals of progress for mass media coverage. deliberately fashioned a military response that furthered certain leaders’ political agendas, rather than responding strategically to the complexities of the actual terrorist threats. Clarke argues that, in the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. He thus suggests that 9/11 was potentially an avoidable catastrophe had the intelligence community merely acknowledged numerous warnings. These studies demonstrated a record level of terrorist chatter, or volume of network activity correlated with agents connected to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. The primary piece of evidence he focuses on is his effort to convince then-CIA director George Tenet to include details about Al-Qaeda in daily intelligence briefings.

He states that he urgently and frequently petitioned the CIA and several other intelligence communities to form a strategy to respond to the U.S.’s multiplying signals of domestic and international terrorist activity.

The book is thus a rebuttal against the sentiment that the United States government successfully upheld its collective oath to defend “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Clarke begins the book in the midst of the domestic political turmoil in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks. He also criticizes the imperative behind the 2003 Iraq invasion, which he believes exacerbated the political condition of the Middle East and the United States’ capability to connect with its struggling states. Bush, claiming that he did not take action to defend the country in the calamitous period before the September 11 terrorist attack in New York City. The book focuses most of its criticism on former President George W. The book is primarily a critique of presidential policies and their impact on the United States’ proclaimed “war on terrorism” that resulted in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a perpetual military presence lasting into the present day. Clarke, takes its title from the oath of office recited by state officials to uphold the Constitution. Against All Enemies (2004), by former US head advisor for counterterrorism Richard A.

Protect against all enemies foreign and domestic