The NYCLU's lawsuit against the city over the subway bag checks gets a little bit of controversial national figure action with the deposition of Richard Clarke, aka the pre-Homeland Security days terrorism adviserr under Presidents Clinton and Bush who claimed that the Bush administration was lazy and didn't do enough to prevent the September 11 attacks. Clarke thinks the bag searches are a great idea, but that may be because the NYPD consulted with Clarke about the subway bag searches in the first place. In his deposition, Clarke emphasized that terrorists conduct dry runs of attacka dn said, "Obviously you want to catch people with bombs on their back, but there is a value to a program that doesn't stop everyone and isn't compulsory...The goal here is to impart to the terrorists a sense that there is an enhanced security program, to deter them from going into the New York subway and choosing that as a target." Of course, Clarke could have come to NYC to testify in the lawsuti himself, but the NY Times says that Clarke was too busy promoting his novel, hence the deposition. It's so good to know that our safety comes after your novel, Mr. Clarke!