text:
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"Saddam does not control the northern part of the country. We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
[Mirror, 9/22/2003]
"A decision has been made [about attacking Iraq]. Don't waste your breath."
[Mirror, 9/22/2003]
"We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. We do know that there have been shipments going into Iran, for instance—into Iraq, for instance, of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to—high-quality aluminum tools that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs. We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought, maybe six months from a crude nuclear device. The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't what the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
[CNN, 9/8/2002; CNN, 9/8/2002; US Department of State, 9/8/2002; Daily Telegraph, 9/9/2002; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"[Saddam Hussein]clearly has links to terrorism…—Links to terrorism [that] would include al-Qaeda…."
[Fox News, 9/15/2002; CNN, 9/26/2002; Islam Online, 9/15/2002; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"We have to have a zero-tolerance view of the Iraqi regime this time. The next material breach by Saddam Hussein has got to have serious consequences. I think it's pretty clear what that may mean."
[Chicago Tribune, 11/11/2002]
Iraq failed "to account for or explain Iraq's efforts to get uranium from abroad" in its December 2002 declaration to the UN. [New York Times, 1/23/2003]
"There is no question in my mind about the al-Qaeda connection. It is a connection that has unfolded, that we're learning more about as we are able to take the testimony of detainees, people who were high up in the al-Qaeda organization. And what emerges is a picture of a Saddam Hussein who became impressed with what al-Qaeda did after it bombed our embassies in 1998 in Kenya and Tanzania, began to give them assistance in chemical and biological weapons, something that they were having trouble achieving on their own, that harbored a terrorist network under this man Zarqawi, despite the fact that Saddam Hussein was told that Zarqawi was there."
[CNN, 2/5/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"Well, we are, of course, continually learning more about these links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and there is evidence that Secretary Powell did not have the time to talk about. But the core of the story is there in what Secretary Powell talked about. This poisons network with at least two dozen of its operatives operating in Baghdad, a man who is spreading poisons now throughout Europe and into Russia, a man who got medical care in Baghdad despite the fact that the Iraqis were asked to turn him over, training in biological and chemical weapons."
[Fox News Sunday, 2/16/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"Now the al-Qaida is an organization that's quite disbursed and—and quite widespread in its effects, but it clearly has had links to the Iraqis, not to mention Iraqi links to all kinds of other terrorists. And what we do not want is the day when Saddam Hussein decides that he's had enough of dealing with sanctions, enough of dealing with, quote, unquote, 'containment,' enough of dealing with America, and it's time to end it on his terms, by transferring one of these weapons, just a little vial of something, to a terrorist for blackmail or for worse."
[Face the Nation, 3/9/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"We will leave Iraq completely in the hands of Iraqis as quickly as possible."
[White House, 4/4/2003]
"We have found, in Iraq, biological weapons laboratories that look precisely like what Secretary Powell described in his February 5 report to the United Nations."
[White House, 5/28/2003; US Department of State, 5/28/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"But let's remember what we've already found. Secretary Powell on February 5 talked about a mobile, biological weapons capability. That has now been found and this is a weapons laboratory trailers capable of making a lot of agent that—dry agent, dry biological agent that can kill a lot of people. So we are finding these pieces that were described.… We know that these trailers look exactly like what was described to us by multiple sources as the capabilities for building or for making biological agents. We know that we have from multiple sources who told us that then and sources who have confirmed it now. Now the Iraqis were not stupid about this. They were able to conceal a lot. They've been able to scrub things down. But I think when the whole picture comes out, we will see that this was an active program."
[CNBC, 6/3/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"The president quoted a British paper. We did not know at the time—no one knew at the time, in our circles—maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery."
[Washington Post, 6/13/2003; Knight Ridder, 6/13/2003]
"The intelligence community did not know at that time or at levels that got to us that this, that there was serious questions about this report [October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate]."
[Washington Post, 7/26/2003; This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 6/8/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"[I]f the CIA, the director of central intelligence, had said, 'Take this out of the speech,' it would have been gone, without question. What we've said subsequently is, knowing what we now know, that some of the Niger documents were apparently forged, we wouldn't have put this in the president's speech - but that's knowing what we know now…. If there were doubts about the underlying intelligence, those doubts were not communicated to the president, to the vice president or to me."
[White House, 7/11/2003; New York Times, 7/12/2003]
"My only point is that, in retrospect, knowing that some of the documents underneath may have been—were, indeed, forgeries, and knowing that apparently there were concerns swirling around about this, had we known that at the time, we would not have put it in.…And had there been even a peep that the agency did not want that sentence in or that George Tenet did not want that sentence in, that the director of Central Intelligence did not want it in, it would have been gone."
[US President, 8/4/2003; Washington Post, 7/26/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"[Saddam Hussein] had…an active procurement network to procure items, many of which, by the way, were on the prohibited list of the nuclear suppliers group. There's a reason that they were on the prohibited list of the nuclear supplies group: Magnets, balancing machines, yes, aluminum tubes, about which the consensus view was that they were suitable for use in centrifuges to spin material for nuclear weapons."
[Iraq Watch, 7/30/2003; US President, 8/4/2003; NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 7/30/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"Going into the war against Iraq, we had very strong intelligence. I've been in this business for 20 years. And some of the strongest intelligence cases that I've seen, key judgments by our intelligence community that Saddam Hussein… had biological and chemical weapons…."
[ZDF German Television, 7/31/2003; ZDF German Television, 7/31/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"[W]e know that there was training of al-Qaeda in chemical and perhaps biological warfare. We know that the Zarqawi was network out of there, this poisons network that was trying to spread poisons throughout…. And there was an Ansar al-Islam, which appears also to try to be operating in Iraq. So yes, the al-Qaeda link was there."
[Fox News Sunday, 9/7/2003; Global Views, 9/26/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
"Saddam Hussein—no one has said that there is evidence that Saddam Hussein directed or controlled 9/11, but let's be very clear, he had ties to al-Qaeda, he had al-Qaeda operatives who had operated out of Baghdad."
[MSNBC, 9/28/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
Frank Koza, chief of staff in the "Regional Targets" section of the National Security Agency, issues a secret memo to senior NSA officials that orders staff to conduct aggressive, covert surveillance against several United Nations Security Council members. This surveillance, which has the potential to wreak havoc on US relations with its fellow nations, is reportedly ordered by George W. Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. Koza, whose section spies on countries considered strategically important to US interests, is trying to compile information on certain Security Council members in order to help the United States to win an upcoming UN resolution vote on whether to support military action against Iraq (see February 24, 2003. Targeted Nations Include 'Middle Six' - The targeted members are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea, and Pakistan, who together make up the so-called "Middle Six." These six nations are officially "on the fence," and their votes are being aggressively courted by both the pro-war faction, led by the US and Britain, and the anti-war faction, led by France, Russia and China (see Mid-February 2003-March 2003. [Observer, 3/2/2003] Bulgaria is another nation targeted, and that operation will apparently be successful, because within days Bulgaria joined the US in supporting the Iraq war resolution. Mexico, another fence-straddler, is not targeted, but that may be because, in journalist Martin Bright's words, "the Americans had other means of twisting the arms of the Mexicans." (Bright is one of the authors of the original news report.) The surveillance program will backfire with at least one country, Chile, who has its own history of being victimized by US "dirty tricks" and CIA-led coups. Chile is almost certain to oppose the US resolution. [Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/6/2003] It is also likely, some experts believe, that China is an ultimate target of the spy operation, since the junior translater who will leak the Koza memo in February, Katharine Gun, is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and is unlikely to have seen the memo unless she would have been involved in translating it into that language. [AlterNet, 2/18/2004] Operation Ruined US Chances of Winning Vote - Later assessment shows that many experts believe the spying operation scuttled any chance the US had of winning the UN vote, as well as the last-ditch attempt by the UN to find a compromise that would avert a US-British invasion of Iraq. [Observer, 2/15/2004] Chile 'Surprised' to be Targeted - Chile's ambassador to Britain, Mariano Fernandez, will say after learning of the NSA surveillance, "We cannot understand why the United States was spying on Chile. We were very surprised. Relations have been good with America since the time of George Bush, Sr." [Observer, 3/9/2003] Mexico Suspected Spying - Mexico's UN representative, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, will tell the Observer a year later that he and other UN delegates believed at the time that they were being spied upon by the US during their meetings. "The surprising thing was the very rapid flow of information to the US quarters," he will recall. "It was very obvious to the countries involved in the discussion on Iraq that we were being observed and that our communications were probably being tapped. The information was being gathered to benefit the United States." [Observer, 2/15/2004] Memo Comes Before Powell's UN Presentation - The memo comes just five days before Colin Powell's extraordinary presentation to the UN to build a case for war against Iraq (see [complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_442]]), and is evidence of the US's plans to do everything possible to influence the UN to vote to authorize war with that nation. The memo says the eavesdropping push "will probably peak" after Powell's speech. [Baltimore Sun, 3/4/2003] NSA Wants Details of Voting Plans, More - The NSA wants information about how these countries' delegations "will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also 'policies', 'negotiating positions', 'alliances' and 'dependencies'—the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to US goals or to head off surprises." [Observer, 3/2/2003] Bright will tell other reporters on March 9, "It's quite clear what they were going for was not only the voting patterns and the voting plans and the negotiations with other interested parties such as the French or the Chinese, it wasn't just the bare bones, it was also the office telephone communications and email communications and also what are described as 'domestic coms', which is the home telephones of people working within the UN. This can only mean that they were looking for personal information. That is, information which could be used against those delagates. It's even clear from the memo that this was an aggressive operation. It wasn't simply a neutral surveillance operation." According to Bright's sources, the orders for the program came "from a level at least as high as Condoleezza Rice, who is the President's National Security Adviser." [Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/6/2003] 'Surge' of Covert Intelligence Gathering - Koza advises his fellow NSA officials that the agency is "mounting a surge" aimed at gaining covert information that will help the US in its negotiations. This information will be used for the US's so-called Quick Response Capability (QRC), "against" the six delegations. In the memo, Koza writes that the staff should also monitor "existing non-UN Security Council Member UN-related and domestic comms [office and home telephones] for anything useful related to Security Council deliberations," suggesting that not only are the delegates to be monitored in their UN offices, but at their homes as well. Koza's memo is copied to senior officials at an unnamed foreign intelligence agency (later revealed to be Britain). Koza addresses those officials: "We'd appreciate your support in getting the word to your analysts who might have similar more indirect access to valuable information from accesses in your product lines [intelligence sources].…I suspect that you'll be hearing more along these lines in formal channels." The surveillance is part of a comprehensive attempt by the US to influence other nations to vote to authorize a war against Iraq; these US attempts include proffers of economic and military aid, and threats that existing aid packages will be withdrawn. A European intelligence source says, The Americans are being very purposeful about this." [National Security Agency, 1/31/2003; Observer, 3/2/2003; Observer, 2/8/2004] US Media Ignores Operation - While the European and other regional media have produced intensive coverage of the news of the NSA's wiretapping of the UN, the American media virtually ignores the story until 2004, when Gun's court case is scheduled to commence (see February 26, 2004). Bright, in an interview with an Australian news outlet, says on March 6 that "[i]t's as well not to get too paranoid about these things and too conspiratorial," he was scheduled for interviews by three major US television news outlets, NBC, Fox News, and CNN, who all "appeared very excited about the story to the extent of sending cars to my house to get me into the studio, and at the last minute, were told by their American desks to drop the story. I think they've got some questions to answer too." [Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/6/2003] Most US print media outlets fail to cover the story, either. The New York Times, the self-described newspaper of record for the US, do not cover the story whatsoever. The Times's deputy foreign editor, Alison Smale, says on March 5, "Well, it's not that we haven't been interested, [but] we could get no confirmation or comment" on the memo from US officials. "We would normally expect to do our own intelligence reporting." The Washington Post publishes a single story about the operation, focusing on the idea that surveillance at the UN is business as usual. The Los Angeles Times fixes on claims by unnamed "former top intelligence officials" believe Koza's memo is a forgery. (When the memo is proven to be authentic, both the Post and the Los Angeles Times refuse to print anything further on the story.) Author Norman Solomon writes, "In contrast to the courage of the lone woman who leaked the NSA memo—and in contrast to the journalistic vigor of the Observer team that exposed it—the most powerful US news outlets gave the revelation the media equivalent of a yawn. Top officials of the Bush administration, no doubt relieved at the lack of US media concern about the NSA's illicit spying, must have been very encouraged." [ZNet, 12/28/2005] UN to Launch Inquiry - The United Nations will launch its own inquiry into the NSA surveillance operation (see March 9, 2003).
Entity Tags: United Nations Security Council, Washington Post, NBC, New York Times, Martin Bright, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, Alison Smale, Britain Mariano Fernández, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Fox News, Colin Powell, National Security Agency, Frank Koza
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair meet at the White House to discuss Iraq. Also present at the meeting are Blair's foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning; his aid Matthew Rycoft; his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell; US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Dan Fried; and Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card. [Sands, 2005; Independent, 2/2/2006; Channel 4 News (London), 2/2/2006; New York Times, 3/27/2006] Bush Says US Going to War with or without UN Resolution - Blair presses Bush to seek a second UN resolution that would provide specific legal backing for the use of force against Iraq. According to the minutes of the meeting, Bush says that "the diplomatic strategy [has] to be arranged around the military planning" and that the "US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would 'twist arms' and 'even threaten.'" But if such efforts fail, Bush is recorded saying, "military action would follow anyway." Bush also tells Blair that he hopes to commence military action on March 10. Blair does not demur and offers Britain's total support for the war, saying that he is "solidly with the president and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam." Notwithstanding, he insists that "a second Security Council resolution would provide an insurance policy against the unexpected, and international cover, including with the Arabs." According to Bush, the question that needs to be addressed is what should they cite as evidence that Iraq is in breach of its obligations under UN Resolution 1441 (see November 8, 2002). The minutes of the meeting will indicate that there is concern that inspections have failed to provide sufficient evidence of a material breach. Suggested Provocation of Iraq - "The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colors," the minutes report. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach." [Sands, 2005; Channel 4 News (London), 2/2/2006; MSNBC, 2/2/2006; Guardian, 2/3/2006; New York Times, 3/27/2006] The Times of London later notes that this proposal "would have made sense only if the spy plane was ordered to fly at an altitude within range of Iraqi missiles." In this case, the plane would be far below the 90,000 foot altitude it is capable of operating at. [London Times, 2/2/2006; Channel 4 News (London), 2/2/2006] Bush Suggests Use of Defector - In addition to the U2 idea, Bush says it is "possible that a defector could be brought out who would give a public presentation about Saddam's WMD, and there was also a small possibility that Saddam would be assassinated." At one point during the two-hour meeting, Bush says he thinks "it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." [Sands, 2005; New York Times, 3/27/2006] Author Phillippe Sands will later ask, "Why would the US president and the British prime minister spend any time concocting ways of proposing a material breach if they knew they could prove Saddam had weapons of mass destruction?" [Rich, 2006, pp. 190]
Entity Tags: David Manning, George W. Bush, Jonathan Powell, Daniel Fried, Tony Blair, Andrew Card, Condoleezza Rice, Phillippe Sands, Matthew Rycroft
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, Events Leading to Iraq Invasion
On February 1, Secretary of State Colin Powell begins rehearsing for his February 5 presentation to the UN Security Council (see February 5, 2003). Powell is assisted by members of his staff, including his chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (see January 30-February 4, 2003). [US News and World Report, 6/9/2003; Bamford, 2004, pp. 368-9; Gentlemen's Quarterly, 4/29/2004] Discredited Items Keep Reappearing - One item that keeps reoccurring is the discredited claim that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met with Iraqi officials in Prague (see September 14, 2001 and September 18, 2001). Cheney's people keep attempting to insert it into the presentation. It takes Powell's personal intervention to have the claim removed from the presentation. "He was trying to get rid of everything that didn't have a credible intelligence community-based source," Wilkerson will later recall. But even after Powell's decision, Cheney loyalist Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, tries to have it reinserted. "They were just relentless," Wilkerson will recall. "You would take it out and they would stick it back in. That was their favorite bureaucratic technique—ruthless relentlessness." An official (probably Wilkerson) later adds: "We cut it and somehow it got back in. And the secretary said, 'I thought I cut this?' And Steve Hadley looked around and said, 'My fault, Mr. Secretary, I put it back in.' 'Well, cut it, permanently!' yelled Powell. It was all cartoon. The specious connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, much of which I subsequently found came probably from the INC and from their sources, defectors and so forth, [regarding the] training in Iraq for terrorists.… No question in my mind that some of the sources that we were using were probably Israeli intelligence. That was one thing that was rarely revealed to us—if it was a foreign source." Powell becomes so angry at the machinations that he throws the dossier into the air and snaps: "This is bullsh_t. I'm not doing this." But he continues working on the presentation. [US News and World Report, 6/9/2003; Bamford, 2004, pp. 370-1; Vanity Fair, 5/2004, pp. 230; Unger, 2007, pp. 278-279] The same official will add that every time Powell balks at using a particular item, he is "fought by the vice president's office in the person of Scooter Libby, by the National Security Adviser [Condoleezza Rice] herself, by her deputy [Stephen Hadley], and sometimes by the intelligence people—George [Tenet] and [Deputy CIA Director] John [McLaughlin]." [Bamford, 2004, pp. 370] Mobile Bioweapons Claim Survives Editing Process - One of the allegations Powell rehearses is the claim that Iraq has developed mobile biological weapons laboratories, a claim based on sources that US intelligence knows are of questionable reliability (see Late January, 2003 and February 4, 2003). Referring to one of the sources, an Iraqi major, Powell later tells the Los Angeles Times, "What really made me not pleased was they had put out a burn [fabricator] notice on this guy, and people who were even present at my briefings knew it." Nor does anyone inform Powell that another source, an Iraqi defector known as Curveball, is also a suspected fabricator (see January 27, 2003). [Los Angeles Times, 11/20/2005] In fact, the CIA issued an official "burn notice" formally retracting more than 100 intelligence reports based on Curveball's information. [ABC News, 3/13/2007] Powell 'Angry, Disappointed' in Poor Sourcing of Claim - In March 2007, Powell will claim he is "angry and disappointed" that he was never told the CIA had doubts about the reliability of the source. "I spent four days at CIA headquarters, and they told me they had this nailed." But former CIA chief of European operations Tyler Drumheller will later claim in a book that he tried and failed to keep the Curveball information out of the Powell speech (see February 4-5, 2003). "People died because of this," he will say. "All off this one little guy who all he wanted to do was stay in Germany." Drumheller will say he personally redacted all references to Curveball material in an advance draft of the Powell speech. "We said, 'This is from Curveball. Don't use this.'" But Powell later says neither he nor his chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, were ever told of any doubts about Curveball. "In fact, it was the exact opposite," Wilkerson will assert. "Never from anyone did we even hear the word 'Curveball,' let alone any expression of doubt in what Secretary Powell was presenting with regard to the biological labs." [ABC News, 3/13/2007]
Entity Tags: White House Iraq Group, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Lawrence Wilkerson, John E. McLaughlin, George J. Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, Richard Armitage, Colin Powell, Stephen J. Hadley
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, Domestic Propaganda
When asked on CNN if there is a clear connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, National Security Adviser Rice replies: "There is no question in my mind about the al-Qaeda connection. It is a connection that has unfolded, that we're learning more about as we are able to take the testimony of detainees, people who were high up in the al-Qaeda organization. And what emerges is a picture of a Saddam Hussein who became impressed with what al-Qaeda did after it bombed our embassies in 1998 in Kenya and Tanzania, began to give them assistance in chemical and biological weapons, something that they were having trouble achieving on their own, that harbored a terrorist network under this man [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi, despite the fact that Saddam Hussein was told that al-Zarqawi was there." [CNN, 2/5/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
Entity Tags: Saddam Hussein, Al-Qaeda, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Condoleezza Rice
