To understand this bureaucratic mindset, consider that--while at the U.S.
State Department in the mid-1980s--Clarke concocted a zany plan to incite a
coup against Moammar Gadhafi to punish the Libyan strongman for embracing
terrorism. Clarke's suggestion: SR-71 spy planes would buzz Libya, creating
sonic booms that would appear to herald an invasion, thus unnerving
Gadhafi. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy would fake hostilities off the coast and
the State Department would encourage "speculation about likely Gadhafi
successors," according to a memo coauthored by Clarke. After news of the
plan leaked, an embarrassed Reagan White House unceremoniously ditched it.
The New York Times' William Safire dubbed the scheme "stupid and venal."
FROM...
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-993594.html?tag=fd_nc_1
