Democratic presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark is promising
that if he's elected president he'll guarantee that America won't be attacked
again the way it was on Sept. 11, 2001 - even though he recently admitted that
when he was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO he did nothing to stop the first
9/11 attack.
"If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the
American people," Clark told the Concord Monitor on Friday.
"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."
However, just five days ago, when the former NATO commander was asked what
he did to prevent the first 9/11, he told "Meet the Press" that stopping bin
Laden wasn't his job.
"The information [we had on bin Laden] was coming out of the Central
Command area," said Clark. "What my responsibility was, was to take the
measures in my area."
In fact, the White House hopeful confessed that what he and other Clinton
generals did to counter al Qaeda pretty much amounted to all talk and no
action.
"We did have threats by Osama bin Laden," he told host Tim Russert. "We
were under high alert starting in late summer of '98 . . . We had continuing
discussions on this at our commanders' conferences with the Secretary of
Defense."
Still, despite his own sorry record on fighting terrorism, Clark told the
Monitor that President Bush's negligence contributed to 9/11.
"I think [9/11] could have been prevented . . . I think it can be prevented
again if we have the right leadership. That's me. I will protect
America."
