Don Nickles: “last night I observed, as I am sure many Americans did, Richard Clarke's statement on the program ``60 Minutes'' where…”

“last night I observed, as I am sure many Americans did, Richard Clarke's statement on the program ``60 Minutes'' where he made some very strong allegations concerning President Bush and his lack of effort on the war on terrorism. I was struck by his tone, by his statements, and also by the lack of questions concerning what he had done the previous years. I believe Mr. Clarke was appointed in May of 1998 by President Clinton as the first National Coordinator for Security Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. That is a very long title, but many people say ``counterterrorism czar.'' He was the person to combat terrorism. That is a very prestigious position, a very important position. Looking at the events that occurred in 1998 and also in 2000, I wonder what we were doing. I kept waiting for the questioner to ask him: Why didn't we do more? On August 7, 1998, terrorists bombed the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Madam President, 212 people were killed on August 7, 1998, and over 4,000 people were injured in Nairobi. Eleven people were killed and 72 people were wounded in Tanzania. It was a very deadly day. Two U.S. embassies--that happens to be U.S. soil--a lot of people are not aware of that but our embassies are U.S. soil. Those are U.S. buildings, those were U.S. employees, some U.S. citizens--almost all U.S. employees. Africans were killed. What was our response?…”