Mr. Blanchard,

So far it seems that we have established the common understanding that Mr Clarke was not heading up the effort being mounted by the US Government against international terrorists.

With regard to the "principals" meetings, on agenda and minute distribution, assuming that neither of us are in any position to state definitely how that is organised. Within the organisation I work in, although at a fairly senior specialist level, I do know that I do not receive notification or agenda for top level meetings, my immediate superior does. Likewise minutes of those meetings are not distributed outside of those who attended. Parts affecting my area of expertise are transposed into either memo's or specific instructions which are then followed. From that I may be able to deduce what was discussed in relation to my specific area, but as that is indirect, I only get specifics if changes to what is already in progress have been proposed and adopted. As you say let's wait and see what comes out of next Thursdays appearance of the NSA before the Commission.

On procedures, drafting of them and their development. I believe that in this particular instance, in terms of personnel, apart from the person at the top, i.e. the NSA, there were no changes between the outgoing Clinton administration and the in-coming Bush administration. The personnel and procedures had proved to have been successfull previously, therefore, to those engaged in the work in hand, there was no indication that anything had been screwed up by the previous bunch. In fact there was absolutely no oversight or review of the process, and nobody qualified to undertake such a review. What was done, if statements made so far are to be believed, was that the policy regarding international terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda was under review (Clinton's containment and marginalising v Bush's aim to actively seek the destruction of Al-Qaeda). Such a review would take time, such a shift in emphasis would take time to evaluate and implement. The time-frame we are talking about here is not measured in days or weeks, done thoroughly and correctly it's months.

We are discussing this subject in an open forum. If you wish me to restrict my responses specifically to what you have stated, then this becomes a private correspondence and can be continued using the PM facility offered by this site.

You state your belief that the principles upon which your country was founded have been surrendered and you think that there are other ways to deal with the changed world we have discussed. I would only be too pleased and interested in hearing about them - so far you have offered nothing, apart from suggesting the following:

"in the current case declassifying all the testimony of the principals including the emails and communications of rice and clarke to let people make up their own minds rather than being subject to political spinmeisters would be an astonishingly bold expression of faith in the american people to decide their own fates in the world."

While the above might represent, "an astonishingly bold expression of faith in the american people", it would also amount to an astonishingly generous gift to your enemies.

The transparency you seek, sounds very similar to the situation described in detail by Richard Clarke, before the 9/11 Commission, relating to the prevailing attitude within the CIA in the past, one of near-paralysis with people being almost too frightened to act, for fear of being dragged up in front of some committee or other and publically censured for doing their jobs.

In terms of formulating a "coherent strategy" in combating international terrorism and "gathering the world's power", whatever that means, your current President has not done too bad a job so far. International co-operation between intelligence and law enforcement agencies has never been better, and it is constantly being improved. You disagree, your recommendation is to change administrations and adopt a new and as yet unspecified approach.

Yes there have been more terrorist attacks since 9/11 - but where? Directed against whom? What has been their result? How many of the perpetrators have been caught? How many attempted attacks have been prevented?

The "means we are now following" has saved lives, as to an alternative approach - I await your recommendations.