Clarke Quote Does Not Capture His Full Views On Subject

To the editors:

The article “Clarke Blasts Bush’s Policy on Terrorism” (News, April 22) reads “The United States needs ‘prominent, articulate Islamic leaders we could look to for counterweights,’ Clarke said. ‘We have to get inside the head of the enemy.’” This quotation, taken out of context (and I’m not even sure whether Clarke actually said these two sentences consecutively as it is printed in the article, in which case it is even worse), implies that Clarke believes that all Muslims are the enemy. However, Clarke, repeatedly through his talk, emphasized how he views terrorism as a civil war of ideas within Islam between extremists on the one hand and moderates on the other—the enemy, according to Clarke, is the extremists, and the extremists only.

ROHIT GUPTA ’06

April 22, 2004