Condi's inside man

[sabra]

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Choosing Philip Zelikow to head the inquiry into America's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks was akin to putting the fox in charge of the hen house, writes Philip Shenon.

Richard Clarke could not believe what he was reading as he sat in his White House office. It was one of his last days on the job after almost a dozen years at the National Security Council, and this news was no retirement gift. On the afternoon of January 27, 2003, the Associated Press issued a short news report about Philip Philip Zelikow's appointment as executive director of the 9/11 commission.

"The fix is in," said Clarke. He knew and disliked Zelikow. Christ, how could anybody be so stupid? he wondered. Condi's friend?

Clarke understood that with Zelikow - Zelikow, of all people! - in charge, there was no hope that the commission would carry out an impartial investigation of the Bush Administration's bungling of terrorist threats in the months before September 11. Could anyone have a more obvious conflict of interest than Zelikow?

...

Most of the commissioners and the staff did not know until much later, but Zelikow had an important role at the White House in developing the scholarly underpinnings for the Iraq war. His 31-page "pre-emptive war" doctrine, written anonymously and at Rice's request, was released by the White House in September 2002 under George Bush's signature.

When commission staffers learned that Zelikow was the principal author, many were astounded. It was arguably his most serious conflict of interest in running the investigation. It was in his interest, they could see, to use the commission to try to bolster the Administration's arguments for war that he had helped make possible.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/condis-inside-man/2008/03/14/1205472088777.html

[Demeter]

1. I Didn't Know Condi Had Any Friends

Where does she keep them?

[bushmeister0]

3. What IS the deal with her anyway?

She's always trapsing around on the world stage in those Dominatrix boots, what's her deal? Everyone is very much into Bill's cigar antics and Elliot's call girl, but what about Condi? Does she have a boyfirend/girlfriend? Expiring minds ant to know.

[douglas9]

5. Condi's "Closest Female Friend"

Condi's "Closest Female Friend"

Yesterday on the show I had an interesting conversation with Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, whose new book is The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.

There have long been questions about Rice's sexual orientation and her personal life in general. As Kessler notes, "She has built a wall of privacy around her that is never breached." But Kessler had access to Rice's closest friends and to Rice herself, and he reveals some eyebrow-raising information that hasn't been out there before.

In the book and on the show, Kessler described how Rice's "closest male friend" is openly gay, a man by the name of Coit D. Blacker, a Stanford professor (Rice was provost at Stanford in the late 1990s for six years) and a Democrat who served in the Clinton administration. Blacker, whose partner is also mentioned, advised Al Gore's campaign in 2000, while his close friend Rice became a chief confidante to a president who has tried to make gays into second class citizens in the U.S. Constitution. But wait, it gets better.

Rice's "closest female friend" is a woman named Randy Bean (pictured here), who is unmarried and whose sexual orientation is not stated. She is described as a "liberal progressive;" she's a documentary filmmaker who works at Standford University and once worked for Bill Moyers. She and Rice and Blacker (again, who has a partner) are discussed as a "second family," a term Bean uses, also saying that, "on friends, goes narrow and deep."

http://signorile2003.blogspot.com/2007/09/condis-best-friends-yesterday-on-show-i.html

[bushmeister0]

7. But what about the Condi-W. rumors? Where there's smoke . . .

Remember this oldy but goody from June of '06?

"Rocky shoals for Bush marriage? Informed sources Inside the Beltway report that First Lady Laura Bush has established temporary residence in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC as a result of a tiff with President Bush over an extramarital relationship involving her husband. Mr. Bush’s tryst is said to involve Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is not known how long Mrs. Bush plans to remain at the Mayflower, however, her security detail has been present at the hotel during hours when the First Lady would normally be residing in the White House. While she was National Security Adviser, Rice, who has never been married, referred to George W. Bush as 'my husband' before she corrected herself and said, 'President. Bush' Rice was speaking at a dinner hosted by New York Times bureau chief Philip Taubman when she made her 'husband' remarks."


http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Just joking but ... ewww!

[bushmeister0]

2. Zelikow on the "unstated threat:' of Saddam (to Israel)

While serving on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), from 01 to 03 Zelikow made these comments at the University of Virginia on September 10 2002:

"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel. . . And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0329-11.htm

"He also suggested that the danger of biological weapons falling into the hands of the anti-Israeli Islamic Resistance Movement, known by its Arabic acronym Hamas, would threaten Israel rather than the United States, and that those weapons could have been developed to the point where they could deter Washington from attacking Hamas. 'Play out those scenarios,' he told his audience, 'and I will tell you, people have thought about that, but they are just not talking very much about it.' 'Don't look at the links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, but then ask yourself the question, "gee, is Iraq tied to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the people who are carrying out suicide bombings in Israel"? Easy question to answer; the evidence is abundant.'”

[Supersedeas]

4. like Wolfy is to Rummi, Zeli is to Condi

[katty]

6. yep, zeli another sort of 'hidden hand'