Adding to the initial buzz sparked by Richard Clarke’s book, “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” Sony Pictures recently bought the rights to make it into a film.
While Sony Pictures has yet to release details of the film, Robert Hogan, assistant professor of political science, assumes the book’s crossover into more mainstream media will allow more voters to receive Clarke’s message.
“The fact that they are thinking of making a movie about it shows it is a very interesting story,” Hogan said.
“Against All Enemies,” published a month ago, charges the Bush Administration with bypassing al-Qaida, the group responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, as a terrorist threat and infiltrating Iraq instead.
Clarke, the former counter-terrorism advisor of Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, wrote going after Saddam Hussein was part of a personal vendetta of the president.
While the movie will most likely be released after the election, Hogan feels the book will have a strong impact on the president’s reelection campaign.
“This is evidence that may contribute to the problem Bush has with credibility,” Hogan said. “It’s a damning critique of the administration.”
Clarke’s book has prompted further discussion around campus not only among professors, but students as well.
Cara Mabe, an international trade and finance junior, does not agree with Clarke’s criticisms of the Bush Administration.
“I think that Bush did what he thought was in the best interest for the U.S.,” Mabe said. “He had to attack to insure they didn’t attack first. He knew there was a good chance of them having weapons of mass destruction. There wasn’t solid proof, but enough was known to indicate al-Qaida posed a grave threat. I think he was justified.”
However, Julee La Porte, a French freshman, believes Clarke makes some valid points.
“I never believed in the weapons of mass destruction scare,” La Porte said. “Whatever his real motives were, he didn’t outright inform the U.S.”
On the campaign trail, Clarke’s book will not go unnoticed.
Hogan believes Clarke used strategic planning by releasing his book during the race to the White House.
“Clarke knew how to push the right buttons,” Hogan said, “and the administration was thrown into a tail spin with his book coming out and his testimony before the 9/11 commission.”
In Washington, Clarke’s book has had its impact on the legislators, including Louisiana’s own representatives.
U.S. Representative Richard Baker believes the book will not slow Bush’s momentum toward reelection.
“While I have not read the book in its entirety,” Baker admits, “I think I’ve seen enough excerpts to conclude that it falls into a long and dishonorable tradition of Washington ‘insider’ accounts that could all have the same self-aggrandizing title of ‘If They Only Listened to Me.'”
Baker deems Clarke’s decision to release his book during a crucial part of the election year as “despicable, especially while we’re still engaged in a time of war against the terrorists.”
Ken Johnson, press secretary for another Louisiana legislator, Congressman Billy Tauzin, stated, “Tauzin knows Bush personally and he will take his word over Clarke’s any day.”
Regardless of how the movie, or book, will affect the 2004 election, Clarke took a major risk releasing his book.
“He was a credible voice that brought many things to light that the administration didn’t want exposed,” Hogan said.
La Porte agrees Clarke took a chance with his public image with his book.
“I don’t think he purposely threw his career away for this,” La Porte said. “If he thinks Bush shouldn’t be reelected, then he is standing by what he believes.”
However, Mabe has an altogether different opinion.
“I think he should shut up,” Mabe said.