Thomas Maertens
Maertens, the National Security Council's director for nuclear nonproliferation on both the Clinton and Bush White House staffs, said Clarke had repeatedly tried to warn senior officials in the Bush administration about the growing threat of Al Qaeda.Posted by Research Team at March 29, 2004 05:03 PM"He was the guy pushing hardest, saying again and again that something big was going to happen, including possibly here in the U.S.," Maertens said from his home in Minnesota.
But Maertens said the Bush White House was reluctant to believe a holdover from the previous administration.
"They really believed their campaign rhetoric about the Clinton administration," he said. "So anything they did was bad, and the Bushies were not going to repeat it. And it's disgusting to see the administration now putting a full-court smear on Clarke - for being right." [International Herald Tribune 3/23/04]