When Richard Clarke was a hawk, he feared that if the US pushed bin Laden too hard in Afghanistan, he would run to Saddam’s waiting embrace:

In case you don’t remember, “Boogie to Baghdad” is the phrase that Richard Clarke, when he was the top White House counterterrorism official during the Clinton administration, used to express his fear that if American forces pushed Osama bin Laden too hard at his hideout in Afghanistan, bin Laden might move to Iraq, where he could stay in the protection of Saddam Hussein.

Clarke’s opinion was based on intelligence indicating a number of contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq, including word that Saddam had offered bin Laden safe haven.

It’s all laid out in the Sept. 11 commission report. “Boogie to Baghdad” is on Page 134.

Now, given the intensity of the current debate over prewar intelligence and the role of al Qaeda and Iraq, you might think that would have attracted some notice — if only because “Boogie to Baghdad” is a nice, catchy phrase that editors would find irresistible for headlines.

But, no. A search of the LexisNexis database reveals only about a dozen instances in which the phrase has appeared. A significant number of them were in articles by me, either in this newspaper or in National Review. Most of the others were in The Weekly Standard.

I’m sure there are some Flash animators out there who could make a little shimmying Osama running to hug a grinning Saddam. Let’s get to it. We’ve made Just Google It a popular catch phrase for the pushback. We could bury Richard Clarke the same way.

Oh, and read the rest of the article. Byron York is his usual sharp self.

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