Contradiction?

From The Hill:

Richard Clarke, who served as President Bush’s chief of counterterrorism, has claimed sole responsibility for approving flights of Saudi Arabian citizens, including members of Osama bin Laden’s family, from the United States immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

There's all kinds of talk now, this morning, that since CLarke has seemingly changed his story, that he's lost credibility. Well, in his book he'd written that he was the one who authorized the flights, after clearance from the FBI, so no, that's not the case.

The question we all need to be asking is not who authorized the flights; CLarke did, he said as much from the get go. What we need to know is who initiated the request in the first place. We know from Clarke's testimony that it came from "the Saudi Embassy," but what was the channel in that landed the request on Clarke's desk in those chaotic days?

Obviously, what we're seeing now is an effort to guide the press: "no...really...ask him...ask him again who approved the flights....you'll seee...it's all CYA on his part..." Well, no. Clarke is simply responding as he'd originally stated. The misdirection is obvious. As they say, there is no "there" there.