amigocabal

Wesley Clark Calls 9/11 Assertions Lies
TIM McCAHILL
Associated Press

LEBANON, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said "the two
greatest lies" of the last three years were that the Sept. 11 attacks could
not have been prevented and that a future attack is inevitable.

"If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the
American people," Clark told the Concord Monitor for a story published
Friday. "We are not going to have one of these incidents."

In previous statements, Clark blamed President Bush for intelligence
failures that contributed to the attacks in New York and Washington. The
chairman of the federal commission investigating the attacks has said
mistakes had left the nation vulnerable but did not blame the Bush or
Clinton administrations.

Meeting on Thursday with the Monitor editorial board, Clark said: "I think
the two greatest lies that have been told in the last three years are: You
couldn't have prevented 9-11 and there's another one that's bound to
happen."

Campaigning in New Hampshire Friday, Clark stood by the statements despite
criticism from his rivals.

"I don't think we have to live in America under a cloud of perpetual fear.
We could have done more to have prevented 9-11, we could be doing much more
right now to prevent another terrorist strike," Clark said.

"When I'm president of the United States, I will do more."

Most terrorism experts contend the country has much to do to defend itself
against a future attack. However, they say complete security cannot be
achieved because of the vast number of potential targets and if civil
liberties are to be maintained.

Clark told the Monitor that American citizens should not be worried.
"Nothing is going to hurt this country - not bioweapons, not a nuclear
weapon, not a terrorist strike - there is nothing that can hurt us if we
stay united and move together and have a vision for moving to the future the
right way."

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a Clark rival for the nomination and a
member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Clark had overstated the
point.

"Is it possible it could have been prevented? Yes. Is it certain? Absolutely
not. There is no way to know that," Edwards told reporters in Manchester,
N.H.

"In terms of whether it's inevitable that America will be attacked again -
what we know is we live in a free and open society and there are lots of
things that need to be done to keep the American people safe that are not
presently being done," Edwards said. "I think the focus should be on a
thoughtful approach on why September 11 happened and what steps could be
taken to keep the country safe."

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, another of Clark's rivals for the
nomination, also called the assurances overstatements.

"Clearly, there were things we could have done that we didn't do, but you've
got to be real careful about leveling with the American people because this
is a threat that continues," Lieberman said Friday in Concord.

"If somebody is crazy enough to strap bombs around their waist and walk into
a crowd, it's hard to prevent that."

Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, campaigning in Manchester, N.H., said, "I
don't think any of us saw anything to prevent 9-11. The truth is we all
failed on 9-11."

Responding to Clark's comments about future attacks, Gephardt said it's hard
to make any guarantees.