The governments of Israel and the United States are in almost-perfect accord on most issues, according to a Washington Post analysis. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has talked repeatedly of the "special closeness" he has to the Bush administration, and of the "deep understanding" that President Bush and his officials have for Israel's security and foreign policy needs. He has thanked Bush for providing what he calls "the required leeway in our ongoing war on terrorism" and lauded the Bush administration's efforts to promote a peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinian people. Thomas Neumann, who heads the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), agrees. "This is the best administration for Israel since Harry Truman," says Neumann, equating Bush with the first American president to recognize the independent state of Israel. A senior official in the first Bush administration says that Sharon used the 9/11 attacks to cement the bond between his government and the Bush administration. One senior administration official says: "Sharon played the president like a violin: 'I'm fighting your war, terrorism is terrorism,' and so on. Sharon did a masterful job." Accord with Likud - But the US is not just in accord with Israel; it is in accord with Likud, the hardline conservative political party currently in charge of the Israeli government. The Post writes: "For the first time, a US administration and a Likud government in Israel are pursuing nearly identical policies. Earlier US administrations, from Jimmy Carter's through Bill Clinton's, held Likud and Sharon at arm's length, distancing the United States from Likud's traditionally tough approach to the Palestinians. But today, as Neumann noted, Israel and the United States share a common view on terrorism, peace with the Palestinians, war with Iraq and more. Neumann and others said this change was made possible by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and their aftermath." Bush supporters, particularly evangelical Christians, are "delight[ed]" with the administration's overt support of Likud policies. Abandoning Peace Talks between Israel and Palestinians - The downside, the Post notes, is that diplomacy with Israel's Arab neighbors has come to a virtual standstill, and the Middle East "peace process" praised by Sharon is considered by many past and current US officials as a failure. Clinton administration National Security Adviser Sandy Berger says: "Every president since at least Nixon has seen the Arab-Israeli conflict as the central strategic issue in the Middle East. But this administration sees Iraq as the central challenge, and… has disengaged from any serious effort to confront the Arab-Israeli problem." Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, the administration's special envoy to the region, calls the peace process "quiescent," and adds, "I've kind of gone dormant." 'Likudniks Really in Charge Now' - Bush has appointed neoconservative Elliott Abrams, a vociferous critic of any peace agreement between Israel and Palestine, the head of Mideast affairs for the National Security Council, signaling his administration's near-total alignment with Israel in the process. Abrams's hardline views are supported by, among others, Vice President Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle, Abrams's mentor, who in 1996 recommended to Israel's then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he abandon the Oslo peace accords and refuse to accede to Palestinian demands of "land for peace" (see September 13, 1993). A senior administration official says wryly, "The Likudniks are really in charge now," using a Yiddish term for supporters of Sharon's political party. "It's a strong lineup," says Neumann. Fellow neoconservative Meyrav Wurmser of the Hudson Institute says of Abrams: "Elliott's appointment is a signal that the hard-liners in the administration are playing a more central role in shaping policy.… [T]he hard-liners are a very unique group. The hawks in the administration are in fact people who are the biggest advocates of democracy and freedom in the Middle East." The Post explains that in Abrams's and Wurmser's view, promoting democracy in the Middle East is the best way to assure Israel's security. Like other neoconservatives, they see the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of a "democratic Palestine" as necessary for peace in the region. Others who disagree with the neoconservatives call them a "cabal." The Post writes, "Members of the group do not hide their friendships and connections, or their loyalty to strong positions in support of Israel and Likud." [Washington Post, 2/9/2003]
Entity Tags: Elliott Abrams, Donald Rumsfeld, Bush administration (43), Benjamin Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, Anthony Zinni, Thomas Neumann, Sandy Berger, Likud, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Harry S. Truman, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Richard Perle, Meyrav Wurmser, National Security Council
Timeline Tags: US International Relations
CIA Director George Tenet briefs National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on the forthcoming rendition of al-Qaeda figure Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from Italy to Egypt (see Noon February 17, 2003). According to a senior CIA officer who GQ magazine will say is "directly involved," Rice approves the mission, but worries how she will tell President Bush. [GQ, 3/2007 ]
Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, George J. Tenet, Condoleezza Rice
Timeline Tags: Torture of US Captives
Asked for concrete evidence that Hussein has links to al-Qaeda, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice points to the presence of operatives allegedly being hosted in Iraq. "Well, we are, of course, continually learning more about these links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and there is evidence that Secretary [of State Colin] Powell did not have the time to talk about. But the core of the story is there in what Secretary Powell talked about. This poisons network with at least two dozen of its operatives operating in Baghdad, a man [Abu Musab al-Zarqawi] who is spreading poisons now throughout Europe and into Russia, a man who got medical care in Baghdad despite the fact that the Iraqis were asked to turn him over, training in biological and chemical weapons." [Fox News Sunday, 2/16/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
The United Nations launches an investigation into the electronic and physical surveillance of a number of its Security Council delegates by the National Security Agency (see January 31, 2003). The NSA operation, revealed the week before, was apparently leaked to Britain's Observer by Katharine Gun, who works at Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and has been arrested on suspicion of breaking Britain's Official Secrets Act (see February 2003). The NSA also solicited the assistance of an intelligence agency of an unnamed "friendly foreign government"; it is believed to be Britain. The leak is touted as "more timely and potentially more important than the Pentagon Papers" by celebrated whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. The leak of the NSA surveillance program has caused deep embarrassment for the Bush administration, which is working to recruit supporters for a second UN resolution authorizing military force against Iraq (see February 24, 2003). The authorization for the NSA operation is believed to have come from National Security Adviser Rice, but US intelligence experts say that such a decision would have had to involve Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Director George Tenet, and NSA Director Michael Hayden. President Bush, by necessity, would have been informed of the proposed operation at one of his daily intelligence briefings. While such surveillance of foreign diplomats at the UN is legal under the US's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), it violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. According to international law expert Dr. John Quigley, the Vienna Convention stipulates: "The receiving state shall permit and protect free communication on the part of the mission for all official purposes…. The official correspondence of the mission shall be inviolable." [Observer, 3/9/2003]
Entity Tags: United Nations Security Council, United Nations, National Security Agency, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Michael Hayden, John Quigley, Condoleezza Rice, Katherine Gun, Donald Rumsfeld, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, George W. Bush, Government Communications Headquarters, George J. Tenet, Daniel Ellsberg
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice goes on to speculate on CBS Face the Nation that Hussein may eventually decide to "enlist" al-Qaeda to attack the United States. "Now the al-Qaeda is an organization that's quite disbursed and—and quite widespread in its effects, but it clearly has had links to the Iraqis, not to mention Iraqi links to all kinds of other terrorists. And what we do not want is the day when Saddam Hussein decides that he's had enough of dealing with sanctions, enough of dealing with, quote, unquote, 'containment,' enough of dealing with America, and it's time to end it on his terms, by transferring one of these weapons, just a little vial of something, to a terrorist for blackmail or for worse." [Face the Nation, 3/9/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice
Rand Beers, the National Security Council's senior director for counterterrorism, resigns from his post. Administration sources say Beers is resigning for personal reasons, but intelligence sources say Beers's resignation is triggered by his concern that the administration's looming war with Iraq is drawing critically needed resources away from the war on terror (see February 2003). "Hardly a surprise," says one former intelligence official. "We have sacrificed a war on terror for a war with Iraq. I don't blame Randy at all. This just reflects the widespread thought that the war on terror is being set aside for the war with Iraq at the expense of our military and intel resources and the relationships with our allies." A Senate Intelligence Committee staffer adds, "Randy said that he was 'just tired' and did not have an interest in adding the stress that would come with a war with Iraq." Beers's supervisor, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, asked Beers twice during his exit interview if his resignation was a protest against the war with Iraq. Beers told her that it was not. Author and intelligence expert James Bamford says, "This is a very intriguing decision" for Beers to resign. "There is a predominant belief in the intelligence community that an invasion of Iraq will cause more terrorism than it will prevent. There is also a tremendous amount of embarrassment by intelligence professionals that there have been so many lies out of the administration—by the president, [Vice President Dick] Cheney and [Secretary of State Colin] Powell—over Iraq" (see January 24, 2008). One administration official says: "If it was your job to prevent terror attacks, would you be happy about an action that many see as unnecessary, that is almost guaranteed to cause more terror in the short-term? I know I'm not [happy]." [United Press International, 3/19/2003] Beers, who will soon join the presidential campaign of Democrat John Kerry as a foreign policy adviser, will tell an interviewer in late 2006 that "I'm sorry to say that the reason that I resigned from the National Security Council staff and the government has turned out to be true, and that is that I was concerned then, and we see now, that our entry into Iraq, the way in which we entered with a small, rather than a large, coalition, without UN approval, without Arab support, has ended up making Iraq a recruiting poster for al-Qaeda. It has made our job more difficult around the world." [Democracy Now!, 10/4/2006]
Entity Tags: James Bamford, Rand Beers, National Security Council, Condoleezza Rice
Timeline Tags: War in Afghanistan
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tells reporters, "We will leave Iraq completely in the hands of Iraqis as quickly as possible." [White House, 4/4/2003]
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, Iraq under US Occupation
Vice President Dick Cheney's interest in former ambassador and current Iraq whistleblower Joseph Wilson is renewed when Wilson informs New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that he was the special envoy who went to Niger in February 2002 to investigate the uranium claims (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002). When Kristof publishes the information (see May 6, 2003), according to a CIA official, "a request came in from Cheney that was passed to me that said 'the vice president wants to know whether Joe Wilson went to Niger.' I'm paraphrasing. But that's more or less what I was asked to find out." Cheney, of course, knew Wilson had gone to Niger (see (February 13, 2002)). The campaign to discredit and besmirch Wilson begins again (see March 9, 2003 and After), this time in a much more intensified manner. "Cheney and Libby made it clear that Wilson had to be shut down," the CIA official will later say. "This wasn't just about protecting the credibility of the White House. For the vice president, going after Wilson was purely personal, in my opinion." Cheney is heavily involved in this second phase of the anti-Wilson campaign as well, pushing CIA officials to find out everything they can about Wilson. Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley also pressures State Department officials to send information they have on Wilson to his attention at the NSC. It is also at this time that Cheney and at least some members of his staff learn that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, is a covert CIA officer. At least one meeting is held in the Office of the Vice President to discuss possible strategies to use against Wilson. According to a State Department official, Cheney is not at this particular meeting: "Libby [Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby] led the meeting. But he was just as upset about Wilson as Cheney was." [USA Today, 4/29/2004; Truthout (.org), 2/9/2006] In a 2005 interview, Wilson will tell a reporter that he believes others in the White House's communications and public relation staffs, including Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, and James Wilkinson, all become aware of Plame Wilson's secret CIA status, as does Hadley, his boss, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and White House chief of staff Andrew Card. "That would be the natural group because they were constituted to spin the war, so they would be naturally the ones to try to deflect criticism," Wilson will say. [Raw Story, 7/13/2005] In 2008, current White House deputy press secretary Scott McClellan will acknowledge that "Cheney and his staff were leading a White House effort to discredit Joe Wilson himself." [McClellan, 2008, pp. 171]
Entity Tags: Office of the Vice President, Karen Hughes, Joseph C. Wilson, James R. Wilkinson, Condoleezza Rice, Central Intelligence Agency, Andrew Card, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Nicholas Kristof, US Department of State, Valerie Plame Wilson, Scott McClellan, Mary Matalin, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Stephen J. Hadley
Timeline Tags: Niger Uranium and Plame Outing
According to a unnamed aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell, at "various times throughout this period," Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld relay the Red Cross' concerns about the Coalition's treatment of prisoners directly to President Bush. [Baltimore Sun, 5/12/2004]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice
Sadegh Kharrazi. [Source: University of Cambridge]In the wake of the US-led conquest of Iraq, the government of Iran worries that they will be targeted for US invasion next. Sadegh Kharrazi, Iran's ambassador to France and the nephew of Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, drafts a bold proposal to negotiate with the US on all the outstanding conflicts between them. [American Prospect, 5/21/2006] Diplomats refer to the proposal as "the grand bargain." The US sends neoconservative Zalmay Khalilzad, a senior National Security Council official, to talk with Iran's UN ambassador, Javad Zarif. [Vanity Fair, 3/2007] The proposal was reviewed and approved by Iran's top leaders Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mohammad Khatami, and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi. Tim Guldimann, the Swiss ambassador to Iran, is used as an intermediary since the US and Iran do not have formal diplomatic relations. [Washington Post, 2/14/2007] According to the language of the proposal, it offers "decisive action against any terrorists (above all, al-Qaeda) in Iranian territory" and "full cooperation and exchange of all relevant information." In return, Iran wants "pursuit of anti-Iranian terrorists, above all [the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK)]," a dissident Iranian group which the US officially lists as a terrorist organization. Iran also offers to accept much tighter controls by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange for "full access to peaceful nuclear technology." It proposes "full transparency for security [assurance] that there are no Iranian endeavors to develop or possess WMD" and "full cooperation with IAEA based on Iranian adoption of all relevant instruments (93+2 and all further IAEA protocols)." That is a references to IAEA protocols that would guarantee the IAEA access to any declared or undeclared facility on short notice. The proposal also offers a dramatic change in Iranian policy towards Israel. Iran would accept an Arab league declaration approving a land-for-peace principle and a comprehensive peace with Israel in return for Israel's withdrawal to 1967 lines, a softening of Iran's usual policy. The proposal further offers to stop any Iranian support of Palestinian opposition groups such as Hamas and proposes to convert Hezbollah into "a mere political organization within Lebanon." It further offers "coordination of Iranian influence for activity supporting political stabilization and the establishment of democratic institutions and a nonreligious government" in Iraq. In return, Iran wants a democratic government in Iran, which would mean its Shiite allies would come to power since the Shiites make up a majority of the Iraqi population. The proposal wants the US to remove Iran from its "axis of evil" and list of terrorism sponsors. [American Prospect, 5/21/2006] US Rejects Offer - The US flatly rejects the idea. "We're not interested in any grand bargain," says
Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton. [Vanity Fair, 3/2007] The American Prospect will later comment that "Iran's historic proposal for a broad diplomatic agreement should have prompted high-level discussions over the details of an American response." State Department counterterrorism expert Flynt Leverett will later call it a "respectable effort" to start negotiations with the US. But within days, the US rejects the proposal without even holding an interagency meeting to discuss its possible merits. Guldimann, the Swiss intermediary, is reprimanded for having passed the proposal to the US. [American Prospect, 5/21/2006] Larry Wilkerson, Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, will later say that it was a significant proposal for beginning "meaningful talks" between the US and Iran but that it "was a non-starter so long as [Dick] Cheney was Vice President and the principal influence on Bush." [Newsweek, 2/8/2007] He will also say that the State Department supported the offer, "[b]ut as soon as it got to the Vice President's office, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil'… reasserted itself" and Cheney's office turned the offer down. [BBC, 1/18/2007] Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will later claim that, "We couldn't determine what was the Iranians' and what was the Swiss ambassador's," and says that he though the Iranians "were trying to put too much on the table." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will say of the proposal, "Perhaps somebody saw something of the like" but "I just don't remember ever seeing any such thing." [Newsweek, 2/8/2007] Colin Powell will later say that President Bush simply didn't want to negotiate with an Iranian government that he believed should not be in power. "My position… was that we ought to find ways to restart talks with Iran… But there was a reluctance on the part of the president to do that." He also says, "You can't negotiate when you tell the other side, 'Give us what a negotiation would produce before the negotiations start.'" [Newsweek, 2/12/2007] Days later, Iran will propose a more limited exchange of al-Qaeda prisoners for MEK prisoners, but the US will reject that too (see Mid-May 2003). Author Craig Unger will later write, "The grand bargain was dead. Flush with a false sense of victory, Bush, Cheney, and [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld felt no need to negotiate with the enormous oil-rich country that shared a border with the country America had just invaded." [Unger, 2007, pp. 308-309] Proposal Echoed Four Years Later - In 2007, the BBC will note, "Observers say the Iranian offer as outlined nearly four years ago corresponds pretty closely to what Washington is demanding from Tehran now." [BBC, 1/18/2007]
Entity Tags: Kamal Kharrazi, Lawrence Wilkerson, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Zalmay M. Khalilzad, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, People's Mujahedin of Iran, Richard Armitage, International Atomic Energy Agency, Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, Flynt Leverett, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Colin Powell, Hezbollah, Condoleezza Rice, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Donald Rumsfeld, Tim Guldimann, George W. Bush
Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran, Complete 911 Timeline
Paul Bremer, head of the Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, issues Order 2 formally dissolving the Iraqi Army and other vestiges of the old Ba'athist state. [CNN, 5/23/2003; Coalition Provisional Authority, 5/23/2003] The order, drafted by Douglas Feith's office in the Pentagon and approved by the White House, triggers mass protests among the estimated 300,000 to 500,000 former Iraqi soldiers who are left without a job and who are given only a small, one-time, $20 emergency payment. [New York Times, 5/24/2003; Agence France Presse, 5/26/2003; Isikoff and Corn, 2006, pp. 225] Together with the de-Ba'athification program, the disbanding of the Iraqi Army leads to some 500,000 people losing their source of income. [Los Angeles Times, 6/5/2003] Criticism - The action will be highly criticized as a major blunder of the war. The decision was made by Walter Slocombe, a security adviser to Bremer, who proclaims that "We don't pay armies we defeated." A colonel on Jay Garner's staff (see January 2003) will later say: "My Iraqi friends tell me that this decision was what really spurred the nationalists to join the infant insurgency. We had advertised ourselves as liberators and turned on these people without so much as a second thought." [Atlantic Monthly, 12/2005] Garner's Reaction - Garner himself will later speak on the subject, telling a Vanity Fair reporter: "My plan was to not disband the Iraqi Army but to keep the majority of it and use them. And the reason for that is we needed them, because, number one, there were never enough people there for security. [A US military commander told him the US Army was guarding a lot of places it had not planned to guard.] So we said, OK, we'll bring the Army back. Our plan was to bring back about 250,000 of them. And I briefed [Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld. He agreed. [Deputy Defense Secretary] Wolfowitz agreed. [National Security Adviser] Condoleezza Rice agreed. [CIA Director] George [Tenet] agreed. Briefed the president on it. He agreed. Everybody agreed. So when that decision [to disband] was made, I was stunned." Iraqi Colonel's Reaction - US and UN weapons inspector Charles Duelfer will later say of the decision: "One Iraqi colonel told me, 'You know, our planning before the war was that we assumed that you guys couldn't take casualties, and that was obviously wrong.' I looked at him and said, 'What makes you think that was wrong?' He goes, 'Well, if you didn't want to take casualties, you would have never made that decision about the Army.'" [Vanity Fair, 2/2009]
Entity Tags: Jay Garner, George W. Bush, Scott Wallace, Paul Wolfowitz, Walter Slocombe, George J. Tenet, Douglas Feith, L. Paul Bremer, Condoleezza Rice, Charles Duelfer, Bush administration (43), Donald Rumsfeld
Timeline Tags: Iraq under US Occupation
In a press briefing prior to the president's trip to Europe and the Middle East, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice suggests the US military has discovered laboratories capable of developing weapons of mass destruction, supporting Powell's claim (see February 5, 2003). "We have found, in Iraq, biological weapons laboratories that look precisely like what Secretary Powell described in his February 5 report to the United Nations." [White House, 5/28/2003; US Department of State, 5/28/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
CIA officials ask for reauthorization of the controversial harsh interrogation methods (see April 2002 and After and August 1, 2002) that had been withdrawn (see December 2003-June 2004) after the revelation of abuse and torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison (see November 5, 2003). The CIA has captured a new al-Qaeda suspect in Asia, and top agency officials ask the National Security Council Principals Committee—Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Director George Tenet, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Attorney General John Ashcroft—for permission to use extreme methods of interrogation against the new detainee. Rice, who chairs the Principals Committee, says: "This is your baby. Go do it." [ABC News, 4/9/2008] The name of the new suspect captured in Asia is not mentioned, but Hambali is captured in Thailand in August 2003 (see August 12, 2003), and he is the only prominent al-Qaeda figure arrested that summer. He is considered one of al-Qaeda's most important leaders. There are some reports that he is one of only about four prisoners directly waterboarded by the US (see Shortly After August 12, 2003).
