Richard Clarke trusts Obama to fix national security problems
Former national counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke is known for his blistering attacks on the Bush administration for its slackness on terrorism before 9/11 and its decision to invade Iraq instead of continuing to pursue al Qaeda.
In a new book, Your Government Failed You, Clarke goes further to argue that the problems in national security are systemic and will not be fixed merely by a change of administrations.
"It's not about the president so much," Clarke told CNN's John Roberts on Wednesday. "The system is broken. ... The president alone can't fix it unless the system is changed. ... Just changing the president is not enough."
"Who do you trust to issue the call to make those changes and make sure that they take place?" Roberts asked.
"I think they've all talked about some of the changes necessary," Clarke replied. "I think Senator Obama has spent more time talking about the need for structural changes."
Clarke has served as an advisor to Obama on security issues since last year, and there has been speculation that he might fill a major security post in an Obama administration.
"The biggest post-9/11 failure was not to fully destroy al Qaeda," Clarke continued. "Al Qaeda is now stronger than it has been since 2003 and is training terrorists to go out around the world and commit attacks again." However, he was quick to add that the threat from al Qaeda is "not existential" but merely "one of the major issues" that will face the next president.
"They're using terrorism in these last several years to scare us into voting one way or the other," Clarke emphasized. "We've got to get out of this business of using national security for political purposes."
This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast May 28, 2008.
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