Dick Clarke was the counterterrorism czar at the National Security Council in the run-up to September 11, 2001. Per John Kiriakou he was “a Clinton holdover, and the Bush people just kind of sidelined him and didn’t pay any attention to him. They’re like, ‘Ah, this gay guy yelling about terrorism. China — China is the threat.’”[1]
Kiriakou: “I remember that coming from the Bush people from the get-go. It was about China. Like, ‘You agency people, you’re all obsessed with these semi-literate Arabs. It’s China that’s going to be our problem.’”[1][2]