Entity Tags: Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Central Intelligence Agency, Al-Qaeda, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, George J. Tenet, John Ashcroft, Hambali, National Security Council, Donald Rumsfeld
Timeline Tags: Torture of US Captives, Complete 911 Timeline
Speaking on CNBC's Capital Report, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says the trailers recently discovered in Iraq (see April 19, 2003; May 9, 2003) were designed to produce biological weapons. "But let's remember what we've already found. Secretary Powell on February 5 (see February 5, 2003) talked about a mobile, biological weapons capability. That has now been found and this is a weapons laboratory trailers capable of making a lot of agent that—dry agent, dry biological agent that can kill a lot of people. So we are finding these pieces that were described… We know that these trailers look exactly like what was described to us by multiple sources as the capabilities for building or for making biological agents. We know that we have from multiple sources who told us that then and sources who have confirmed it now. Now the Iraqis were not stupid about this. They were able to conceal a lot. They've been able to scrub things down. But I think when the whole picture comes out, we will see that this was an active program." [CNBC, 6/3/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, says: "We are confident that we—I believe that we will find [weapons of mass destruction in Iraq]. I think that we have already found important clues like the biological weapons laboratories that look surprisingly like what Colin Powell described in his speech (see February 5, 2003)." [Meet the Press, 6/8/2003; American Forces Press Service, 6/9/2003]
Appearing on ABC's This Week, Condoleezza Rice defends the Bush administration's prewar intelligence. For example, she tells host George Stephanopoulos, "Already, we've discovered… trailers… that look remarkably similar to what Colin Powell described in his February 5 speech (see February 5, 2003)." [This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 6/8/2003; American Forces Press Service, 6/9/2003] Asked why the Africa-uranium claim was included in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address (see 9:01 pm January 28, 2003) even though it had been debunked by the CIA several months earlier (see October 6, 2002), Rice claims the administration had "other sources" which supported the claim that Hussein was determined to obtain uranium from somewhere in Africa. "At the time that the State of the Union address was prepared, there were also other sources that said that they were, the Iraqis were seeking yellow cake, uranium oxide from Africa." [This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 6/8/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004] When Stephanopoulos notes that there were several people in the US government who doubted the Africa-uranium claim, Rice responds, "The intelligence community did not know at that time or at levels that got to us that this, that there was serious questions about this report." [This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 6/8/2003; Washington Post, 7/26/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, George Stephanopoulos
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, Niger Uranium and Plame Outing
Commenting on the recent revelation (see May 6, 2003) that former diplomat Joseph Wilson's 2002 trip to Niger (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002) had determined that Iraq did not conclude a deal with Niger to supply it with uranium, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says during an appearance on "Meet the Press," "Maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery." [Washington Post, 6/13/2003; Knight Ridder, 6/13/2003; ABC News, 6/16/2003] Upon learning of Rice's comments, an infuriated Wilson sends a message to Rice that if she will not correct her statement, he will (see June 9, 2003-July 6, 2003).
Entity Tags: Joseph C. Wilson, Condoleezza Rice
Former ambassador Joseph Wilson is infuriated by Condoleezza Rice's June 9 claim (see June 8, 2003) that top officials were unaware of doubts over the Niger uranium claim. He contacts friends in the government and asks them to pass on the message that if Rice does not correct the record, he will (see May 29, 2003). [Vanity Fair, 5/2004, pp. 282] One of the people Wilson contacts is State Department official Marc Grossman (see June 10, 2003 and 12:00 p.m. June 11, 2003), who will later describe Wilson as "really mad" over Rice's comments. Wilson tells Grossman that he is considering "going public." [Marcy Wheeler, 1/24/2007] Wilson, according to his wife Valerie Plame Wilson, is so outraged at Rice's assertions that they become "the final straw for Joe. He was angry that his government was lying." [Wilson, 2007, pp. 138] He calls David Shipley, the editorial page editor of the New York Times, who offers him 1,500 words to tell his story (see July 6, 2003). Wilson will later write of Rice: "How does somebody whose job it is to track nuclear weapons developments, especially in rogue states, receive such critical information and then proceed to forget it? This was not a grade school homework assignment. The short answer is that they don't forget it, unless they are derelict. Regrettably, disingenuousness is another possibility. Condoleezza Rice may be many things, but she is hardly derelict." [Wilson, 2004, pp. 331-332]
Entity Tags: David Shipley, Joseph C. Wilson, Valerie Plame Wilson, Condoleezza Rice, Marc Grossman
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof contradicts National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's recent statement that no one in the White House ever suspected that the documents "proving" Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger were forged (see May 6, 2003). Rice recently said, "Maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery" (see June 8, 2003). Kristof also notes that the White House claims Vice President Cheney learned of its own role in using the forged documents as "evidence" of the Iraq-Niger claim from reading Kristof's May 6 column in the Times. Using information from what he calls "two people directly involved and three others who were briefed on" the story, Kristof writes that the truth is quite different from what Rice and Cheney say. He writes, "while Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet may not have told [President] Bush that the Niger documents were forged, lower CIA officials did tell both the vice president's office and National Security Council staff members. Moreover, I hear from another source that the CIA's operations side and its counterterrorism center undertook their own investigations of the documents, poking around in Italy and Africa, and also concluded that they were false—a judgment that filtered to the top of the CIA" (see January 28-29, 2003 and March 23, 2003). Kristof also notes that "the State Department's intelligence arm, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, independently came to the exact same conclusion about those documents, according to Greg Thielmann, a former official there. Mr. Thielmann said he was 'quite confident' that the conclusion had been passed up to the top of the State Department." Kristof also quotes former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, who says, "It was well known throughout the intelligence community that it was a forgery." Kristof adds that Tenet and the US intelligence communities "were under intense pressure to come up with evidence against Iraq." As a result, "[a]mbiguities were lost, and doubters were discouraged from speaking up." A former military intelligence officer says: "It was a foregone conclusion that every photo of a trailer truck would be a 'mobile bioweapons lab' and every tanker truck would be 'filled with weaponized anthrax.' None of the analysts in military uniform had the option to debate the vice president, secretary of defense, and the secretary of state." Kristof concludes: "I don't believe that the president deliberately lied to the public in an attempt to scare Americans into supporting his war. But it does look as if ideologues in the administration deceived themselves about Iraq's nuclear programs—and then deceived the American public as well." [New York Times, 6/13/2003]
Entity Tags: New York Times, Bush administration (43), Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Condoleezza Rice, Nicholas Kristof, George J. Tenet, Greg Thielmann, George W. Bush, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Melvin A. Goodman
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda, Niger Uranium and Plame Outing
Executive directors of human rights groups write to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice asking that the US provide human rights monitors access to US prisoners and detention facilities in Iraq to verify conditions of detention. [Human Rights Watch, 5/7/2004]
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) writes to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice asking for "clarification about numerous stories concerning alleged mistreatment of enemy combatants in US custody" and requesting that she explain how the administration ensures that detainees rendered to other countries are not tortured. [Human Rights Watch, 5/7/2004] Unbeknownst to Specter, Rice signed off on using torture methods on prisoners over a year earlier (see Mid-May, 2002).
Entity Tags: Arlen Specter, Condoleezza Rice
According to White House press secretary Ari Fleischer's deputy and imminent successor Scott McClellan, "Armed with updated talking points from the vice president's office… Fleischer dispute[s] the notion that Cheney and others in the administration must have known about [former ambassador Joseph] Wilson's findings" (see March 5, 2002). Fleischer denies that Vice President Dick Cheney asked for someone to go to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to buy enriched uranium from there (see (February 13, 2002)), and denies Cheney's awareness of the mission until it was reported. However, Fleischer "inadvertently drop[s] a small bombshell," according to McClellan. He tells reporters, "Now we've long acknowledged—and this is old news, we've said it repeatedly—that the information on [Nigeran uranium] did, indeed, turn out to be incorrect." McClellan will later acknowledge that the admission is anything but "old news," and will write: "But Fleischer now appeared to suggest for the first time that the president's 16 words in the State of the Union address had been based primarily on the Niger documents (see 9:01 pm January 28, 2003). Up until that point, the White House had maintained that the president's language had been deliberately broad so as to include African countries other than Niger" (see January 28-29, 2003). Reporters "jump[ed] all over the story," McClellan will recall. "Admitting that something the president had said was wrong was big news, and it would need to be discussed among senior advisers and approved by the president." McClellan will note, "Throughout the day, there was much discussion among the president's advisers on whether or not to acknowledge the obvious." According to McClellan, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is one of the strongest advocates for making the admission, and "her point of view prevail[s]." [McClellan, 2008, pp. 168-169]
Entity Tags: Scott McClellan, Ari Fleischer, Condoleezza Rice, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Office of the Vice President, Joseph C. Wilson
During the morning meeting for senior White House officials, political strategist Karl Rove tells the assemblage that the White House needs to "get the message out" about war critic Joseph Wilson (see July 6, 2003). Rove emphasizes the need to push the point that Wilson was not sent to Niger by Vice President Dick Cheney (see July 6, 2003, July 6-10, 2003, and July 7-8, 2003). At the meeting are Cheney, President Bush, Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and chief of staff Andrew Card, who will soon take over the administration's response to the Iraq-Niger controversy (see (July 11, 2003)). [US District Court for the District of Columbia, 3/5/2004 ] Libby brings an underlined copy of Wilson's July 6 New York Times op-ed to the meeting. [Office of the Vice President, 7/7/2003]
Entity Tags: Karl C. Rove, Andrew Card, Bush administration (43), Condoleezza Rice, Joseph C. Wilson, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby
When asked about the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq (see October 1, 2002) and whether Bush knew of the dissenting views among US intelligence agencies regarding the now-infamous aluminum tubes supposedly being used by Iraq to produce nuclear weapons, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice says that in preparation for his February 2003 speech to the UN (see February 5, 2003), Secretary of State Colin Powell chose to "caveat," or mention, the dissents. "The only thing that was there in the NIE was a kind of a standard INR footnote, which is kind of 59 pages away from the bulk of the NIE. That's the only thing that's there. And you have footnotes all the time in CIA—I mean, in NIEs. So if there was a concern about the underlying intelligence there, the president was unaware of that concern and as was I.… Now, if there were any doubts about the underlying intelligence to that NIE, those doubts were not communicated to the president, to the vice president, or to me." Rice is incorrect. The President's Summary from that NIE (see Early October 2002) specifically told Bush of the dissenting views, and the much lengthier NIE went into far more detail about the dissenting views. Rice, along with Vice President Cheney and other senior White House officials, received a memo months before giving them the same material, including the dissents (see January 10, 2003). (Cheney, as a matter of course, receives essentially the same intelligence information as Bush receives.) And the NIE itself contained the following caveat: "In [the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, or INR]'s view, Iraq's efforts to acquire aluminum tubes is central to the argument that Baghdad is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, but INR is not persuaded that the tubes in question are intended for use as centrifuge rotors. INR accepts the judgment of technical experts at the US Department of Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make the case that they are intended for that purpose. INR considers it far more likely that the tubes are intended for another purpose, most likely the production of artillery rockets." This passage, among other sections of the NIE, will be declassified on July 18, one week from Rice's denials. A Pattern of Deception - There are numerous examples of Bush and Cheney citing the "imminent threat" of Saddam Hussein against the US and the Middle East. Some of those include: Cheney's assertion that Hussein "now has weapons of mass destruction [and] is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us" (see August 26, 2002); Bush's assertion to the UN that Iraq has WMDs and is likely to share them with terrorists (see September 12, 2002); a farrago of assertions from Bush that includes assertions about Iraq's fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles ready to disperse chemical and biological weapons, perhaps over the US, its consorting with al-Qaeda, and more (see October 7, 2002); a State of the Union address loaded with false, misleading, and incorrect allegations (see October 7, 2002); and a speech on the eve of the Iraq invasion that asserted "[t]he danger is clear" that Iraq will "kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent" Americans (see March 17, 2003). [White House, 7/11/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004; National Journal, 3/2/2006]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, US Department of Energy, Colin Powell, Al-Qaeda, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Saddam Hussein, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Central Intelligence Agency
While President Bush is in Uganda, a reporter asks him, "Why—can you explain how an erroneous piece of intelligence on the Iraq-Niger connection got into your State of the Union speech? Are you upset about it? And should somebody be held accountable, sir?" Bush replies, "I gave a speech to the nation that was cleared by the intelligence services…" National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice responds more specifically a short time later, "I can tell you, if the CIA, the director of central intelligence, had said 'take this out of the speech,' it would have been gone, without question," Instead, after some changes sought by the CIA were made, "the agency cleared the speech and cleared it in its entirety." Later in the day, CIA Director George Tenet accepts blame for allowing the allegations into the January 2003 speech (see 9:01 pm January 28, 2003), saying the information "did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches and the CIA should have ensured that it was removed" (see 3:09 p.m. July 11, 2003). [Washington Post, 7/12/2003] Reporter Steve Coll will later comment, "I don't know what George Tenet felt as he saw that unfold, but I can imagine that he was dismayed and increasingly resentful that he was being singled out for blame. At the same time, he's such an operator and such a student of Washington that surely, he understood what was happening, that he was being asked, in effect, to fall on his shield so that the president could be reelected." [PBS Frontline, 6/20/2006]
Entity Tags: Steve Coll, George J. Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush
In the morning press gaggle on Air Force One during a presidential trip to Africa, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice persists in asserting there is an underlying truth to the Niger documents even though they have been proven to be a forgery. "And there were other attempts to, to get yellow cake from Africa," she says. Rice also says she knew nothing of former ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger to investigate rumors about Iraq's attempts to secure uranium from that nation (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002). Rice tells reporters: "… I will tell you that, for instance, on Ambassador Wilson's going out to Niger, I learned of that when I was sitting on whatever TV show it was, because that mission was not known to anybody in the White House. And you should ask the Agency at what level it was known in the Agency." She says that unidentified television show took place "about a month ago." [White House, 7/11/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004] The report on Wilson's trip was disseminated throughout the upper echelons of the White House in early March 2002 (see March 8, 2002). As National Security Adviser, it is unlikely Rice did not see the report.
