PW calls The Commission by Philip Shenon the "uncensored" history of the 9/11 Commission. Shenon tells a riveting story, and one of his many important characters is Richard A. Clarke, who worked for both Clinton and Bush on anti-terrorism issues.

Clarke is also the author of Against All Enemies—published on March 22, 2004, just two days before he testified before the 9/11 Commission—and one of the backstories in The Commission was how the 9/11 Commission got a copy of the book, which was embargoed at the time by the Free Press. Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the Commission, "went ballistic," according to one source, when he heard about the impending publication of Clarke’s book. Zelikow, a close associate of both Condoleezza Rice and Karl Rove—Rice later gave him a job at the State Department—was worried about what was in Clarke’s book and how it would reflect on the White House.

The Free Press agreed to let the Commission see a copy of Against All Enemies—with several conditions, one of which was that Clarke "wanted it in writing that Zelikow wouldn’t read it."

Clarke, whose new book, Your Government Failed You, will be published by Ecco/HarperCollins this June (it, too, will be embargoed), agreed to answer several questions via email about The Commission and his new book for PW.

Have you read Chapter 40 in The Commission about your embargoed book, Against All Enemies, and how the 9/11 Commissioned got to see an embargoed copy?

Yes, I read it on a flight back from California this weekend.

Is that portrayal fair?

As far as the facts I know, it’s accurate.

You are quoted as saying “I wanted it in writing that Zelikow wouldn’t read it.” If that quote is accurate, why were you so wary of Zelikow?

That is true. I knew Phil and believed he would immediately pass the book to his friend, Condi Rice. That would give her and Rove time to develop an offensive to smear and discredit me, spreading lies and distortions. They did that later, but I wanted an element of surprise so that there would be a window in time when my story could get out without being distorted by their fabrications.

Were you surprised by the White House’s harsh reaction [he was attacked by Dick Cheney for holding a “grudge” and for not being “in the loop,” called a racist by Robert Novak because of what he said about Rice, and conservative commentator Laura Ingraham called his sexual identity into question by asking why “this single man” was such a “drama queen”] to Against All Enemies?

Not in the least.

What’s your response to Condoleezza Rice’s quote: “Dick Clarke just does not know what he’s talking about.”

White House officials, including Rice, scrambled for days in an uncoordinated manner trying to figure out what to say. It’s hard to debunk the truth and they didn’t do a very good job of it.

What is your opinion of The Commission?

I think Shenon did a remarkable job of bringing what could have been a dry topic to life, making it a fascinating read and a real insight into the Bush White House and its amoral attitude toward governing.

What do you think of the innuendoes about Rove, Rice and Zelikow?

Not sure which ones you mean, but I think Rove is a highly intelligent tactician who would stop at nothing to promote his cause, which happened then to be George W. Bush. Rove had no sense of morality, proportionality, or decency. It’s his kind that erodes a democracy by manipulating it to their own ends, not those of the nation or the people.

Do you think Shenon did a fair portrayal of you?

One can always quibble, but I won’t.

Can you tell me anything about your new book, Your Government Failed You?

It’s the sequel to Against All Enemies. When I said “Your government failed you” to the families of the victims of 9/11, I thought that failure was unique and that such failures would stop. They didn’t. Iraq happened. Katrina happened. And we cannot blame these and other failures only on Bush or Cheney. The system didn’t work either. The system of government was supposed to stop these kinds of mistakes from happening, but it failed over and over again. Why? So in YGFY I look at the reasons we keep having national security disasters and propose some ideas about addressing them. Think of it as why the superpower doesn’t work well.

Is there anything you want to add?

Just as the others in the Bush administration failed to apologize for their personal failures that lead to 9/11, so too, they and their commentator support cult overlook that, in the end, what happened was that people died and left children, spouses, parents and loved ones. Now, we have a whole new group of them. The families of the dead, American and Iraqi, from the war. We also have the living wounded and those who have to take care of them. It’s not about “policy,” it’s about people. When governments fail, people die. That’s what we have to always keep in the front of our minds.