Salon/Conason: The Artful Dodger

[kskiska]

In her testimony Condi Rice proved adept at avoiding the real questions about 9/11. But her act is wearing thin.

The public testimony of Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 commission had a strategy and a structure, to use terms that she favors. The obvious strategy was to swathe every answer to a challenging question from the commissioners in "context" that did more to obfuscate than clarify. The underlying structure of her statements shifted responsibility away from the Bush White House, in any direction possible: toward previous administrations, the FBI, the CIA and, as subtly as possible, toward former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke.

Rice was nothing if not repetitive in her response to the main issue before the commission and the country. Like the president himself, she assured us again and again that if only al-Qaida had revealed the date, timing, location and methods to be used in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the White House would surely have done everything in its power to thwart the threat. That, of course, is the answer to a question nobody has bothered to ask.

(snip)

Until Rice answered a sharp question from commissioner Richard Ben Veniste, most Americans probably didn't know that weeks before Sept. 11, the president had been given a CIA memorandum with the ominous title "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." The national security advisor insisted that this "historical analysis" of al-Qaida did not provide "new threat information." But her dismissal of the controversial document undermined her own argument for keeping it classified. If the Aug. 6 PDB was merely of historical interest, why not prove her point by allowing the memo to be published in full?

Commissioner Bob Kerrey later provided another tantalizing glimpse of the PDB's contents that demonstrated why the White House wants to keep it secret. "In the spirit of further declassification," said Kerrey, "this is what the Aug. 6 memo said to the president: that the FBI indicates patterns of suspicious activity in the United States consistent with preparations for hijacking. That's the language of the memo that was briefed to the president on the sixth of August."

more…
http://salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/04/09/condi_911/index.html

[David Dunham]

1. Excellent article

[amber dog democrat]

2. Lets see where this leads.

For all the damage control she tries to do, the widening fissure of a credibility gap won't stop further inquirey. This thing happened on their watch. They are accountable no matter what.

[Daisey Mae]

3. After watching Condi this a.m.......

I think that Joe Conason gives a good description of the evasiveness of this administration weasel....lies lies lies

[shoopnyc123]

4. I can never get a day pass for Salon...

...my cookies are on, I have all the plug in's, it's awful! Help! I love Joe Conason! (Or, if you don't mind, could you post the whole article here?)