Vice President Dick Cheney's communications director, Cathie Martin, takes notes on "spin options" available to the White House regarding the administration's admission that its claims of an Iraq-Niger uranium connection are false. Cheney has already rejected a draft of a statement to be released by CIA Director Tenet, taking responsibility for the false claim (see July 11, 2003). On the second page, Martin takes copious notes documenting the administration's options. The first in the list is to put Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press to dodge the claim, with annotations as to the pros and cons of that particular effort. The second option is to leak information from the classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq's WMD programs (see October 1, 2002) to reporters. Two reporters, the New York Times's David Sanger and the Washington Post's Walter Pincus, are mentioned as possible targets of the planned leak. [Office of the Vice President, 7/11/2003 ; National Public Radio, 3/7/2007] In 2007, Martin, will testify as to the strategies discussed by Mary Matalin (see July 10, 2003) and the communications staff (see January 25-29, 2007). One option is to have Cheney go on "Meet the Press;" notes from the strategy discussion cite the pros of going on that show as "best format, we control the message," but Martin and others fear having Cheney coming across as defensive. Another option is to approach Sanger, whom the notes say is working on "what he thought was a definitive piece, we could go to Sanger and tell him our version of this." The discussion also cites the Washington Post's Walter Pincus as a possible leak recipient. Another option is to have either National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hold a press conference. Finally, they can have a sympathetic third party write an "independent" op-ed for a national newspaper such as the Post or the New York Times that would promote their message. Martin also speaks with Time's Matthew Cooper, and informs him that the administration is backing away from its claims that Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Niger (see 3:09 p.m. July 11, 2003). [Marcy Wheeler, 1/25/2007]
Entity Tags: Matthew Cooper, Donald Rumsfeld, Mary Matalin, David Sanger, Bush administration (43), Catherine ("Cathie") Martin, Walter Pincus, NBC News, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Condoleezza Rice
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, Domestic Propaganda, Niger Uranium and Plame Outing
Referring to President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address (see Mid-January 2003 and 9:01 pm January 28, 2003), CIA Director George Tenet says in a written statement: "I am responsible for the approval process in my agency.… These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president." Tenet denies that the White House is responsible for the mistake, putting the blame squarely on himself and his agency. His statement comes hours after Bush blamed the CIA for the words making it into the speech (see July 11, 2003). [CNN, 7/11/2003; Central Intelligence Agency, 7/11/2003; New York Times, 7/12/2003] CIA Chose to Send Wilson to Niger - Tenet also confirms that it was the CIA's choice to send former ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002), apparently in an effort to rebut claims that Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the mission. Tenet states: "There was fragmentary intelligence gathered in late 2001 and early 2002 on the allegations of Saddam's efforts to obtain additional raw uranium from Africa, beyond the 550 metric tons already in Iraq. In an effort to inquire about certain reports involving Niger, CIA's counterproliferation experts, on their own initiative, asked an individual with ties to the region [Wilson] to make a visit to see what he could learn." Tenet says that Wilson found no evidence to believe that Iraq had attempted to purchase Nigerien uranium, though this did not settle the issue for either the CIA or the White House. [Central Intelligence Agency, 7/11/2003] Coordinated with White House - Tenet's admission was coordinated by White House advisers for what reporter Murray Waas will call "maximum effect." Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, White House political strategist Karl Rove, and Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby had reviewed drafts of Tenet's statement days in advance; Hadley and Rove had suggested changes in the draft. [National Journal, 3/30/2006] Cheney rejected an earlier draft, marking it "unacceptable" (see July 11, 2003). White House Joins in Blaming CIA - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice also blames the CIA. Peppered with questions from reporters about the claim, she continues the White House attempt to pin the blame for the faulty intelligence on the CIA: "We have a higher standard for what we put in presidential speeches" than other governments or other agencies. "We don't make the president his own fact witness. That's why we send them out for clearance." Had the CIA expressed doubts about the Niger claim before the State of the Union? she is asked (see January 26 or 27, 2003, March 8, 2003, March 23, 2003, April 5, 2003, Early June 2003, June 9, 2003, and June 17, 2003). "The CIA cleared the speech in its entirety," she replies. "If the CIA, the director of central intelligence, had said, 'Take this out of the speech,' (see January 27, 2003) it would have been gone without question. If there were doubts about the underlying intelligence, those doubts were not communicated to the president, to the vice president or to me.… What we've said subsequently is, knowing what we know now, that some of the Niger documents were apparently forged, we wouldn't have put this in the president's speech—but that's knowing what we know now." Another senior White House official, defending the president and his advisers, tells ABC News: "We were very careful with what the president said. We vetted the information at the highest levels." But another intelligence official, also interviewed by ABC, contradicts this statement. [CNN, 7/11/2003; White House, 7/11/2003; Washington Post, 7/12/2003; New York Times, 7/12/2003; Rich, 2006, pp. 99; McClellan, 2008, pp. 171-172] Tenet's mea culpa is apparently enough for Bush; press secretary Ari Fleischer says, "The president has moved on." [White House, 7/11/2003; Rich, 2006, pp. 99] White House press secretary Scott McClellan will later claim that at this point Rice is unaware that her National Security Council is far more responsible for the inclusion than the CIA. He will write that the news media reports "not unfairly" that Rice is blaming the CIA for the inclusion. [McClellan, 2008, pp. 171-172] News Reports Reveal Warnings Not to Use Claim - Following Tenet's statement, a barrage of news reports citing unnamed CIA officials reveal that the White House had in fact been explicitly warned not to include the Africa-uranium claim. These reports indicate that at the time Bush delivered his State of the Union address, it had been widely understood in US intelligence circles that the claim had little evidence supporting it. [Boston Globe, 3/16/2003; New York Times, 3/23/2003; Associated Press, 6/12/2003; Knight Ridder, 6/12/2003; Associated Press, 6/12/2003; Knight Ridder, 6/13/2003; ABC News, 6/16/2003; Newsday, 7/12/2003; Washington Post, 7/20/2003] For example, CBS News reports, "CIA officials warned members of the president's National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa." And a Washington Post article cites an unnamed intelligence source who says, "We consulted about the paper [September 2002 British dossier] and recommended against using that material." [CBS News, 7/10/2003; CNN, 7/10/2003; Washington Post, 7/11/2003] Claim 'Technically True' since British, Not US, Actually Made It - White House officials respond that the dossier issued by the British government contained the unequivocal assertion, "Iraq has… sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" and that the officials had argued that as long as the statement was attributed to the British intelligence, it would be technically true. Similarly, ABC News reports: "A CIA official has an idea about how the Niger information got into the president's speech. He said he is not sure the sentence was ever cleared by the agency, but said he heard speechwriters wanted it included, so they attributed it to the British." The same version of events is told to the New York Times by a senior administration official, who claims, "The decision to mention uranium came from White House speechwriters, not from senior White House officials." [ABC News, 6/12/2003; CBS News, 7/10/2003; New York Times, 7/14/2003; New York Times, 7/19/2003] Decision Influenced by Office of Special Plans - But according to a CIA intelligence official and four members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who are investigating the issue, the decision to include the Africa-uranium claim was influenced by the people associated with the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans (see September 2002). [Information Clearing House, 7/16/2003] Reactions - Rice says that the White House will not declassify the October 2002 NIE on Iraq (see October 1, 2002) to allow the public to judge for itself whether the administration exaggerated the Iraq-Niger claim; McClellan will write that Rice is currently "unaware of the fact that President Bush had already agreed to 'selective declassification' of parts of the NIE so that Vice President Cheney, or his top aide Scooter Libby, could use them to make the administration's case with selected reporters" (see 8:30 a.m. July 8, 2003). [McClellan, 2008, pp. 171-172] Two days later, Rice will join Bush in placing the blame for using the Iraq-Niger claim solely on the CIA (see July 13, 2003). McClellan will later write, "The squabbling would leave the self-protective CIA lying in wait to exact revenge against the White House." [McClellan, 2008, pp. 172] Former Ambassador Considers Matter Settled - Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times revealing his failure to find any validity in the claims during his fact-finding trip to Niger (see July 6, 2003 and February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002), is pleased at Tenet's admission. According to his wife, CIA analyst Valerie Plame Wilson, "Joe felt his work was done; he had made his point." [Wilson, 2007, pp. 140]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, George J. Tenet, Central Intelligence Agency, Joseph C. Wilson, Condoleezza Rice, Ari Fleischer, Bush administration (43), Karl C. Rove, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Murray Waas, Valerie Plame Wilson, ABC News, Stephen J. Hadley, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Scott McClellan, CBS News, Office of Special Plans
The White House continues to back away from its admission of error concerning President Bush's claim that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger (see July 8, 2003 and July 11, 2003). Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice appear on the Sunday morning talk shows to assert that the "16 words" in Bush's January speech (see Mid-January 2003 and 9:01 pm January 28, 2003) were "technically correct" because British intelligence, not American intelligence, was the original source of the claim as worded by Bush. The British still stand by the claim, though they refuse to provide evidence. In the interviews, Rice tries to call the claim a "mistake" and simultaneously vouch for its "accuracy." [Washington Post, 7/26/2003; Rich, 2006, pp. 100] "I believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," she says. In particular, Fox News host Tony Snow gives Rice multiple opportunities to state that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program, and that the Iraq-Niger uranium claim is probably true. She says that the related claim of the Iraqis buying aluminum tubes for nuclear centrifuges is also supported by the CIA, even though Snow acknowledges that the tubes theory has been "knocked down." [Fox News, 7/13/2003] Invoking the British, Blaming Tenet - On CBS's Face the Nation, Rice again blames CIA Director George Tenet for the error (see 3:09 p.m. July 11, 2003), saying: "My only point is that, in retrospect, knowing that some of the documents underneath may have been—were, indeed, forgeries, and knowing that apparently there were concerns swirling around about this, had we known that at the time, we would not have put it in.… And had there been even a peep that the agency did not want that sentence in or that George Tenet did not want that sentence in, that the director of central intelligence did not want it in, it would have been gone." [CBS News, 7/13/2003] On Fox News, Rice says: "[T]he statement that [Bush] made was indeed accurate. The British government did say that. Not only was the statement accurate, there were statements of this kind in the National Intelligence Estimate. And the British themselves stand by that statement to this very day, saying that they had sources other than sources that have now been called into question to back up that claim. We have no reason not to believe them.… We have every reason to believe that the British services are quite reliable." [Fox News, 7/13/2003] On CNN, Rice calls the issue "enormously overblown.… This 16 words has been taken out of context. It's been blown out of proportion." She emphasizes that Bush's claim came "from a whole host of sources.… The British, by the way, still stand by their report to this very day in its accuracy, because they tell us that they had sources that were not compromised in any way by later, in March or April, later reports that there were some forgeries." She adds: "We're talking about a sentence, a data point, not the president's case about reconstitution of weapons of mass destruction, or of nuclear weapons in Iraq.… We're talking about a single sentence, the consequence of which was not to send America to war. The consequence of which was to state in the State of the Union something that, while accurate, did not meet the standard that we use for the president." [CNN, 7/13/2003] Denies Involvement in Wilson Mission - Rice also denies that anyone at the White House had any involvement in sending former ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate the uranium claims (see July 6, 2003). CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer says of the Wilson mission, "Supposedly, it came at the request of the vice president." Rice replies: "No, this is simply not true, and this is something that's been perpetuated that we simply have to straighten out. The vice president did not ask that Joe Wilson go to Niger. The vice president did not know. I don't think he knew who Joe Wilson was, and he certainly didn't know that he was going. The first that I heard of Joe Wilson mission was when I was doing a Sunday talk show and heard about it (see June 8, 2003 and June 8, 2003)… [T]he Wilson trip was not sent by anyone at a high level. It wasn't briefed to anyone at high level. And it appears to have been inconclusive in what it found." Rice is following the White House strategy of denying Vice President Dick Cheney's involvement in the Wilson mission (see July 6, 2003, 8:45 a.m. July 7, 2003, 9:22 a.m. July 7, 2003, July 7-8, 2003, and July 8, 2003). [CNN, 7/13/2003]
Entity Tags: Wolf Blitzer, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Tony Snow, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, Joseph C. Wilson, Donald Rumsfeld, Central Intelligence Agency, Bush administration (43), George J. Tenet, Condoleezza Rice
An organization called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) writes an open letter to President Bush entitled "Intelligence Unglued," where they warn that unless Bush takes immediate action, the US intelligence community "will fall apart—with grave consequences for the nation." They say that it is clear his National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and not CIA Director George Tenet, was responsible for the now-infamous "sixteen words" in his January State of the Union address (see Mid-January 2003 and 9:01 pm January 28, 2003). "But the disingenuousness persists," they write. "Surely Dr. Rice cannot persist in her insistence that she learned only on June 8, 2003, about former ambassador Joseph Wilson's mission to Niger in February 2002, when he determined that the Iraq-Niger report was a con-job" (see July 6, 2003). "Rice's denials are reminiscent of her claim in spring 2002 that there was no reporting suggesting that terrorists were planning to hijack planes and slam them into buildings (see May 16, 2002). In September, the joint Congressional committee on 9/11 came up with a dozen such reports" (see December 24, 1994 and January 6, 1995). It is not only Rice's credibility that has suffered, they write, but Secretary of State Colin Powell's as well, "as continued non-discoveries of weapons in Iraq heap doubt on his confident assertions to the UN" (see February 5, 2003). Ultimately, they write, it is Bush's credibility at stake much more than that of his advisers and cabinet members. They lay the blame for the "disingenuousness" from the various members of the administration at the feet of Vice President Dick Cheney: it was Cheney's office who sent Wilson to Niger (see (February 13, 2002)), it was Cheney who told the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Saddam Hussein was about to produce a nuclear weapon (see August 26, 2002), all with intelligence he and his staff knew to be either unreliable or outright forgeries—a "deep insult to the integrity of the intelligence process," they write—it was Cheney and his staff who pressured CIA analysts to produce "cherry-picked" intelligence supporting their desire for war, it was Cheney and his staff who "cooked" the prewar National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq (see October 1, 2002). Bad enough that false intelligence was used to help craft Bush's State of the Union address, they write, but that "pales in significance in comparison with how it was used to deceive Congress into voting on October 11 to authorize you to make war on Iraq" (see October 10, 2002). VIPS recommends three things for Bush to implement: Bring an immediate end to White House attempts to exculpate Cheney from what they write is his obvious guilt and ask for his resignation: "His role has been so transparent that such attempts will only erode further your own credibility. Equally pernicious, from our perspective, is the likelihood that intelligence analysts will conclude that the way to success is to acquiesce in the cooking of their judgments, since those above them will not be held accountable. We strongly recommend that you ask for Cheney's immediate resignation." Appoint General Brent Scowcroft, the chair of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, to head "an independent investigation into the use/abuse of intelligence on Iraq." Bring UN inspectors back into Iraq. "This would go a long way toward refurbishing your credibility. Equally important, it would help sort out the lessons learned for the intelligence community and be an invaluable help to an investigation of the kind we have suggested you direct Gen. Scowcroft to lead." [Salon, 7/16/2003]
Entity Tags: George J. Tenet, George W. Bush, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice
President George Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice meet with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. [ABC News, 7/21/2003; US President, 7/28/2003]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Silvio Berlusconi
White House chief of staff Andrew Card (see (July 11, 2003)) holds a late-night meeting of what press secretary Scott McClellan will call "select senior advisers"—Card, McClellan, communications director Dan Bartlett, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Rice's deputy Stephen Hadley, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, and Gonzales's subordinate Harriet Miers. One topic of discussion is the recent report that the White House had scrubbed a claim of an Iraq-Niger uranium buy from a speech by President Bush in October 2002 (see October 5, 2002 and October 6, 2002), months before Bush's State of the Union address where he did make such a claim (see Mid-January 2003 and 9:01 pm January 28, 2003). The media reports that Hadley was warned to delete the claim by CIA Director George Tenet. Hadley confirms receiving the warning, and tells the assemblage that, three months later, he had forgotten Tenet's warning. "Signing off on these facts is my responsibility," he says. "And in this case, I blew it. I think the only solution is for me to resign." Hadley is distressed that Tenet had, in McClellan's words, "been made to look like the scapegoat, since he believed it was nobody's fault but his own." McClellan will call Hadley's offer to resign "selfless .. [his attempt to] clear the name of someone he felt had taken an unfair degree of blame, and to accept his own responsibility for an honest mistake whose consequences were now playing out before a worldwide audience." The others quickly reject Hadley's proffered resignation, and decide, as McClellan will recall, "that an approach of openness, forthrightness, and honesty was now essential." Bartlett and Hadley are delegated to "inform the world as to what had happened and why," and Hadley will admit to having forgotten his conversation with Tenet" (see October 6, 2002). [McClellan, 2008, pp. 177-178]
Entity Tags: Stephen J. Hadley, Alberto R. Gonzales, Andrew Card, Bush administration (43), Condoleezza Rice, Dan Bartlett, Harriet E. Miers, Scott McClellan, George J. Tenet
In a briefing to the president and other top officials, Kay says that he has found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and says the disputed trailers (see April 19, 2003 and May 9, 2003) were probably not mobile biological factories, as the CIA and White House had claimed (see May 28, 2003 and May 29, 2003). Present at the briefing are Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, Andrew Card, and other White House aides. Kay's briefing provokes little response from his audience. Describing the president's reaction, Kay later says: "I'm not sure I've spoken to anyone at that level who seemed less inquisitive. He was interested but not pressing any questions. .. I cannot stress too much that the president was the one in the room who was the least unhappy and the least disappointed about the lack of WMDs. I came out of the Oval Office uncertain as to how to read the president. Here was an individual who was oblivious to the problems created by the failure to find WMDs. Or was this an individual who was completely at peace with himself on the decision to go to war, who didn't question that, and who was totally focused on the here and now of what was to come?" [Isikoff and Corn, 2006, pp. 310]
Entity Tags: George J. Tenet, Andrew Card, David Kay, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice asserts that the intelligence community is convinced Saddam Hussein had been trying to reconstitute a nuclear weapon's program. "Going into the war against Iraq, we had very strong intelligence," Rice says. "I've been in this business for 20 years. And some of the strongest intelligence cases that I've seen, key judgments by our intelligence community that Saddam Hussein could have a nuclear weapon by the end of the decade, if left unchecked… that he was trying to reconstitute his nuclear program." Answering questions as to why no evidence of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons has yet been found, Rice says: "What we knew going into the war was that this man was a threat. He had weapons of mass destruction. He had used them before. He was continuing to try to improve his weapons programs. He was sitting astride one of the most volatile regions in the world, a region out of which the ideologies of hatred had come that led people to slam airplanes into buildings in New York and Washington. Something had to be done about that threat and the president to simply allow this brutal dictator, with dangerous weapons, to continue to destabilize the Middle East." [ZDF German Television, 7/31/2003; Talon News, 8/1/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004; Center for Public Integrity, 1/23/2008] The day before, UN weapons inspector David Kay reported that no evidence of Iraqi WMD had been unearthed (see July 29, 2003). Rice was at that briefing.
