Rice: "I knew plenty about Al Qaeda when Richard Clark first brought up the topic with me in 2000. The problem was that he didn't have a clue how to pronounce it, so I didn't understand him right away."Condoleezza Rice has gone on the offensive to clear up some misunderstandings the evening before she is due to testify to the 9/11 Commission. Her claim is that she had known about Al Qaeda even before her 2000 meeting with Richard Clark, while he couldn't even pronounce the name of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization correctly.
"What Richard Clark failed to remember when he was writing his book, is that after he mentioned Al Qaeda to me, I paused a couple seconds, then asked him 'Do you mean Al Qaeda?' enunciating and pronouncing it correctly. Clarke had pronounced it like 'el kweeday'."
In his book, Richard Clark only said that "As I briefed Rice on Al Qaeda, her facial expression gave me the impression that she had never heard of the term before."
The Bush administration's approval rating has, according to some polls, suffered somewhat because of the controversy stirred up by Clarke's book. Many political scientists feel, however, that the administration is more than capable of handling the issue carefully and will quickly regain any lost percentage points.
