"The unraveling of Richard Clarke is proceeding nicely," boasted a winger blogger with whom I sometimes lock horns on group blog known as Freespeech.com.  That was in March 2004.

At that time, the right-wing blogosphere journalistic community was seeking to destroy the credibility give a fair and objective assessment of Richard Clarke, who was appearing before the committee looking into 9/11 and intelligence failures.

Some other quotes typical of the right-wing blogosphere at the time:

"… Clarke seemed to be oblivious to the gathering threat of al Qaeda…"

"…all evidence suggests that [Clarke] was busy chasing the windmill of cyber-terrorism at the time he claimed he was promoting the al Qaeda threat…"

"…it is not like as if he recommended any action that would have prevented 9-11, seeing that the Bush administration had enacted all his recommendations prior to 9-11…"

Oblivious to the gathering threat of al Qaeda? Chasing the windmill of cyber-terrorism?

Nope.  Read the truth here. Or just read Clarke’s now-declassified memo (PDF format) for yourself.

Was Clarke "oblivious to the gathering threat of al Qaeda?"  Hardly.

More importantly, as you read the Clarke memo to Condi Rice, keep in mind this quote from Condi Rice from March 22, 2004: "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration." (Source) and see for yourself how it is an out-an-out lie.