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Saddam Hussein, David Kay
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice offers the discovery of aluminum tubes as proof of Hussein's intentions to develop nuclear weapons on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: "[H]e had… an active procurement network to procure items, many of which, by the way, were on the prohibited list of the nuclear suppliers group. There's a reason that they were on the prohibited list of the nuclear supplies group: magnets, balancing machines, yes, aluminum tubes, about which the consensus view was that they were suitable for use in centrifuges to spin material for nuclear weapons." [NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 7/30/2003]
Condoleezza Rice being interviewed by Gwen Ifill. [Source: PBS]After CIA Director George Tenet admits that President Bush should never have made the claim that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger (see 3:09 p.m. July 11, 2003), and Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley admits the White House also erred in allowing the claim (see July 22, 2003), Hadley's boss, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, grudgingly admits to her own responsibility in allowing the claim to be made. She tells PBS reporter Gwen Ifill: "What we learned later, and I did not know at the time, and certainly did not know until just before Steve Hadley went out to say what he said last week, was that the director [Tenet] had also sent over to the White House a set of clearance comments that explained why he wanted this out of the speech (see 9:01 pm January 28, 2003). I either didn't see the memo, or I don't remember seeing the memo." When Ifill asks if she feels any "personal failure or responsibility" over allowing the false claim, Rice responds: "Well, I certainly feel personal responsibility for this entire episode. The president of the United States has every right to believe that what he is saying in his speeches is of [sic] the highest confidence of his staff." On the same day, Rice continues to insist that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program (see July 30, 2003, July 30, 2003, and July 31, 2003). [Wilson, 2004, pp. 352-353]
Entity Tags: Stephen J. Hadley, Bush administration (43), Condoleezza Rice, Gwen Ifill, George W. Bush, George J. Tenet
Defending the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tells ZDF television that there was "very strong intelligence" that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction "Going into the war against Iraq, we had very strong intelligence. I've been in this business for 20 years. And some of the strongest intelligence cases that I've seen, key judgments by our intelligence community that Saddam Hussein… had biological and chemical weapons…." [ZDF German Television, 7/31/2003]
The US takes part in another round of multilateral negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program (see April 2003). The US has failed to destabilize the North Korean government, and the North Koreans have been unsuccessful in luring the US into bilateral talks. Instead, both sides agree to "six-way" talks that include Japan, China, Russia, and South Korea. Heavy Restrictions on US Negotiators - US chief negotiator Jim Kelly is finally permitted to meet one-on-one with his North Korean counterpart Li Gun—for only 20 minutes, and only in the presence of the other delegates. This time, Kelly is allowed to chat briefly with Li in a corner. Kelly is also forbidden from making any offers or even suggesting the possibility of direct negotiations. Kelly's fellow negotiator, Charles Pritchard, will later recall that Kelly was told to start the chat with Li by saying: "This is not a negotiating session. This is not an official meeting." Foreign affairs journalist Fred Kaplan will later write: "For the previous year-and-a-half, the State Department had favored a diplomatic solution to the Korea crisis while the Pentagon and key players in the [National Security Council] opposed it. The August meeting in Beijing was Bush's idea of a compromise—a middle path that constituted no path at all. He let Kelly talk, but didn't let him say anything meaningful; he went to the table but put nothing on it." But even this level of negotiation is too much for some administration hawks. During the meetings in Beijing, Undersecretary of State John Bolton gives a speech in Washington where he calls North Korea "a hellish nightmare" and Kim Jong Il "a tyrannical dictator." Kaplan will observe, "True enough, but not the sort of invective that senior officials generally issue on the eve of a diplomatic session." An exasperated Pritchard resigns in protest from the administration. He will later say: "My position was the State Department's envoy for North Korean negotiations, yet we were prohibited from having negotiations. I asked myself, 'What am I doing in government?'" Pritchard had also learned that White House and Pentagon officials did not want him involved in the talks, dismissing him as "the Clinton guy." (Pritchard had helped successfully negotiate earlier agreements with the North Koreans during the Clinton administration.) [Washington Monthly, 5/2004] A Chinese diplomat says, "The American policy towards DRPK [North Korea]—this is the main problem we are facing." [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 241] Cheney Source of Restrictions - According to Larry Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the restrictions on Kelly come directly from Vice President Cheney. "A script would be drafted for Jim, what he could say and what he could not say, with points elucidated in the margins," Wilkerson will later explain. The process involves President Bush, Cheney, Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. On at least two occasions, Cheney rewrites the script for Kelly without consulting with the other principals, even Bush. According to Wilkerson, Cheney "put handcuffs on our negotiator, so he could say little more than 'welcome and good-bye.'" In the words of authors Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein, Cheney's "negotiating position was that there would be no negotiations." [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 185-186]
Entity Tags: US Department of Defense, US Department of State, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Richard B. Myers, Lou Dubose, Fred Kaplan, George W. Bush, Jake Bernstein, Jim Kelly, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Charles Pritchard, Clinton administration, National Security Council, John R. Bolton, Li Gun, Lawrence Wilkerson, Kim Jong Il
Joseph Wilson, the former US ambassador to Gabon who has played a key part in discrediting the Bush administration's attempts to claim that Iraq tried to purchase weapons-grade uranium from Niger (see July 6, 2003)), discusses the issue with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Wilson affirms that he has always believed Iraq had chemical and biological WMD, but not enough to warrant invading it, and adds that he "disagreed with… the other agendas that were in play that led us to invade, conquer, and now occupy Iraq." He notes that he accepts the assertions that neither Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, nor CIA Director George Tenet were aware of his 2002 mission to Niger at the time he made the trip (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002), but adds that he believes Cheney and his staffers, particularly his chief of staff Lewis Libby, "asked essentially that… the agency follow up on the report. So it was a question that went to the CIA briefer from the Office of the Vice President (see (February 13, 2002)). The CIA, at the operational level, made a determination that the best way to answer this serious question was to send somebody out there who knew something about both the uranium business and those Niger officials that were in office at the time these reported documents were executed." Wilson refuses to comment on his wife Valerie Plame Wilson (see July 14, 2003), particularly her CIA status, but does say that the attacks on both himself and his wife were "clearly designed to keep others from stepping forward. If you recall, there were any number of analysts who were quoted anonymously as saying that the vice president had seemed to pressure them in his many trips out to the CIA (see 2002-Early 2003). I don't know if that's true or not, but you can be sure that a GS-14 or 15 with a couple of kids in college, when he sees the allegations that came from senior administration officials about my family are in the public domain, you can be sure that he's going to be worried about what might happen if he were to step forward." The people who leaked the information about his wife, Wilson continues, "are libel or vulnerable to investigation under a 1982 law dealing with the identification of American agents." He is referring to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (see July 16, 2003). [CNN, 8/3/2003]
Entity Tags: Office of the Vice President, Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), George J. Tenet, Joseph C. Wilson, Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Valerie Plame Wilson, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Wolf Blitzer
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says in a speech, "The transformation of the Middle East is the only guarantee that it will no longer produce ideologies of hatred that lead men to fly airplanes into buildings in New York or Washington." She adds, "Transformation in the Middle East will require a commitment of many years." [White House, 8/25/2003]
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline
Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission, goes to the White House to have lunch with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and her staff. Zelikow is close to Rice and defends her interests on the Commission (see 1995, Before December 18, 2003, and May-June 2004). Zelikow's White House passes are arranged by Karen Heitkotter, an executive secretary on the Commission. According to author Philip Shenon, during the Commission's life, "More than once she [is] asked to arrange a gate pass so Zelikow [can] enter the White House to visit the national security adviser in her offices in the West Wing." Allegedly, at the same time, "Zelikow [is] telling people how upset he [is] to cut off contact with his good friend Rice." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 107]
Entity Tags: Karen Heitkotter, 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikow
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says there is "absolutely" a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda "[W]e know that there was training of al-Qaeda in chemical and perhaps biological warfare. We know that [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi was networked out of there, this poisons network that was trying to spread poisons throughout…. And there was an Ansar al-Islam, which appears also to try to be operating in Iraq. So yes, the al-Qaeda link was there." [Fox News Sunday, 9/7/2003; Global Views, 9/26/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Ansar al-Islam
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer is under pressure to explain how he intends to transfer power in Iraq from the CPA and the hand-picked Iraqi Governing Council (IGC—see July 13, 2003), especially in light of Bremer's recent, unilateral cancellation of national elections (see June 28, 2003). Bremer chooses an unusual venue to respond: the op-ed pages of the Washington Post. In a column entitled "Iraq's Path to Sovereignty," Bremer writes that national elections are "simply… not possible" at this time. Instead, the IGC will develop a plan for drafting and ratifying a new constitution. [Washington Post, 9/8/2003; Roberts, 2008, pp. 129-130] This will be followed by elections and, finally, complete transfer of the CPA's powers to the new Iraqi government. Bremer gives no hint of a timetable, and implies that the process will not end quickly. Influential Iraqis, and US allies such as France and Germany, are disturbed by the prospect of an essentially indefinite occupation. Senior Bush officials, particularly National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, will later claim to have been blindsided by Bremer's plan. New York Times columnist David Brooks, a conservative with excellent sources within the White House, will later write that Bremer "hadn't cleared the [Post] piece with his higher-ups in the Pentagon or the White House" (see December 2003 and After). However, Bremer's column is consistent with a Bush statement on Iraqi governance the day before, and with the text of a resolution the administration will try to push through the UN Security Council in October. It is unclear what, if any, authorization Bremer has for his decision, but there are manifest disagreements in the top ranks of White House officials as to the wisdom of Bremer's planning (see November 15, 2003). [Roberts, 2008, pp. 129-130]
Entity Tags: United Nations Security Council, Coalition Provisional Authority, Bush administration (43), Condoleezza Rice, David Brooks, Iraqi Governing Council, L. Paul Bremer, Washington Post
Vice President Cheney says on NBC's Meet the Press, "I think it's not surprising that people make [the] connection" between Iraq and 9/11. He adds, "If we're successful in Iraq… then we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of The Base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." [Meet the Press, 9/14/2003] However, two days later, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld states that he hasn't "seen any indication that would lead" him to believe there was an Iraq-9/11 link. [Associated Press, 9/16/2003] National Security Adviser Rice says the administration has never accused Hussein of directing the 9/11 attacks. [Reuters, 9/16/2003] The next day, Bush also disavows the Cheney statement, stating, "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th… [but]
there's no question that Saddam Hussein has al-Qaeda ties." [CBS News, 9/17/2003; Washington Post, 9/18/2003]
Entity Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice
In an interview with Fox News's Brit Hume, President Bush admits that he does not read news articles himself. Instead, he gets briefings from staff members. "I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi [Rice] in the morning. They come in and tell me.… I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read [sic] the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage." It has been his "[p]ractice since day one," he says. His Staffers Best Source for 'Objective' News - "You know, look, I have great respect for the media. I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news. And I… I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." [Fox News, 9/22/2003] 'Filtered or Unfiltered' - The reaction from the media is quite critical. Slate's Michael Kinsley writes: "To President Bush, the news is like a cigarette. You can get it filtered or unfiltered.… When he is trying to send a message to the public, Bush prefers to have it go out unfiltered. But when he is on the receiving end, Bush prefers his news heavily filtered.… George W. Bush doesn't really want people to get the news unfiltered. He wants people to get the news filtered by George W. Bush. Or rather, he wants everyone to get the news filtered by the same people who apparently filter it for him. It's an interesting epistemological question how our president knows what he thinks he knows and why he thinks it is less distorted than what the rest of us know or think we know. Every president lives in a cocoon of advisers who filter reality for him, but it's stunning that this president actually seems to prefer getting his take on reality that way." [Slate, 10/16/2003] 'Sugar Coating' the News - Washington institution Helen Thomas, a long-time critic of the Bush administration, writes: "Bush is spoon-fed the relevant news from his staff. Top aides usually know the buttons not to push when it comes to bad news. More often they will tell the president what he wants to hear—the good news if there is any. Or they may just sugar coat the news that is tougher to swallow." [Hearst Newspapers, 10/15/2003]
Entity Tags: Brit Hume, Andrew Card, Fox News, George W. Bush, Michael Kinsley, Helen Thomas, Condoleezza Rice
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda
The Justice Department authorizes the FBI to open a criminal investigation into leaks of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity by sources within the Bush administration (see July 14, 2003, July 30, 2003, and September 16, 2003). [MSNBC, 2/21/2007; Washington Post, 7/3/2007] The investigation is headed by the Justice Department's counterespionage chief, John Dion. [Vanity Fair, 1/2004] Questions of Impartiality - Dion is a veteran career prosecutor who has headed the counterespionage section since 2002. He will rely on a team of a half-dozen investigators, many of whom have extensive experience in investigating leaks. However, some administration critics are skeptical of Dion's ability to run an impartial investigation: he will report to the Justice Department's Robert McCallum, who is an old friend and Yale classmate of President Bush. Both Bush and McCallum were members of the secret Skull & Bones Society at Yale. Others believe the investigation will be non-partisan. "I believe that the career lawyers in Justice—the people who preceded [Attorney General] John Ashcroft and who will be there after he leaves—will do a nonpolitical investigation, an honest investigation," says legal ethics specialist Stephen Gillers. "Ashcroft's sole job is to stay out of it." [Associated Press, 10/2/2003; Los Angeles Times, 10/2/2003] CIA Director Filed Request - The request for an investigation (see September 16, 2003) was filed by CIA Director George Tenet; a CIA official says Tenet "doesn't like leaks." White House press secretary Scott McClellan says he knows of no leaks about Wilson's wife: "That is not the way this White House operates, and no one would be authorized to do such a thing. I don't have any information beyond an anonymous source in a media report to suggest there is anything to this. If someone has information of this nature, then he or she should report it to the Department of Justice." McClellan calls Joseph Wilson's charges that deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove leaked his wife's name (see August 21, 2003) "a ridiculous suggestion" that is "simply not true." A White House official says that two administration sources (later revealed to be Rove and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage—see June 13, 2003, July 8, 2003, and 11:00 a.m. July 11, 2003) leaked Plame Wilson's name to six separate journalists (see Before July 14, 2003). The White House is notoriously intolerant of leaks, and pursues real and supposed leakers with vigor. Wilson says that if the White House did indeed leak his wife's name, then the leak was part of what he calls "a deliberate attempt on the part of the White House to intimidate others and make them think twice about coming forward." [Washington Post, 9/28/2003] White House, Democrats Respond - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says that the White House is willing to have the Justice Department investigate the charges. "I know nothing of any such White House effort to reveal any of this, and it certainly would not be the way that the president would expect his White House to operate," she tells Fox News. "My understanding is that in matters like this, a question like this is referred to the Justice Department for appropriate action and that's what is going to be done." However, some Democrats want more. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) says the Justice Department should appoint a special counsel to investigate the charges, since the department has an inherent conflict of interest: "I don't see how it would be possible for the Justice Department to investigate whether a top administration official broke the law and endangered the life of this agent (see July 21, 2003). Even if the department were to do a thorough and comprehensive investigation, the appearance of a conflict could well mar its conclusions.… Leaking the name of a CIA agent is tantamount to putting a gun to that agent's head. It compromises her safety and the safety of her loved ones, not to mention those in her network of intelligence assets. On top of that, it poses a serious threat to the national security of this nation." Representative Richard Gephardt (D-MO) says the White House should find out who is responsible for the leak, and Congress should investigate the matter as well. [Washington Post, 9/28/2003; Fox News, 9/29/2003] FBI Will Acknowledge Investigation - The FBI officially acknowledges the investigation on September 30 (see September 30, 2003), and informs the White House of the investigation. [New York Times, 2006]
Entity Tags: Richard Gephardt, Karl C. Rove, Richard Armitage, Stephen Gillers, US Department of Justice, Joseph C. Wilson, Valerie Plame Wilson, Scott McClellan, John Dion, Robert McCallum, George W. Bush, Charles Schumer, Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), George J. Tenet, Federal Bureau of Investigation, John Ashcroft
Appearing on Meet the Press, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice presumes to link Hussein to Osama bin Laden. "Saddam Hussein—no one has said that there is evidence that Saddam Hussein directed or controlled 9/11, but let's be very clear, he had ties to al-Qaeda, he had al-Qaeda operatives who had operated out of Baghdad." [MSNBC, 9/28/2003; US House Committee on Government Reform, 3/16/2004]
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, frustrated with Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer's lack of cooperation and coordination with her office (see September 8, 2003 and December 2003 and After), forms the Iraq Stabilization Group (ISG) to oversee Bremer and settle disputes between the Defense and State Departments in governing Iraq. [Roberts, 2008, pp. 130] According to unnamed White House officials, the ISG originated with President Bush's frustration at the lack of progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "The president knows his legacy, and maybe his re-election, depends on getting this right," says an administration official. "This is as close as anyone will come to acknowledging that it's not working." Defense Department officials deny that the ISG is designed to take power away from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "Don recognizes this is not what the Pentagon does best, and he is, in some ways, relieved to give up some of the authority here," says one senior Pentagon official. In reality, both Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell are giving up some control over the reconstruction efforts to the White House, specifically to the National Security Council. Rice will oversee four coordinating committees, on counterterrorism efforts, economic development, political affairs in Iraq and media messaging. One of her deputies will run each committee, assisted by undersecretaries from State, Defense, and the Treasury Department, as well as representatives from the CIA. The counterterrorism committee will be run by Frances Fragos Townsend; the economic committee by Gary Edson; the political affairs committee by Robert Blackwill; and the communications committee by Anna Perez. [New York Times, 10/6/2003] In May 2004, the Washington Post will report that the ISG is dysfunctional and ineffective almost from the outset; within months, all but Blackwill have been reassigned (Perez will leave Washington for a job with NBC), and a search of the White House Web site will find no mention of the ISG later than October 2003. [Washington Post, 5/18/2004]
