Re Don Firth's post above, here's what Clarke himself said about it:

"Clarke then tells Stahl of being pressured by Mr. Bush.

"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.

"I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'

"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report."

Clarke continued, "It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

"I have no idea, to this day, if the president saw it, because after we did it again, it came to the same conclusion. And frankly, I don't think the people around the president show him memos like that. I don't think he sees memos that he doesn't-- wouldn't like the answer."

Now taking out all the opinion regarding what Mr. Clarke THOUGHT was being said you arrive at the following (Immediate aftermath of 911 remember):

BUSH: 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.'
CLARKE: 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'
BUSH: "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.'

Now considering the circumstances (which were pretty earth shaking) my take on that is that I have asked somebody to do something specific, pursue a line of enquiry that will connect or eliminate a prime suspect. That person then comes back and tells me that it has been looked into previously and can be dismissed (i.e. in as many words he is saying that he is not going to do what I have specifically requested him to do). If I thought my original request was reasonable, I would certainly come back, letting that individual know in no uncertain terms what I fully expect of him and his department. In the above exchange G. W. Bush did no more, and no less, than that.

On the final report, the report of the conversation (Clarke/Bush) that Don's got taped did not take place according to Clarke, who goes on to say that he does not even know if the President saw the final report.

But one thing I do remember was that very shortly after the attacks of 911, Colin Powell on interview clearly stated that Saddam Husein and Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with those attacks.