THE USUAL SUSPECTS: Tom Clancy’s fans like to describe his macho geek-boy thrillers as prescient, citing among other things his 1994 novel “Debt of Honor,” in which a deranged pilot crashes a 747 into the Capitol. On Sept. 11, 2001, Clancy himself played up the overlap on CNN, without mentioning that the book is a ludicrous alarmist fantasy about a corporate-controlled Japan making war on America. In other words, it was less prescient than derivative: “Rising Sun,” Michael Crichton’s version of “The Japanese are coming!” had been a best seller two years before. In a telephone interview on “Charlie Rose” later on 9/11, Clancy again seemed out of the loop. As Rose’s panelists talked about Osama bin Laden and the possibility of military retaliation, Clancy jumped in petulantly. “Saying ‘Osama bin Laden,’ ” he insisted, “is like Claude Rains in ‘Casablanca’ saying, ‘Round up the usual suspects.’ He’s simply the usual suspect. But there has been no definitive information linking him to this event. Until there is, talking about him is just a waste of air.” Later on the program, as the former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger tried to answer a question, Clancy’s disembodied voice floated over the set. “Why is there a car in our driveway?” he asked, apparently forgetting he was wired for sound.

“Tom, wait till I come to you,” Rose said.

Clancy sounded baffled. “Why is there a car in our driveway?” he repeated.

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Not that any of this hurts him at the bookstore. “Locked On,” the new novel Clancy wrote with Mark Greaney, enters the hardcover fiction list this week at No. 2. This time around, the villains are a Pakistani general and a group of Islamic terrorists. He’s catching up.