At the Clark blog, Melange has transcribed Clark's November 12 remarks on Fox and Friends (I'm glad someone does this) regarding the Bushco pushback on pre-war intelligence.
http://securingamerica.com/...
General Clark discusses the broader consequences of our Iraq involvement, most of which he has already said. But his comments about the Bush counter offensive are worth noting:
Kiran Chetry (Fox anchor): Alright, that was the president speaking at a Veteran's Day speech yesterday about the War on Terror, Iraq and of course critics of the war. Our next guest has made no secret about the fact that he also has a lot of criticism for the war in Iraq and he says he has a plan for Iraq that would send the right signal to our troops. Joining us now is former NATO Commander and Fox News Military Analyst retired General Wesley Clark. Good to have you with us, thanks for being here, General.
WC: Thanks, good to be here.
KC: Ah, you heard the president's speech yesterday and there were many who said it's about time he came out and just answered to a lot of what's been going on lately, which has been not criticism for what's happening in Iraq but for what happened before we went to war. Your thoughts?
WC: Well, I think he, ah, there's a lot to answer for because the intelligence that was available was hyped. I was one of many people who had seen previous intelligence that said the best judgment of the intelligence community was there might be weapons of mass destruction, some materials were unaccounted for. But the talk about mushroom clouds that Secretary Cheney was certain they were going to get a nuclear device fairly soon and so forth; it was irresponsible, it was ungrounded in the facts and the Congress that voted on the resolution never had the chance to see all the dissenting opinions within the intelligence community so I think there's a lot to be looked at here. I think strategically, though, we can see now, four years after 9/11, that going into Iraq in a way to fight the war on terror was a strategic blunder. Al Qaeda <crosstalk> is in Iraq right now because there is not strong control over Iraq.
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KC: I just want to ask you one quick question before we leave. The Silberman/Robb Commission that came out, the former commission of the intelligence capabilities regarding weapons of mass destruction said in their report that they issued to Congress "we conclude there was no political pressure that caused anyone to skew or alter their analytical judgments. Your response?
WC: They never looked at whether the administration distorted the information that was available in its approach to the public and they specifically said they weren't authorized to do that. That's what has to be looked at by this <crosstalk> Senate committee and they haven't done so.
Clark's statements are very straightforward and given without hyperbole. Let the facts speak for themselves.