Entity Tags: Iraq Stabilization Group, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Coalition Provisional Authority, Anna Perez, Frances Townsend, George W. Bush, US Department of Defense, US Department of State, Robert Blackwill, National Security Council, L. Paul Bremer, US Department of the Treasury, Gary Edson
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) speaking to the US Senate. [Source: Life magazine]Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), a longtime critic of the Bush administration's push for war with Iraq, delivers a blistering rebuke from the floor of the US Senate to President Bush and the White House over what he calls "lie after lie after lie" it has given to the American people to justify the Iraq invasion. Kennedy calls the war "unnecessary… based on unreliable and inaccurate intelligence," and notes that the US occupation of Iraq "has not brought an end to danger. Instead, it has brought new dangers, imposed new costs, and taken more and more American lives each week." Iraq "was not a breeding ground for terrorism," Kennedy asserts. "Our invasion has made it one." 'Trumped-Up' 'Double Talk' - He accuses the administration of taking the nation to war on the basis of "trumped-up reasons" and "double-talk," saying: "The American people were told Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons. He was not. We were told he had stockpiles of other weapons of mass destruction. He did not. We were told he was involved in 9/11. He was not. We were told Iraq was attracting terrorists from al-Qaeda. It was not. We were told our soldiers would be viewed as liberators. They are not. We were told Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction. It cannot. We were told the war would make America safer. It has not. Before the war, week after week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie after lie." Getting out of Iraq - But, Kennedy notes, now that the US is in Iraq, it cannot just withdraw and leave the country "to chaos or civil war [and risk it] becoming a danger to us far greater than it did before. The misguided policy of the past is no excuse for a misguided policy for the future. We need a realistic and specific plan to bring stability to Iraq, to bring genuine self-government to Iraq, to bring our soldiers home with dignity and honor." Kennedy says he will vote against the administration's $87 billion "emergency funding" bill for the occupation, and will continue to vote against future bills until the administration outlines a plan for withdrawing from Iraq. "A no vote is not a vote against supporting our troops," he says. "It is a vote to send the administration back to the drawing board. It is a vote for a new policy—a policy worthy of the sacrifice our soldiers are making, a policy that restores America as a respected member of the family of nations, a policy that will make it easier, not far more difficult, to win the war against terrorism." 'Huge' Spending Outlay - Kennedy gives examples of what the $87 billion is not being spent on: "It is 87 times what the federal government spends annually on after-school programs." "It is seven times what President Bush proposed to spend on education for low-income schools in 2004." "It is nine times what the federal government spends on special education each year." The World's Next 'Failed Empire?' - Kennedy warns that for the US to continue to be "an occupier of other lands," to "have to re-learn the lesson that every colonial power in history has learned," risks making the US "the next failed empire in the world." The Bush administration ignores the lessons of history, Kennedy says: "The most basic of those lessons is that we cannot rely primarily on military means as a solution to politically-inspired violence. In those circumstances, the tide of history rises squarely against military occupation. The British learned that lesson in Northern Ireland. The French learned it in Algeria. The Russians learned it in Afghanistan and are re-learning it every day in Chechnya. America learned it in Vietnam, and we must not re-learn it in Iraq." Protecting the US Military - The Bush administration is sacrificing the lives, the health, and the safety of the US soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere to its dreams of empire, Kennedy says. "Even with the best forces in the history of the world, our military cannot succeed if the mission is not achievable, if they are viewed as occupiers, and if we do not have a clearly defined and realistic strategy.… I am profoundly moved by the price they pay to serve our country, and profoundly impressed by their professionalism and commitment.… They tell me that far too many in Iraq believe we are there to take their oil, and that we will stay forever. They have no clear sense about their post-war mission. Some see it as winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Some believe it is security. Some feel it is to obtain intelligence about opposition forces and weapons caches. Others think it is to prevent sabotage of the oil pipelines and other vital infrastructure. Still others say it is to build sidewalks and soccer fields and schools and hospitals, and other local facilities. Not one of the soldiers told me their mission was to achieve Iraq's transition to democracy." Supporting the Contractors at the Expense of Supporting the Iraqi People - The administration is far more interested in supporting large private contractors such as Halliburton and KBR, Kennedy says, than it is in actively helping the Iraqi people. "The administration's policy of rushing to put large multibillion-dollar contracts in the hands of American firms ignores not only the lesson of history but also the lesson of human nature—the Iraqi people need to be the real partners in the reconstruction effort." While private firms make enormous profits from government contracts, the most basic functions in Iraq remain unrestored. "Why not scale back the lavish resources being provided to US contractors and consultants and provide larger sums directly to the Iraqi people?" he asks. Ignoring Iraq's History of Conflict and Dissension - The administration has flatly ignored a century of history in Iraq, Kennedy says, a century of division and dissension between warring religious, cultural, and ethnic groups. Since the British carved Iraq from the remnants of the collapsing Ottoman Empire after World War I, Kennedy says, the nation has been embroiled in conflict. "Iraq had no history of unity. In the words of one tribal chieftain, 'History did not die; the tribes and notables who emerged in 1920 and created our modern state in 1921 are here to stay with all the others who came into being thereafter.' Instead of learning from this painful history, we condemned ourselves to repeat it. Instead of anticipating the obviously similar and predictable divisions and demands when Saddam's regime fell, the Bush administration believed that a few favored Iraqi exile leaders, many of them in exile for years, could return to Iraq, rally the population, and lead the new government. That was another failure. The Iraqi people rejected them from the start and resisted their domination." Working with the United Nations - The Bush administration seems unwilling to work with the United Nations to help bring peace and stability to Iraq, Kennedy says—in his view, a critical error. In January 2000, before becoming Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice wrote of the importance of the UN in the US's foreign relations. Kennedy says: "Condi Rice's words indict the administration's own policy now. It is essential to involve the international community as an active and equal partner in the political transition of Iraq. We need to give the UN a central role.… No one doubts that the United States should remain in charge of the military operation. But internationalizing the reconstruction is not a luxury; it is an imperative." Conclusion - Kennedy concludes by quoting from a book by former President George Herbert Walker Bush and his national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, reflecting on their experiences with Iraq and the 1991 Gulf War (see September 1998). Overthrow and occupation was the wrong goal in 1991, Bush and Scowcroft wrote, and, Kennedy says, was the wrong goal in 2003. "It is time for this administration to admit that it was wrong, and turn in a new direction.… We need to actively engage the Iraqi people in governing and rebuilding their country. Our soldiers now risking their lives in Iraq deserve no less. Here at home, all Americans are being asked to bear the burden too—and they deserve more than a phony summons to support our troops by pursuing policies that will only condemn them to greater and greater danger. Yes, we must stay the course—but not the wrong course." [CommonDreams, 10/16/2003]
Entity Tags: United Nations, Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy, Condoleezza Rice, George Herbert Walker Bush, George W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft, Bush administration (43)
President Bush holding the fake turkey. [Source: AP / Anja Niedringhaus]President Bush makes a surprise visit to Iraq to have a carefully staged "Thanksgiving dinner with the troops" at the Baghdad International Airport. [White House, 11/27/2003] Most of the 600 or so troops present for the meal are from the Army's 1st Armored Division and 82nd Airborne units. For security reasons, Bush never leaves the airport, and leaves shortly after the meal. Bush's entrance is carefully choreographed, with Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer telling the gathered troops that the most senior official present should read Bush's Thanksgiving proclamation. Then, turning to a curtained-off area and asking, "Is there anybody back there who's more senior than us?" Bush enters the area wearing military fatigues. [USA Today, 11/27/2003] Fake Turkey - Bush poses with a lovely, huge, golden-brown turkey. The turkey is not real, but merely a prop prepared by the food service arm of Kellogg, Brown and Root. The troops actually eat turkey and vegetables from a cafeteria-style steam tray. White House officials later claim not to have known about the enormous decorative bird, and say that Bush's memorable photo-op of him holding the fake turkey was an impromptu moment that was not planned in advance. Military sources later say that such decorative turkeys are standard features of holiday "chow lines." [CBS News, 11/27/2003] Some Soldiers Denied Dinner - Not all the soldiers at the airport are able to eat with the president, or in fact are able to eat at all. In December, Sergeant Loren Russell writes in a letter to Stars & Stripes that soldiers from his unit were denied entrance to the Bob Hope Dining Facility, where Thanksgiving dinner was being served, "because they were in the wrong unit." Russell writes that his soldiers "understand that President Bush ate there and that upgraded security was required. But why were only certain units turned away? Why wasn't there a special meal for President Bush and that unit in the new dance hall adjoining the 1st Armored Division's band building? And all of this happened on Thanksgiving, the best meal of the year when soldiers get a taste of home cooking." [Stars and Stripes, 1/27/2007] Secret Flight - The trip to Iraq is conducted under conditions of extreme secrecy; only Laura Bush and a very few top officials are told of the planned visit. Had word leaked of the trip, it would have been canceled. Most White House officials and reporters are told that Bush would spend the holiday at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Instead, Bush, accompanied by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, is driven away in an unmarked vehicle. At a nearby airport, he boards Air Force One from the back stairs instead of the usual front entrance. After stopping at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where the entourage picks up a few aides, and four reporters and one camera crew sworn to secrecy, the aircraft departs for Iraq. In all, the press corps traveling with the president totals five reporters, five photographers, a TV producer, and a two-person camera crew. All the media members in the group had agreed to surrender their cell phones and wireless e-mail devices beforehand in order to keep them from surreptitiously reporting on the impending trip. [USA Today, 11/27/2003; PressThink, 12/3/2003; Associated Press, 6/14/2006] Public Relations Effort - According to New York Times columnist and media reporter Frank Rich, the trip was set in motion by the White House's public relations team and its desire to chase the Chinook tragedy (see November 2, 2003 and November 2, 2003) off the front pages. [Rich, 2006, pp. 110] White House officials say that Bush had been talking about such a visit for weeks, and the final decision to go was reached the day before in a conference call between Bush and Vice President Cheney. [USA Today, 11/27/2003] Journalism professor Jay Rosen later observes that the willing participation of reporters in this kind of event destroys the boundaries between reporters and the subjects they cover. Rosen will write: "The whole notion of the trip as an independently existing thing that could be 'covered' is transparently false, as the White House warning to journalists demonstrates. If word leaked out, the trip was to be canceled—it would no longer exist—and the airplane would turn around and head back to Washington. That does not mean the trip was illegitimate to undertake or to treat as news; but it does mean that its potential legitimacy as news event lies outside the logic of 'things happen and we cover them' or 'the president took decisive action and the press reported it.' Here, the press took action and it was equally decisive. It agreed, first, to go along and record the scene and then to keep the flight a secret; and these decisions by journalists were not incidental to Bush's decision to go but integral to it. Would the trip have made sense, would the danger have been justified, if reporters and camera crews were not taken along? The answer is clearly no. But this means the press is part of the presidency, an observation that, while true enough, makes it harder to cover the presidency as an independently existing thing." [PressThink, 12/3/2003] Negative Reactions - An Army nurse at the American hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, which receives and treats wounded US troops coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, has a different take on Bush's visit. In an e-mail to the Boston Globe, the nurse, who does not wish her name made public, will write: "My 'Bush Thanksgiving' was a little different.… I spent it at the hospital taking care of a young West Point lieutenant wounded in Iraq. He had stabilization of his injuries in Iraq and then two long surgeries here for multiple injuries; he's just now stable enough to send back to the USA. After a few bites of dinner I let him sleep, and then cried with him as he woke up from a nightmare. When he pressed his fists into his eyes and rocked his head back and forth he looked like a little boy. They all do, all 19 on the ward that day, some missing limbs, eyes, or worse.… It's too bad Mr. Bush didn't add us to his holiday agenda. The men said the same, but you'll never read that in the paper. Mr. President would rather lift fake turkeys for photo ops, it seems. Maybe because my patients wouldn't make very pleasant photos… most don't look all that great, and the ones with facial wounds and external fixation devices look downright scary. And a heck of a lot of them can't talk, anyway, and some never will talk again.… Well, this is probably more than you want to know, but there's no spin on this one. It's pure carnage.… Like all wars, the 'shock and awe' eventually trickles down to blood and death. But you won't see that. I do, every single day." Globe columnist Joan Vennochi will add: "How much of this is enough for the president of the United States? It depends whether the goal is public relations for a presidential campaign or public acknowledgment of the consequences of war—the human consequences. They are convalescing in places like Landstuhl." [Boston Globe, 12/11/2003] In 2007, author Annia Ciezadlo will recall her Thanksgiving in Baghdad during the same time. Ciezadlo, who spent the holiday with an Iraqi family, will write: "We saw pictures of him later, serving Thanksgiving dinner to American soldiers, posing like a waiter with a great big [turkey] on a tray. He never left the base. 'You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq,' he told the troops, 'so we don't have to face them in our own country.' An Iraqi friend once told me it was that line about fighting in Iraq to make America safer that turned his adoration of Mr. Bush into hatred." [New York Times, 11/27/2007]
Entity Tags: Dan Bartlett, Frank Rich, George W. Bush, Annia Ciezadlo, Kellogg, Brown and Root, Condoleezza Rice, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, US Department of the Army, Loren Russell, Laura Bush, Jay Rosen, L. Paul Bremer
Timeline Tags: Iraq under US Occupation, Domestic Propaganda, 2004 Elections
Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer (see May 1, 2003) asserts his independence from US government oversight, a stance assisted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Bremer is formally slated to report to Rumsfeld, but says Rumsfeld has no direct authority over him. Instead, Bremer insists, he reports directly to the White House. Rumsfeld, usually jealously protective of his bureaucratic prerogatives, tells National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice: "He doesn't work for me. He works for you" (see Late September, 2003). But Bremer is not willing to report to either Rice or the National Security Council (NSC) either. The White House had already announced that it had no intention of playing a large role in guiding the reconstruction of Iraq, and the NSC's Executive Steering Group, set up in 2002 to coordinate war efforts, has been dissolved. Finally, Bremer flatly refuses to submit to Rice's oversight. As a result, Bremer has already made fundamental policy shifts on his own authority that are at odds with what Pentagon planners had intended (see May 16, 2003 and May 23, 2003), with what many feel will be—or already have caused—disastrous consequences. [Roberts, 2008, pp. 128-129]
Entity Tags: Coalition Provisional Authority, Bush administration (43), National Security Council, L. Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice
9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow says that former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke must be placed under oath when he is interviewed by the commission. 'I Know Dick Clarke' - Usually, former and current government officials being interviewed by the commission are not placed under oath; this only happens when there is, in author Philip Shenon's words, "a substantial reason to doubt their truthfulness." Zelikow tells the staff, "I know Dick Clarke," and, according to Shenon, argues that "Clarke was a braggart who would try to rewrite history to justify his errors and slander his enemies, [National Security Adviser Condoleezza] Rice in particular." Zelikow is close to Rice (see January 3, 2001, May-June 2004, and February 28, 2005). Zelikow had also previously told Warren Bass, the commission staffer responsible for the National Security Council, that Clarke should not be believed and that his testimony was suspect. Staff Cannot Talk to Zelikow about Rice - Due to Zelikow's constant disparagement of Clarke and for other reasons, the staff come to realize that, in Shenon's words, "they could not have an open discussion in front of Zelikow about Condoleezza Rice and her performance as national security adviser." In addition, "They could not say openly, certainly not to Zelikow's face, what many on the staff came to believe: that Rice's performance in the spring and summer of 2001 amounted to incompetence, or something not far from it." Effect of Recusal Agreement - Zelikow has concluded a recusal agreement in the commission, as he was involved in counterterrorism on the Bush administration transition team. As a consequence of this agreement, he cannot be involved in questioning Clarke on any issue involving the transition. Shenon will comment: "[Zelikow] had reason to dread what Clarke was about to tell the commission: It was Zelikow, after all, who had been the architect of Clarke's demotion in the early weeks of the Bush administration, a fact that had never been aired publicly." First Interview - Clarke is first interviewed by the commission on December 18, and the interview is mostly conducted by Daniel Marcus, the commission's lawyer. Marcus and the other staffers present at the interview realize within minutes what an important witness Clarke will be and what damage he could do to Bush and Rice. Marcus will later comment, "Here was a guy who is totally unknown outside the Beltway, who had been a Washington bureaucrat all of his life, who turns out to be a dynamite witness." Clarke tells the commission of charges he will later repeat publicly (see March 21, 2004 and March 24, 2004), saying that Bush and Rice did not take terrorism seriously enough in the run-up to the attacks, that they were more focused on issues left over from the Cold War, and that Bush tried to get him to link the attacks to Iraq. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 145-146, 196-199]
Entity Tags: Warren Bass, Philip Zelikow, Daniel Marcus, 9/11 Commission, Richard A. Clarke, Condoleezza Rice
