casRichard Clarke, the counter-terrorism expert who blew the whistle on how the White House willfully ignored pre-9/11 threats and that the Bush Administration was ready to invade Iraq no matter what the evidence against Hussein was, is writing a novel. And in the way of such things, the novel has been optioned.

Called The Scorpion Gate, the book is set five years in the future when Washington sons of bitches, hungry for oil (wait, he had to set this five years in the future?) instigate a global nuclear war (oh) to redraw the map of the Middle East. While it would seem to me that the job calls more for a cartographer than an ICBM, Clarke is probably bringing his 30 years of counter-terrorism expertise and a healthy dose of Tom Clancy to bear.

Sony is buying the option. The book hits stores in October.