March 26, 2004

RICHARD CLARKE IS SUGGESTING an Al Qaeda connection to the Oklahoma City bombing.

Plenty of people have suggested that, and also suggested an Iraqi connection. But given the way such suspicions have been generally pooh-poohed, it's interesting to see it coming from this source, and the domestic political implications are dramatic.

UPDATE: Roger Simon has further observations that are, as always, worth reading.

ANOTHER UPDATE: David Adesnik:

Is there any hope of getting past partisan antagonism and coming up with a fair evaluation of what Richard Clarke has to say about the Bush administration? No, not really. At least for now. I think a big part of the problem is that the newspapers have been portraying Clarke as an immaculate hero and the President as a black-hatted villain.

Indeed. Adesnik has quite a survey of responses to Clarke's testimony. Referring to an earlier post of his defending Clarke, Adesnik observes: " I missed the real story: that Clarke was rewriting the history of what happened before September 11th."

A lot of other people missed it -- or ignored it -- too.

MORE: Here's some interesting linkage of Iraq and Al Qaeda, from Richard Clarke.

STILL MORE: Here's a 9/11 Commission hearings flowchart that illustrates Adesnik's point.