richard clarke was one of those people who was in the administration and in his book, he stated he was trying to get that information to push the administration and said that he was not being heard. can you share any information you had or that you know now post-9/11 of how things could be handled differently? >> i would recommend the 9/11 commission report. they did an outstanding job of tracking down the information and piecing together information, some of which i did not go. i was brought in after 9/11 so i did not have those insects. -- insights. the 9/11 commission report is an outstanding historical monograph of what happened and some of the background. there have been a number of other good books in addition to richard clarke that i would also recommend. i don't have any personal knowledge of 9/11 prior to that. >> another question? >> it is well known that israel has an extremely effective deterrent program. should one travels b toen gurion airport, there is a screening that takes place that is distinctly different from what we experience in this country. have you investigated

about nine eleven or the tenth anniversary of the nine eleven attacks just around the corner richard clarke the former white house counterterrorism czar under both presidents bill clinton and george w. bush unveiled some shocking allegations about the cia soon to be released radio documentary clarke alleges that the bush administration's cia and. the leadership george tenet purposefully withheld information about the nine eleven hijackers from both the white house and from the white house both before and after the terrorist attacks clarke claims the cia not only knew the were about seven to nine eleven hijackers but actually tried to recruit them prior to the attacks and kept the white house in the dark about it after the recruitment efforts failed but this bombshell contradicts what clarke said in two thousand and four about george tenet and the cia. george tenet was saying to the white house saying to the president as he briefed him every morning a major elec fact is going to happen against the united states somewhere in the world in the weeks and months ahead he said that in june july au

there's been a number of other good books written other than richard clark. i don't have personal knowledge prior to 9/11 on that. >> another question. there? >> bob spindel, spindel media replaces in new york. should one travel to the airport out of country, there's a screening that takes place that is distinctly different than that we experience in the country. have you investigated any of those particular best practices and have you any comment in that regard? >> we r yes, we have had a number of discussions with the israeli authorities. and they have a lot of things to be commended. there's obviously things they do that go beyond what we are allows to do here, in terms of profiling and focusing on certain groups of people based on ethnicity or religion. but there's a lot of things in terms of engagement with passengers that we -- that i believe are good tools and we are actually doing something at boston logan right now that is based not only on israeli model, but other aviation practices around the world that involve more passenger engagement. it's more

there are other books in addition to richard clarke's that i would recommend. i don't have any personal knowledge on that. >> spindell media relations, new york city. it is well known that israel as an extremely effective deterrent program. should one travel to ben-gurion airport, for example, there is a screening which takes place that is distinctly different from what we experience in this country. have you investigated any of those particular best practices, and have you any, in that regard? >> yes, we have had a number of discussions with the israeli authorities, and they have a lot of things to be commended. there is obviously things they do that go beyond what we are allowed to do here in terms of profiling and focusing on certain groups of people. ethnicity or religion -- we obviously don't do that. but there are a lot of things in terms of engagement with passengers that i believe are good tools. we are actually doing something at boston logan right now that is based not only on the israeli model but on other aviation authorities around the world, best

richard clark, who is the former healed of intelligence and cyber security in the u.s., thinks we shouldtrace the attack back and we sent malware down the pike and blow up their servers. >> is there neglect wrong with that, by the way, dan? >> a lot of other people think that would be pretty nuts, right? that it would be foolish to do that. that we would just risk escalating the whole thing and these attacks are so hard to attribute that it's very hard to say with 100% certainty who did it. that's what makes this stuff so sneaky and so difficult and so hard to trace down. it's very hard to pin down with certainty who is doing this. >> it is a fascinating article. it's in "daily beast" and "newsweek." thank you for writing it and coming on us w us. >> you're welcome, alex. >>> we have yet to hear from the white house about the s&p credit rating downgrade, but we'll have more on the potential impact this downgrade may have on the economy and the battle for the white house as well as your wallets. stay with us because you're watching msnbc saturday. discover customersl are getting five perc

richard clarke being one of the people who was in the administration and in his book, "against all enemies," states that he was trying to get that information to the bush administration. and, basically, said, to paraphrase his book, that he wasn't being heard. and can you share any information that you had or that you know now post-9/11 of how things could have been handled differently? >> yeah. i think what i would do is recommend the 9/11 commission report that the 9/11 commission did. they did an outstanding job of tracking down information, um, and piecing together information that, frankly, some of which i didn't know. i was not working in counterterrorism before 9/11, i was brought in afterwards, so i didn't have those insights in terms of what richard clarke was or was not saying prior to 9/11. but the 9/11 commission report is an outstanding report historical monograph, if you will, of what did happen and some of the background. there's been a number of other good books in addition to richard clarke's written that i would also recommend but, no, i don't have any personal knowledge

warned by national security professionals like richard clarke and others and ignored t.supposed to chairrce on terrorism and he did nothing. he was warned by his own treasury secretary paul o'neill the policies he was putting in place would explode the deficit and he said, and i quote, deficits don't matter and he helped mislead us into the war in iraq. said we would be greeted at liberators and gave credence to the myth that saddam was involved in 9/11 and says that saddam has constituted nuclear weapons, all that have false, so i'm asking my followers on twitter where i'm at was dick cheney the worst vice president in history or just maybe the second or third? >> matter, go ahead and respond. no, i'm not responding. that is to colin powell is watching, that's a cheap shot. there's not one correct, factually correct statement in that litany so i quit listening. paul, i love you, you're my friend. i'm embarrassed for you, been i'm going to send you a free autographed copy of the book, and then you have a conversation. >> and i want to -- we don't have time now, guys, but i want to contin