LA PRÓXIMA VEZ QUE RICHARD CLARKE venga a presentar algún libro -como hizo recientemente con su Contra todos los enemigos- para decir lo mal que lo hizo Bush para evitar el 11-S en sus ocho meses de mandato por contraposición a los maravillosos ocho años de Clinton en que por lo visto se detuvo a Osama varias veces (y siendo el propio Clarke el máximo responsable anti-terrorista en la Casa Blanca con ambos presidentes, que tiene narices la cosa), igual le podemos preguntar por esto:

U.S. and Taliban officials met secretly in Frankfurt almost a year before the Sept. 11 attacks to discuss terms for Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin Laden, according to a German television documentary.

But no agreement was reached and no further negotiations took place before the suicide hijackings in 2001.

ZDF television quoted Kabir Mohabbat, an Afghan-American businessman, as saying he tried to broker a deal between the Americans and the purist Islamic Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, who were sheltering bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

He quoted the Taliban foreign minister, Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil, as saying: "You can have him whenever the Americans are ready. Name us a country and we will extradite him."

A German member of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok, confirmed to Reuters that he had helped Mohabbat in 1999 to establish initial contact with the Americans.

"I was told (by Mohabbat) that the Taliban had certain ideas about handing over bin Laden, not to the United States but to a third country or to the Court of Justice in The Hague," Brok said.

"The message was: 'There is willingness to talk about handing over bin Laden', and the aim of the Taliban was clearly to win the recognition of the American government and the lifting of the boycott," he said, referring to the international isolation of the Taliban.

Lo que se suma a la oferta previa de Sudán a los EEUU para entregarle la cabeza de bin Laden en una bandeja y que la administración Clinton, de la que Clarke formaba parte destacada, también rechazó.

De momento todos los errores que se hayan podido cometer durante los diferentes inquilinatos de la Casa Blanca a la hora de evitar la salvajada del 11 de Septiembre tienen un denominador claro, y se llama Richard Clarke. Naturalmente, ha escrito un libro autoexculpatorio que por nuestros lares ha sido acogido de forma entusiasta y acrítica. Como todo lo que sea crítico con el señor Bú, faltaría más.