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Forum: Clashing with Clarke in Class

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by Chuck Harrison
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April 4, 2004
public sen/ire Reprinted from the Washington Times
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The country is in an uproar over former White House terrorism expert

Richard Clarke's recent contentions, which will continue to be debated.

Let me give some insight on my own very recent (February 2004)

experience with Mr. Clarke, who teaches a class at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government. He teaches this class with Rand Beers, a former
government official with National Security Council experience who now
works on the Democratic presidential campaign.

As a national security fellow at the Kennedy School, I attended one of

Messrs. Beers' and Clarke's classes to discuss U.S. experiences in
Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti and Kosovo. I was involved in the planning or
execution of each of these military operations and wrote my master's
thesis on U.S. Somalia policy while attending the Naval Postgraduate
School in 1994-95.

I requested permission to sit in on the class, which Mr. Clarke cheerfully

granted and told me to "pipe up" if I had anything to say, which I
quickly did when I questioned his theory there were three major policy
decisions during Somalia.

While we were debating U.N. actions in Somalia, Mr. Clarke incorrectly

stated the U.S. military made a unilateral decision to pull forces out of
Somalia. The defense secretary and the president decide deployment
and redeployment of combat forces, not the military. So I questioned his
statement to the contrary. I specifically asked him to clarify his
statement.

He backed his contention, stating the military made the decision. He

also said our participation in the U.N. mission in Macedonia proved how
smooth U.N. operations could be. I reminded him of the soldiers taken
prisoner by Serb forces and the ensuing crisis, but he ignored my

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2004/harrison_clarke_wt_040404.hrm 4/7/2004
Jhuck Harrison: Forum: Clashing with Clarke in Class Page 2 of 3

comment.

After class, I asked him to explain who in the military ordered

redeployment of forces from Somalia without permission of the
president. I asked him specifically, "Who signed the redeployment order
for those forces to leave Somalia?"

He finally clarified by saying "the secretary of defense." It seems Mr.

Clarke was actually referring to the desire of the U.S. military leaders to
leave Somalia rather than their ordering it without administration
knowledge. Why is this important?

Because he purposely misled the class into believing the U.S. military,
not the administration controlling the military, made the decision to
leave Somalia at a critical time in the mission. When given a chance to
correct the record, he chose not to do so. This was well before I knew
Mr. Clarke had a book coming out or that he would have such a role in
the current debate.

The CBS "60 Minutes" crew filmed the class and our discussion after the
class. They should have verified his comments on Somalia and then
investigated further to determine if he had a habit of obfuscating facts.
Their investigation would have confirmed that, in at least this instance,
Mr. Clarke chose to mislead.

I do not know why Mr. Clarke found it necessary to mislead his class or
why he felt Bush administration pressure to make absolutely certain Iraq
had nothing to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks was a request
for him to lie.

The bottom line is Mr. Clarke obfuscated the truth in my presence for
some unknown reason. After this experience with him, I cannot trust his
judgment. The timing of his book release, his prior silence on the topic
and his close relationship with campaign advisers, coupled with my
personal experience, cause me to question his credibility on this subject
and I now suspect it is for political and/or personal gain.

As September 11 commission member and former Navy Secretary John

Lehman has noted, it is truly unfortunate for the country that, despite
Mr. Clarke's personal knowledge and experience, he now lacks
credibility. I am sorry to say I agree with that assessment.

The writer is a national security fellow at Harvard University's John F.

Kennedy School of Government.

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2004/harrison_clarke_wt_040404.htm 4/7/2004