Return-Path: <sentto-279987-2971-1003191543-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 15 Oct 2001 17:22:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 1213 invoked by uid 510); 16 Oct 2001 00:20:38 -0000 Received: from n16.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.66) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 16 Oct 2001 00:20:38 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-2971-1003191543-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.1.223] by n16.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 16 Oct 2001 00:20:54 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 16 Oct 2001 00:19:03 -0000 Received: (qmail 5611 invoked from network); 16 Oct 2001 00:19:03 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by 10.1.1.223 with QMQP; 16 Oct 2001 00:19:03 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta1 with SMTP; 16 Oct 2001 00:19:02 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id RAA12250 for iwar@onelist.com; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 17:19:02 -0700 Message-Id: <200110160019.RAA12250@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 17:19:02 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Pentagon.Spokeswoman.Torie.Clarke,.Learning.About.War.Firsthand] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In the Line of Fire Pentagon Spokeswoman Torie Clarke, Learning About War Firsthand By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 15, 2001; Page C01 Torie Clarke, the Pentagon's chief spokeswoman, freely admits that her previous knowledge of the military was "next to nothing." In fact, she had only started briefing the press a few days before the Sept. 11 attacks that destroyed part of her building. Now she's the key official in deciding how much information and access journalists are given in the war on terrorism -- and winning reasonably high marks in the process. But the veteran campaign strategist knows how to play hardball -- such as refusing to discuss a USA Today report last month that U.S. special forces were operating inside Afghanistan. "We're not going to get in the business of winks and nods," Clarke says. "If you say this part is correct and this part is not correct, you've produced a very clear picture of what you're doing, which is very helpful to the enemy. If we took the time to wave on or wave off everything that popped up, there would be no time in the day to do anything else." Unlike Pete Williams, her predecessor during the Gulf War, Victoria "Torie" Clarke, 42, is not a fixture on television (and agreed only reluctantly to be interviewed). She's been sending out her boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who's done 18 news conferences and 28 interviews since Sept. 11. ("He's happy to do it -- I wouldn't go so far as to say 'eager,' " Clarke says.) She also nudged Rumsfeld into a 90-minute off-the-record session with reporters while flying from Turkey to Belgium -- on a day he was visiting four continents. Clarke made a rare appearance at the podium Thursday to dispute Afghan claims that U.S. bombs had killed 160 civilians. " 'Ground truth' is hard to find," she says. Given the inherent tensions between the two sides, Clarke will never have the press singing her praises. Despite the initial deployment of 40 journalists to U.S. aircraft carriers, media types say she isn't delivering much. "I think she's fighting the good fight, but the military is really clamping down," says Time defense correspondent Mark Thompson. "She's obviously our conduit to the military, and if they go from an oil pipeline to a drinking straw, that's what comes out the other end." Says Knight Ridder bureau chief Clark Hoyt: "I appreciate the fact she says at every opportunity that the journalists she works with are sensitive to security concerns and act responsibly. She's been reasonably accessible so far, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the results we've gotten." Not that Clarke is losing much sleep over the matter. "The most fabulous thing about Torie Clarke," says Mary Matalin, Vice President Cheney's counselor, is that press criticism "bounces way off of her. She's unaffected by it. She's a naturally feisty person." Clarke had not known Rumsfeld -- she was a White House pick -- but insiders say she's been drawn into his inner circle since the crisis began. She was in the Pentagon's Command Center when the hijackers' plane struck the building -- "We felt this big thump and a boom" -- and assumed it was a bomb until Rumsfeld returned from outside and explained what had happened. Clarke initially hesitated to take the job, and Margaret Tutwiler, now ambassador to Morocco, told her that dealing with the brass would be "a real challenge." Indeed, after being confirmed in May, Clarke encountered a military culture that often distrusts journalists. "The further you get away from Vietnam, the more you have a sense that there's an advantage to working with the press," she says. "But it's the same thing in the private sector. You have 40-year-old multinational corporation CEOs who don't want to deal with the media and don't think it's important." Clarke understands that world, having served at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, as president of Bozell/Eskew advertising and, most recently, as manager of Hill & Knowlton's Washington office. The onetime Washington Star reporter and photographer got her political start as a press assistant for then-Vice President Bush in 1982. She left because Bush's "absolute number one rule was: We are here to support President Reagan. We were in the business of tamping down any interest in [Bush]." That was hardly the case when Clarke -- after stints with John McCain and the U.S. trade representative's office -- became press secretary for Bush's 1992 reelection campaign. In a losing atmosphere, says Matalin, "she kept people pumped up." She also talked herself into trouble by declaring: "There's a dearth of Republican men you'd want to date -- I call them the galoshes and C-SPAN guys." Clarke solved that problem by marrying a Democrat, Bradley Graham, now a Fannie Mae executive. The war has torn Clarke away from her three young children (she boasts of limiting her weekends to eight-hour work days). One day her husband called to say that their van had been stolen, shortly after their Chevy Chase home was burglarized. She told him to handle it: "I'm taking off for the Middle East in a few hours." Clarke returned to find that Devan, 4 1/2, had given 3-year-old Charlie a haircut so awful that they had to shave his head, military style. Conflicts with the media are likely to intensify once the ground war begins, especially if Clarke sticks to her plan to cut back to two Department of Defense briefings a week. Clarke, meanwhile, is learning to curb her tongue. Back in 1992, she cracked about Bill Clinton: "You say B-52s, here's a guy who still thinks of the rock group." Now she's dealing with real B-52s. "There's no fooling around in this job," says Clarke. "You screw up, there can be very serious consequences." Media Morsels ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE VeriSign guide to security solutions for your web site: encrypting transactions, securing intranets, and more! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UnN2wB/m5_CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 20:59:55 PST