More was said by the stunned silence following Richard Clarke’s defense of his sworn After Clarke’s dramatic opening statement — Everyone has reported that Lehman, like his fellow Republican, former Illinois Gov. Jim “No one asked me what I thought about the president’s invasion of Iraq,” Clarke said. “The They say that when cross-examining a witness in court, it’s wise — imperative even — to know The hush that descended on the hearing room was unique in a day of voluble testimony from Postscript:<\/STRONG> Well, well. <\/STRONG> More was said by the stunned silence following Richard Clarke’s defense of his sworn testimony yesterday before the 9\/11 commission than all his sobering words. Yet none of the reports that I have seen in the print press or on television has captured the impact of that moment, let alone mentioned it — — except, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-9k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ntestimony yesterday before the 9\/11 commission than all his sobering words. Yet none of the
\nreports that I have seen in the print press or on television has captured the impact of that moment,
\nlet alone mentioned it — — except, of course,
\nC-SPAN3’s complete telecast<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>.<\/P>
\n
\n9\/11<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> for the failure of the U.S. government to protect them, and for
\nhis own personal failure as counterterrorism coordinator of the Bush administration — the most
\nsignificant moment came in his reply to former Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman. Clarke had
\n“a real credibility problem,” Lehman said, because his testimony differed from what he wrote in
\nhis just-published book, an angry attack on the Bushies entitled
\nHappened.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> <\/P>
\n
\nThompson, wondered whether Clarke was merely “an active partisan selling a book” during a
\npresidential campaign. Everyone has reported that Lehman wanted to know how Clarke resolved
\nthe difference between his 15 hours of private testimony and his book. And everyone has
\nreported Clarke’s explanation:<\/P>
\n
\nreason that I am strident in my criticism of the president of the United States is that by invading
\nIraq — something I was not asked by the commission — but by invading Iraq, the president of the
\nUnited States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism.”<\/P>
\n
\nin advance, or at least to anticipate, what the witness will reply to a question. Otherwise the
\nanswer could backfire. Clarke’s reponse to Lehman was the perfect demonstration. The misguided
\ninvasion of Iraq, which was the elephant in the room, had trumpeted its presence. The
\nstunned silence following his reply could not have lasted for more than 10 or 15 seconds. Yet
\nthose seconds seemed like an eternity. <\/P>
\n
\nvarious witnesses, including
\ndrama to a climax. News reports recorded the words, but not the silence. TV clips excerpted the
\nwords, but not the silence. Maybe you had to be a drama critic to appreciate it.<\/P>
\n
\nArchibold in a sidebar. He quotes Julie Talen, who watched the hearing from her Soho apartment:
\n“Did you see that moment of silence?” Talen is identified as a writer-director. Figures.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"