A Starbucks employee in Washington found some notes prepared for a breakfast with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before the Sunday morning shows when a Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell went on a few Sunday AM shows to defend the Administration after Clarke’s committee tirade.
According to UPI, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress (CAP) put the notes on their web site. The Washpost also carries the story.
Here’s the “damage” reported by UPI:
One of Clarke’s most damaging allegations is that he crafted an anti-terrorism plan — a National Security Presidential Directive — to take on al-Qaida in January 2001. The NSPD was not approved until Sept. 4, and neither was it substantially changed in the intervening months, according to Clarke. He has challenged the White House to release both documents to allow for a side-by-side comparison.The notes address this matter, saying the plan to attack the Taliban existed before Sept. 4.
“The NSPD wasn’t signed till Sept. 4 but had an annex going back to July (with) contingency plans to attack Taliban,” the notes say.
That point is related to another in the notes. The briefing says commission member Jamie Gorelick, a former general counsel of the Defense Department under President Clinton, was pitting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage against Rice. Under sworn testimony, Armitage contradicted Rice’s claim the White House had a strategy before Sept. 11 that called for military operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban.
There’s nothing there. The notes mention a plan to deephesize Clarke, which was done, and concentrate on what the Administration has done.
There’s a .pdf of the handwritten notes on the CAP site, and the Washpost piece has some transcribed excerpts.
The Starbuckster should have given the Eric’s Telephone Log to Bob Woodward. His imagination is such that he could concoct a grand scandal from that little bit.
For now, though, I want Howard Dean’s opinion,