Diane Sawyer with President Bush. [Source: USA Today]President Bush gives a rare one-on-one interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer. Among other topics addressed, he reaffirms his belief that terrorists operated in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion (citing Ansar al-Islam, "a al-Qaeda affiliate, I would call them al-Qaeda, was active in Iraq before the war, hence—a terrorist tie with Iraq…") and that his insistence that Iraq had an active and threatening WMD program was based on "good solid intelligence[, t]he same intelligence that my predecessor [Bill Clinton] operated on." [ABC News, 12/17/2003] In 2004, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean will respond, "His predecessor, however, never claimed that Saddam [Hussein] had imminent… nuclear capacity, nor did his predecessor say that Iraq had ties to al-Qaeda." [Dean, 2004, pp. 153] Iraq Had WMD Program, Bush Insists - Bush insists that weapons inspector David Kay proved Iraq did have a burgeoning and active WMD program (see October 2, 2003), and implies that it is just a matter of time before the actual weapons are found. Sawyer says, "But stated as a hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons still," to which Bush replies, "So what's the difference?" Sawyer appears taken aback by the answer, and Bush continues that since it was possible Hussein would acquire WMDs, it was necessary to "get rid of him" to make "the world a safer, freer place." Sawyer presses the point home: "What would it take to convince you he didn't have weapons of mass destruction?" and Bush responds: "Saddam Hussein was a threat. And the fact that he is gone means America is a safer country." Sawyer asks, "And if he doesn't have weapons of mass destruction?" and Bush replies tartly: "Diane, you can keep asking the question. I'm telling you, I made the right decision for America. Because Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction, invaded Kuwait (see August 2, 1990). But the fact that he is not there is, means America's a more secure country." [ABC News, 12/17/2003] White House press secretary Scott McClellan will later write, "Bush's response was telling, much more so than I stopped to contemplate at the time." [McClellan, 2008, pp. 200] Why Read the News? - Sawyer asks Bush about his reported penchant for not reading the news for himself. Bush confirms that he gets his news from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House chief of staff Andrew Card, who, Sawyer says, "give you a flavor of what's in the news." Bush agrees that this is the case, and says: "Yeah. I get my news from people who don't editorialize. They give me the actual news. And it makes it easier to digest, on a daily basis, the facts." Sawyer asks, "Is it just harder to read constant criticism or to read?" to which Bush replies: "Why even put up with it when you can get the facts elsewhere? I'm a lucky man. I've got, it's not just Condi and Andy. It's all kinds of people in my administration who are charged with different responsibilities. And they come in and say, 'this is what's happening, this isn't what's happening.'" Laura Bush, who joins her husband halfway through the interview, says she reads the newspapers, including the opinion columns, but says: "I agree with him that we can actually get what is really happening from the people who really know what's happening. And that isn't always what you get in the newspapers.… There are certain columnists I won't read. I mean, what, you know, why would I?" [ABC News, 12/17/2003] Wilson: Bush 'Systematically Deceived' US, 'Betrayed' Military - Months later, former ambassador Joseph Wilson will write: "It was clear, from this one statement, […] that the administration, from the president on down, had systematically deceived the American people, Congress, and the world. Most of all, the president had betrayed the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who so bravely march out when ordered into war to defend our country against immiment threats, or even from grave and gathering dangers. Iraq had posed neither. The difference, Mr. President, I thought, is that war was not the only option, or even the best one. We had gone to war over capacity, not stockpiles, not mushroom clouds (see September 4, 2002), not intent, or, as John Bolton had earlier said more directly, because scientists were on Saddam's payroll. Our troops had died—and were continuing to die—in vain. I came away from this sad revelation resolved that, unlike the other bitterly divisive war debate of my lifetime, over the war in Vietnam, we should admit this terrible fact sooner, rather than later, and thereby revise our national policies accordingly." [Wilson, 2004, pp. 414-415]
Entity Tags: Laura Bush, William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton, Scott McClellan, Joseph C. Wilson, David Kay, Diane Sawyer, Al-Qaeda, George W. Bush, Andrew Card, Condoleezza Rice, Ansar al-Islam, Saddam Hussein
Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), meets with Secretary of State Colin Powell and says that the ICRC has "serious concerns about detainees in Iraq," though according to a senior State Department official, he does not detail them. During his visit, Kellenberger also meets with Condoleezza Rice and, reportedly, with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, though it is unclear what precisely is discussed. White House Spokesman Sean McCormack will later say that "Iraq was not mentioned" during the meeting with Rice. Rather the main topic of discussion was Guantanamo, he says. [Observer, 5/9/2004; Baltimore Sun, 5/12/2004]
Entity Tags: Sean McCormack, Paul Wolfowitz, Colin Powell, Jakob Kellenberger, Condoleezza Rice
The New York Times later reports that in private discussions with the 9/11 Commission in January 2002, National Security Adviser Condoleeza "Rice [is] asked about statements she made in 2001 and 2002 [(see May 16, 2002)] that 'we could not have imagined' that terrorists would use aircraft as weapons by piloting them into buildings. She [tells] the commission that she regret[s] those comments, because at the time she was not aware of intelligence, developed in the late 1990s, that some terrorists were thinking of using airplanes as guided missiles. She told the commission in the private session that she should have said, 'I could not have imagined,' according to one official familiar with the testimony, making it clear that some in the intelligence community knew about those threats but that she did not." [New York Times, 4/6/2004] However, in a March 22, 2004 op-ed for the Washington Post entitled "For the Record," she essentially repeats her 2002 comments, claiming, "Despite what some have suggested, we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles, though some analysts speculated that terrorists might hijack airplanes to try to free US-held terrorists." [Washington Post, 3/22/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, 9/11 Commission
Former CIA Director George Tenet privately testifies before the 9/11 Commission. He provides a detailed account of an urgent al-Qaeda warning he gave to the White House on July 10, 2001 (see July 10, 2001). According to three former senior intelligence officials, Tenet displays the slides from the PowerPoint presentation he gave the White House and even offers to testify about it in public. According to the three former officials, the hearing is attended by commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, the commission's executive director Philip Zelikow, and some staff members. When Tenet testifies before the 9/11 Commission in public later in the year, he will not mention this meeting. The 9/11 Commission will neglect to include Tenet's warning to the White House in its July 2004 final report. [McClatchy Newspapers, 10/2/2006] Portions of a transcript of Tenet's private testimony will be leaked to reporters in 2006. According to the transcript, Tenet's testimony included a detailed summary of the briefing he had with CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black on July 10 (see July 10, 2001). The transcript also reveals that he told the commission that Black's briefing had prompted him to request an urgent meeting with Rice about it. This closely matches the account in Woodward's 2006 book that first widely publicized the July meeting (see September 29, 2006). [Washington Post, 10/3/2006] Shortly after Woodward's book is published, the 9/11 Commission staff will deny knowing that the July meeting took place. Zelikow and Ben-Veniste, who attended Tenet's testimony, will say they are unable to find any reference to it in their files. But after the transcript is leaked, Ben-Veniste will suddenly remember details of the testimony (see September 30-October 3, 2006) and will say that Tenet did not indicate that he left his meeting with Rice with the impression he had been ignored, as Tenet has alleged. [New York Times, 10/2/2006] Woodward's book will describe why Black, who also privately testified before the 9/11 Commission, felt the commission did not mention the July meeting in their final report: "Though the investigators had access to all the paperwork about the meeting, Black felt there were things the commissions wanted to know about and things they didn't want to know about. It was what happened in investigations. There were questions they wanted to ask, and questions they didn't want to ask." [Woodward, 2006, pp. 78]
Entity Tags: Richard Ben-Veniste, Philip Zelikow, White House, Cofer Black, Central Intelligence Agency, Condoleezza Rice, 9/11 Commission, Al-Qaeda, George J. Tenet
David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group, meets with President Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card. The day before (see January 28, 2004), Kay had told Congress, "We were almost all wrong" about intelligence on Iraq's presumed arsenal of illegal weapons. Bush wants to know what went wrong, but shows no anger. "The president accepted it," Kay later recalls. "There was no sign of disappointment from Bush. He was at peace with his decision to go to war. I don't think he ever lost ten minutes of sleep over the failure to find WMDs." [Isikoff and Corn, 2006, pp. 349]
Entity Tags: David Kay, Andrew Card, Condoleezza Rice, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, George W. Bush
White House press secretary Scott McClellan testifies before the grand jury investigating the Plame Wilson leak. He is quizzed before some 35 or 40 jurors by prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg. Most of the questions are reiterations of those asked in earlier interviews (see Mid-October 2003, Late October or Early November, 2003, and January 2004), but Zeidenberg asks some that have not yet been asked. One question is whether McClellan had told National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to say that White House political adviser Karl Rove was not involved in the leak before her September 28 appearance on Meet the Press. Though Rice had not specifically discussed the leak on that broadcast, McClellan recalls briefing her on a number of issues. He cannot recall, he testifies, whether he discussed the subject of the leak with Rice or not, and tells Zeidenberg that he probably told her what he said publicly (see September 29, 2003), and to refer back to that if pressed. McClellan is startled when Zeidenberg asks him bluntly whether President Bush had told him in the Oval Office that Rove had denied to him any involvement in the leak. McClellan knows that Bush has not yet testified, but chief of staff Andrew Card has, and Card most likely revealed Bush's comments. McClellan will later write: "Knowing the president's preference that his private conversations remain private, I hesitated momentarily [in answering the question]. But this was different. A frog in my throat, I managed to confirm that the president had indeed made such a statement." [McClellan, 2008, pp. 225-227] Days after McClellan's testimony, someone the Washington Post identifies as "a source close to the investigation" will say that McClellan and other White House witnesses are asked about cell phone calls, and shown handwritten, diary-style notes from colleagues and e-mails from reporters to administration officials. The source will say the questioning of McClellan and others is often quite aggressive, with agents focusing on specific conversations with journalists. "Even witnesses that they describe as being potentially helpful are being treated as adversaries," the source will say. [Washington Post, 2/10/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Scott McClellan, Peter Zeidenberg, George W. Bush, Andrew Card, Karl C. Rove
The 9/11 Commission has a private meeting with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. The meeting is held in the White House's Situation Room, the location apparently chosen by Rice in an attempt to impress the commissioners. Questioning Is 'Polite but Pointed' - The White House has insisted that the encounter be described as a "meeting" rather than an "interview," because that would sound too formal and prosecutorial. In addition, there is to be no recording of the interview and Rice is not placed under oath. The time limit on the interview is two hours, but it actually lasts four. Rice's close associate Philip Zelikow, the 9/11 Commission's executive director, attends, but is not allowed to say anything because he has been recused from this part of the investigation. The questioning is led by Daniel Marcus, the Commission's lawyer, and will be described as "polite but pointed" by author Philip Shenon. Commissioners Privately Critical of Rice - The commissioners are aware of allegations that Rice performed poorly in the run-up to 9/11 (see Before December 18, 2003), but are unwilling to aggressively attack an accomplished black woman. However, they think the allegations are well-founded. Commission Chairman Tom Kean will say, "obviously Rice bears a tremendous amount of responsibility for not understanding how serious this threat [of terrorist attacks] was." Commissioner John Lehman will say that he has "no doubt" former National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger would have paid more attention to the warnings of a forthcoming attack. Fellow commissioner Slade Gorton will say that the administration's failure to act on the urgent warnings was "spectacularly wrong." Commissioner Jamie Gorelick will comment that Rice "assumed away the hardest part of her job," and that she should have focused on keeping the president up to date on events, rather than trying to put his intentions into action. Commissioner Bob Kerrey will agree with this and will later recall one of Rice's comments at this meeting, "I took the president's thoughts and I helped the president describe what he was thinking." According to Kerrey, this shows how Rice performed her job incorrectly. She should have been advising the president on what to do, not packaging his thoughts. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 230-239]
Entity Tags: Richard Ben-Veniste, Thomas Kean, Slade Gorton, Philip Zelikow, Daniel Marcus, Jamie Gorelick, 9/11 Commission, Bob Kerrey, Condoleezza Rice, John Lehman
Philip Zelikow. [Source: Miller Center]The 9/11 Family Steering Committee and 9/11 Citizens Watch demand the resignation of Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission. The demand comes shortly after former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke told the New York Times that Zelikow was present when he gave briefings on the threat posed by al-Qaeda to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice from December 2000 to January 2001. The Family Steering Committee, a group of 9/11 victims' relatives, writes: "It is clear that [Zelikow] should never have been permitted to be a member of the Commission, since it is the mandate of the Commission to identify the source of failures. It is now apparent why there has been so little effort to assign individual culpability. We now can see that trail would lead directly to the staff director himself." Zelikow has been interviewed by his own Commission because of his role during the transition period. But a spokesman for the Commission claims that having Zelikow recluse himself from certain topics is enough to avoid any conflicts of interest. [New York Times, 3/20/2004; United Press International, 3/23/2004] 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean defends Zelikow on NBC's Meet the Press, calling him "one of the best experts on terrorism in the whole area of intelligence in the entire country" and "the best possible person we could have found for the job." [NBC, 4/4/2004] Commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton adds, "I found no evidence of a conflict of interest of any kind." Author Philip Shenon will comment: "If there had been any lingering doubt that Zelikow would survive as executive director until the end of the investigation, Kean and Hamilton had put it to rest with their statements of support… on national television. Zelikow would remain in charge." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 263] However, Salon points out that the "long list" of Zelikow's writings "includes only one article focused on terrorism," and he appears to have written nothing about al-Qaeda. [Salon, 4/6/2004]
Entity Tags: Philip Zelikow, Thomas Kean, Philip Shenon, Richard A. Clarke, Lee Hamilton, Al-Qaeda, 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Citizens Watch, Condoleezza Rice, 9/11 Family Steering Committee
The White House responds aggressively to comments made the previous day by former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke (see March 24, 2004), who accused the Bush administration of doing little about terrorism prior to 9/11 (see March 21, 2004). Author Philip Shenon will characterize the situation at the White House following the comments as a "near panic" and "genuine alarm," because Clarke's allegations are "a direct threat to [President] Bush's reelection hopes." Rice Leads Response - White House chief of staff Andy Card will say that the most upset person is Clarke's former boss Condoleezza Rice, who takes the lead in responding. She appears on several television shows, claiming—in what Shenon calls a "remarkably angry tone"—on 60 Minutes: "Dick Clarke just does not know what he's talking about.… Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction, and he chose not to." Vice President Dick Cheney says that Clarke has a "grudge" against the administration because he did not get a position at the Department of Homeland Security that he wanted, adding that Clarke "wasn't in the loop, frankly" and "clearly missed a lot of what was going on." Shenon will comment, "Cheney's remarks had unintentionally proved exactly what Clarke was saying—that his authority was so diminished in the Bush administration that he had no ability to reach the decision makers in the White house when threats emerged." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 277-279] Having It Both Ways? - "You can't have it both ways," adds retired General Wesley Clark, the former commander of NATO forces in Bosnia. He was "either the counterterrorism czar and was responsible and knew what was going on, or the administration gave him a title and didn't put any emphasis on terrorism and that's why he wasn't in the loop." [Rich, 2006, pp. 114-119] Surrogate Smears - Surrogates try dirty tactics, for example conservative columnist Robert Novak suggests that Clarke is motivated by racial prejudice against Rice, a "powerful African-American woman," and conservative commentator Laura Ingraham asks why "this single man" is such a "drama queen." Although Clarke anticipated attacks, he is surprised at their ferocity. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 277-279] Former White House communications director Karen Hughes interrupts her book tour to criticize Clarke for supposedly promoting his own book, Against All Enemies. Right-wing bloggers, perhaps given direction by White House officials, begin swapping lascivious and baseless rumors about Clarke's sexual orientation. [Rich, 2006, pp. 114-119] The Washington Times accuses Clarke of being "a political chameleon who is starved for attention after years of toiling anonymously in government bureaucracies." Neoconservative columnist Charles Krauthammer calls Clarke "a partisan perjurer." At the extreme edge of the attack is conservative author Ann Coulter, who with no evidence whatsoever, accuses Clarke of racism: she portrays him as thinking of Condoleezza Rice, "[T]he black chick is a dummy" whom Bush promoted from "cleaning the Old Executive Office Building at night." [Salon, 3/29/2004] Senator John McCain (R-AZ) calls the attacks "the most vigorous offensive I've ever seen from the administration on any issue." [Washington Post, 3/28/2004] Clarke's Counters - Republican leaders also threaten to release testimony Clarke gave in 2002, and Clarke says he welcomes the release. The testimony remains classified. [Associated Press, 3/26/2004; Associated Press, 3/28/2004] Clarke calls on Rice to release all e-mail communications between the two of them before 9/11; these are not released either. [Guardian, 3/29/2004] Despite the attacks, Clarke's partners in a consulting business stick with him, as does ABC News, which recently hired him as a terrorism consultant. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 277-279] Mishandled Response? - According to Reuters, a number of political experts conclude, "The White House may have mishandled accusations leveled by… Clarke by attacking his credibility, keeping the controversy firmly in the headlines into a second week." [Reuters, 3/29/2004] No Evidence of Contradiction - However, a review of declassified citations from Clarke's 2002 testimony provides no evidence of contradiction, and White House officials familiar with the testimony agree that any differences are matters of emphasis, not fact. [Washington Post, 4/4/2004]
Entity Tags: Robert Novak, John McCain, Karen Hughes, Philip Shenon, Condoleezza Rice, Charles Krauthammer, Laura Ingraham, Andrew Card, Ann Coulter, Wesley Clark, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Richard A. Clarke, Washington Times
A media firestorm follows the previous day's appearance by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke on CBS's 60 Minutes (see March 21, 2004). In that interview and in his upcoming book, Against All Enemies, Clarke is frank about the administration's stubborn insistence on tying Iraq to the 9/11 attacks and using those attacks to justify a war it had already begun planning (see Between March 2001 and May 2001). Clarke also gives incendiary information about the repeated warnings Bush and other officials had received about the imminent attacks, warnings which were roundly ignored (see Between August 6 and September 11, 2001 and September 4, 2001). White House communications director Dan Bartlett calls Clarke's charges "baseless," and "politically motivated," without giving any evidence of any such political loyalties or motivations Clarke may have. Clarke refuses to retreat, and reiterates his claims on today's morning talk shows (see March 22, 2004); the White House sends National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice onto the same shows to refute Clarke. [Rich, 2006, pp. 114-119]
Entity Tags: Bush administration (43), Dan Bartlett, Richard A. Clarke, Condoleezza Rice
NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw interviews National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Brokaw criticizes Rice's refusal to appear publicly before the 9/11 Commission because of "national security concerns" while at the same time appearing on a plethora of news broadcasts to defend the administration's actions surrounding the 9/11 attacks (see March 30, 2004). Brokaw says: "You've been meeting with the Commission in private, but you will not go before this very public meeting, citing separation of powers, executive privilege. But your predecessors have gone before Congress in the past. Even President Ford testified about his pardon of Richard Nixon (see Mid-October 1974). Executive privilege is really a flexible concept. Why not go to the president on this issue that is so profoundly important to America, and say, I should be testifying?" Rice defends her decision not to testify under oath and before the cameras, saying: "I would like nothing better than to be able to testify before the Commission. I have spent more than four hours with the Commission. I'm prepared to go and talk to them again, anywhere, any time, anyplace, privately. But I have to be responsible and to uphold the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature. It is a matter of whether the president can count on good confidential advice from his staff." Brokaw replies: "Dr. Rice, with all due respect, I think a lot of people are watching this tonight saying, well, if she can appear on television, write commentaries, but she won't appear before the Commission under oath. It just doesn't seem to make sense." Rice reiterates that she is defending "a constitutional principle," and insists, "We're not hiding anything." Author and media critic Frank Rich will later write, "The White House, so often masterly in its TV management, particularly when it came to guarding its 9/11 franchise in an election year, was wildly off its game" during this period. Eventually Rice, unable to defend her refusal to testify in light of her frequent public pronouncements, will agree to testify before the Commission (see April 8, 2004). [Rich, 2006, pp. 114-119]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, 9/11 Commission, Tom Brokaw, Frank Rich, NBC News
The White House discloses to Fox News that former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke was the anonymous official who gave a background briefing to reporters in August 2002 praising the Bush administration's record on terrorism (see August 22, 2002). This move, which violates a longstanding confidentiality policy, is made hours before Clarke is to testify to the 9/11 Commission (see March 24, 2004). Clarke recently went public with criticism of the administration (see March 21, 2004) and is being attacked by it (see March 22, 2004 and Shortly After). Author Philip Shenon will comment, "In agreeing to allow Fox News to reveal that Clarke had given the 2002 briefing, the White House was attempting to paint him as a liar—a one-time Bush defender who had become a Bush critic in order to sell a book." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says to the media: "There are two very different stories here. These stories can't be reconciled." [Fox News, 3/24/2004; Washington Post, 3/25/2004; Washington Post, 3/26/2004; Shenon, 2008, pp. 280-281] Opposing Spin? - Shenon will add that in the briefing Clarke was "spin[ning] the facts" in order to try to knock down an article unfavorable to the administration published by Time magazine, although "the spin took him perilously close to dishonesty, albeit the sort of dishonesty practiced every day in official Washington." Philip Zelikow, the 9/11 Commission's executive director and a long-term opponent of Clarke (see January 3, 2001 and January 27, 2003), is delighted by the story and tells a Commission staffer that it might be enough to end the Clarke "circus," adding, "Does it get any better than this?" [Shenon, 2008, pp. 280-281] Later trying a similar line of attack, Republican Senate leader Bill Frist will ask "[i]f [Clarke] lied under oath to the United States Congress" in closed testimony in 2002, and also ask if Clarke is attempting to promote his book. According to media critic Frank Rich, Frist's credibility is undermined by his use of his Senate status to promote his own book, a virtually worthless primer entitled When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism from the Senate's Only Doctor. Frist's accusation that Clarke revealed classified information in his book falls flat when Clarke notes that the White House vetted his book for possible security transgressions before publication. [Washington Post, 3/27/2004; Rich, 2006, pp. 114-119] No Evidence of Contradiction - A review of declassified citations from Clarke's 2002 testimony provides no evidence of contradiction, and White House officials familiar with the testimony agree that any differences are matters of emphasis, not fact. [Washington Post, 4/4/2004]
Entity Tags: Philip Shenon, Richard A. Clarke, Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikow, Washington Times, Frank Rich, Bill Frist
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline, 2004 Elections
Former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke, lambasted by Bush administration supporters (see March 24, 2004) for his criticism of the administration's foreign policies (see March 21, 2004 and March 24, 2004), counters some of that criticism by noting that when he resigned from the administration a year earlier, he was highly praised by President Bush (see January 31, 2003). Differing Characterizations from Administration - On Meet the Press, Clarke reads aloud the handwritten note from Bush that lauds his service, telling host Tim Russert: "This is his writing. This is the president of the United States' writing. And when they're engaged in character assassination of me, let's just remember that on January 31, 2003: 'Dear Dick, you will be missed. You served our nation with distinction and honor. You have left a positive mark on our government.' This is not the normal typewritten letter that everybody gets. This is the president's handwriting. He thinks I served with distinction and honor. The rest of his staff is out there trying to destroy my professional life, trying to destroy my reputation, because I had the temerity to suggest that a policy issue should be discussed. What is the role of the war on terror vis-a-vis the war in Iraq? Did the war in Iraq really hurt the war on terror? Because I suggest we should have a debate on that, I am now being the victim of a taxpayer-paid—because all these people work for the government—character assassination campaign." Never Briefed Bush on Terrorism - Clarke also notes that the letter proves he never briefed Bush on terrorism because he was not allowed to provide such a briefing (see Early January 2001). He tells Russert: "You know, they're saying now that when I was afforded the opportunity to talk to him about cybersecurity, it was my choice. I could have talked about terrorism or cybersecurity. That's not true. I asked in January to brief him, the president, on terrorism, to give him the same briefing I had given Vice President Cheney, Colin Powell, and [Condoleezza] Rice. And I was told, 'You can't do that briefing, Dick, until after the policy development process.'" [MSNBC, 3/28/2004; Salon, 3/29/2004] Administration Should Declassifiy August 2002 Briefing - Clarke also calls on the administration to declassify "all six hours" of the briefing he gave to top officials in August 2002 about the impending threat of a terrorist attack (see August 22, 2002). The administration has selectively declassified material from that briefing to impugn Clarke's honesty and integrity. "I would welcome it being declassified," Clarke says. "But not just a little line here and there—let's declassify all six hours of my testimony." He also asks that the administration declassify the strategy reports from 2001 that he authored, and all of his e-mails between January 2001 and September 2001, to prove that the charges laid against him by the administration are false. He calls on the White House to end what he calls the "vicious personal attacks" and "character assassination," and focus on issues. "The issue is not about me," he tells a CNN reporter. "The issue is about the president's performance in the war on terrorism." [MSNBC, 3/28/2004; CNN, 3/28/2004]
Entity Tags: Colin Powell, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Bush administration (43), Richard A. Clarke, Tim Russert
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 2004 Elections
The Bush administration bows to growing pressure in the wake of former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 Commission (see March 21, 2004) and agrees to allow National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify before the Commission in public and under oath. It also agrees that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney can be interviewed in private by the whole Commission. However, according to the New York Times, "In exchange for her appearance, the [9/11 Commission] agreed not to seek testimony from other White House aides at public hearings, although it can continue to question them in private." [New York Times, 3/31/2004] There was some debate in the administration over whether Rice would testify or not. As she is national security adviser and there are no allegations of criminal wrongdoing, there are good grounds for Rice refusing to testify under the doctrine of executive privilege, and this argument is made in particular by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Cheney's counsel. However, Rice insists that she wants to testify. According to author Philip Shenon, she is "uncharacteristically frantic" over the issue. White House chief of staff Andy Card will say, "Condi desperately wanted to do it." Shenon will write of the decision, which is made by President Bush: "The political pressure on the White House was too great, and Rice's persuasive powers with the president were more than a match for Alberto Gonzales's. Rice was as strong-willed as any member of the White house staff. Gonzales was strong-willed until the president told him otherwise." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 289-292] Author and media critic Frank Rich will later write: "The dirty little secret about the uproar over Clarke's revelations were that many of them had been previously revealed by others, well before he published his book. But as the Bush administration knew better than anyone, perception was all, and perception began with images on television. Clarke had given the charges a human face." The administration is sending Rice to testify publicly before the Commission, Rich will write, in part because she is the most telegenic of Bush's top advisers, and has the best chance of "rebranding" the story with her face and testimony. [Rich, 2006, pp. 119]
Entity Tags: White House, Frank Rich, Philip Shenon, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), Alberto R. Gonzales, 9/11 Commission, David S. Addington, Andrew Card
US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice demands that Jamaica expel Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the region, claiming that his presence in the Caribbean will increase tension in Haiti. She also threatens Jamaica, saying that if anything happens to US soldiers in Haiti, that Jamaica would be blamed and subjected to the full force of the US. [Democracy Now!, 4/25/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Timeline Tags: Haiti Coup
Condoleezza Rice sworn in before the 9/11 Commission. [Source: Larry Downing/ Reuters]National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testifies before the 9/11 Commission under oath and with the threat of perjury. The Bush administration originally opposed her appearance, but relented after great public demand (see March 30, 2004). [Independent, 4/3/2004] The testimony is a huge media event and major television networks interrupt their programming to carry it live. First, the Commission's Democratic Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton reads a statement trying to establish a tone of non-confrontation and saying that the Commission's purpose is "not to put any witness on the spot," but "to understand and to inform." Rice Reads Lengthy Statement - Knowing that she has a deal to appear only once and for a limited time, Rice begins by reading a statement much longer than those read by other witnesses testifying before the Commission, a move specifically approved by Hamilton and the Commission's chairman Tom Kean. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 293, 295] In the statement she repeats her claim that "almost all of the reports [before 9/11] focused on al-Qaeda activities outside the United States.… The information that was specific enough to be actionable referred to terrorists operation overseas." Moreover, she stresses that the "kind of analysis about the use of airplanes as weapons actually was never briefed to us." But she concedes: "In fact there were some reports done in '98 and '99. I think I was—I was certainly not aware of them." [Washington Post, 4/8/2004] Heated Questioning from Democrats - The exchanges with the Republican commissioners are polite, but Rice's interactions with the Democrats on the Commission become heated. According to author Philip Shenon, her strategy is to "try to run out the clock—talk and talk and talk, giving them no chance to ask follow-up questions before the 10 minutes that each of the commissioners had been allotted had run out." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 295] During questioning several subjects are discussed: Why didn't counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke brief President Bush on al-Qaeda before September 11? Clarke says he had wished to do so, but Rice states, "Clarke never asked me to brief the president on counterterrorism." What was the content of the briefing President Bush received on August 6, 2001 (see August 6, 2001)? While Rice repeatedly underlines that it was "a historical memo… not threat reporting," commissioners Richard Ben-Veniste and Tim Roemer ask her why it cannot therefore be declassified. [Washington Post, 4/8/2004] Asked what the PDB item's still-secret title is, Rice gives it as "Bin Laden Determined to Attack inside the United States," leading to an audible gasp from the audience. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 298] Two days later, the White House will finally publish it, and it will be shown to contain more than just historical information. Did Rice tell Bush of the existence of al-Qaeda cells in the US before August 6, 2001? Rice says that she does not remember whether she "discussed it with the president." Were warnings properly passed on? Rice points out: "The FBI issued at least three nationwide warnings to federal, state, and law enforcement agencies, and specifically stated that although the vast majority of the information indicated overseas targets, attacks against the homeland could not be ruled out. The FBI tasked all 56 of its US field offices to increase surveillance of known suspected terrorists and to reach out to known informants who might have information on terrorist activities." But commissioner Jamie Gorelick remarks: "We have no record of that. The Washington field office international terrorism people say they never heard about the threat, they never heard about the warnings." [Washington Post, 4/8/2004] Under questioning from Democratic commissioner Bob Kerrey, she admits that she worked with Philip Zelikow, the Commission's executive director, during the Bush administration transition, and that they discussed terrorism issues. She claims that a plan Clarke presented to her to roll back al-Qaeda in January 2001 (see January 25, 2001) was not actually a plan, but merely "a set of ideas and a paper" that had not been implemented. [Shenon, 2008, pp. 299-300] Central Issues Unresolved - Rice does not apologize to the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, as Clarke did weeks earlier. The Associated Press comments, "The blizzard of words in Condoleezza Rice's testimony Thursday did not resolve central points about what the government knew, should have known, did, and should have done before the September 11 terrorist attacks." [Associated Press, 4/8/2004] Testimony an 'Ambitious Feat of Jujitsu' - The Washington Post calls her testimony "an ambitious feat of jujitsu: On one hand, she made a case that 'for more than 20 years, the terrorist threat gathered, and America's response across several administrations of both parties was insufficient.' At the same time, she argued that there was nothing in particular the Bush administration itself could have done differently that would have prevented the attacks of September 11, 2001—that there was no absence of vigor in the White House's response to al-Qaeda during its first 233 days in office. The first thesis is undeniably true; the second both contradictory and implausible." [Washington Post, 4/9/2004] 'Cherry-Picking' Rice's Testimony - In 2009, Lawrence Wilkerson, who is chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2004, will recall: "John [Bellinger, the legal adviser to the National Security Council] and I had to work on the 9/11 Commission testimony of Condi. Condi was not gonna do it, not gonna do it, not gonna do it, and then all of a sudden she realized she better do it. That was an appalling enterprise. We would cherry-pick things to make it look like the president had been actually concerned about al-Qaeda. We cherry-picked things to make it look as if the vice president and others, Secretary Rumsfeld and all, had been. They didn't give a sh_t about al-Qaeda. They had priorities. The priorities were lower taxes, ballistic missiles, and the defense thereof." [Vanity Fair, 2/2009]
Entity Tags: Jamie Gorelick, Lee Hamilton, Lawrence Wilkerson, George W. Bush, John Bellinger, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bob Kerrey, Bush administration (43), Tim Roemer, Condoleezza Rice, Thomas Kean, Richard Ben-Veniste, 9/11 Commission, Richard A. Clarke
CIA Director George Tenet informs National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that the agency has been holding an innocent German named Khalid el-Masri at a black site for several months (see January 23 - March 2004). Rice's demeanor during the meeting will be described as "very flat, as always," and after hearing the story she says slowly, "Okay." Tenet then explains the plan to conduct a "reverse rendition," releasing el-Masri with a large amount of cash, but with no explanation to anyone, including the German government. Rice disagrees with the plan. "Your plan won't work. We have to tell the Germans. We can't put the president in the position of telling a lie to our allies," she says. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is also consulted about the matter, and agrees with Rice's assessment. [Mayer, 2008, pp. 286]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Central Intelligence Agency, Khalid el-Masri, Richard Armitage, George J. Tenet
Human Rights Watch sends a letter to US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice informing her that the ill treatment and torture of prisoners by the US military in Iraq is not limited to isolated incidents. The organization emphasizes that it is a systemic and widespread problem and urges the US to take immediate action to ensure that imprisonment and interrogation practices comply with international law. [Roth and Malinowski, 5/3/2004; Human Rights Watch, 5/7/2004]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Human Rights Watch
As the 9/11 Commission report is being finalized, the consultant charged with drafting it, Ernest May, comes to favor an account of the Bush administration's treatment of terrorism before 9/11 given by former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke. Clarke has said that the administration did not pay enough attention to the problem of terrorism, whereas his former superior, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, had argued the administration did what it could, but the attacks were unstoppable. May comes to this conclusion after reviewing the documentation obtained by the commission, despite the fact that he is close to the commission's executive director Philip Zelikow, who had worked with Rice in the past (see 1995 and January 3, 2001) and is trying to downplay Clarke's role. The language of the draft report reflects May's views, but others working on the report, including an unnamed prominent Democrat on the staff, say the language is "inflammatory," and get it taken out of the report. According to May, the report is then written in such a way as to avoid "even implicit endorsement of Clarke's public charge." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 390-391]
Entity Tags: 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice, Ernest May, Philip Zelikow, Richard A. Clarke
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell learn of the two-year-old Justice Department torture memo (see August 1, 2002) from the Washington Post article revealing its existence (see June 8, 2004). Both confront White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. According to a senior White House official, Rice "very angrily said there would be no more secret opinions on international and national security law," and threatens to go to President Bush if Gonzales keeps them out of the loop on anything else. Powell admiringly comments, as they are leaving Gonzales's office, that Rice was "in full Nurse Ratched mode," a reference to the head nurse of the mental hospital in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Neither of them take their objections to Vice President Cheney, says the official: that would be a much more dangerous course. [Washington Post, 6/25/2007]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Alberto R. Gonzales, Colin Powell
Former White House counsel John Dean examines the idea that the government may postpone the presidential elections in the light of an alleged terror threat (see July 8, 2004), and finds it wanting. Dean notes that the idea of postponing the elections is bogus: "There is no such proposal. In fact, it is not legally possible because there are no laws giving the president, or anyone else, such authority." A Homeland Security spokesperson has said, "DHS is not looking into a contingency plan," and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has said, "I don't know where the idea that there might be some postponement of elections comes from." As others have noted, Rice pointed out that even during the Civil War, then-President Abraham Lincoln refused to consider the idea of postponing the 1864 elections. Christopher Cox (R-CA), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said flatly: "Were we to postpone the elections, it would represent a victory for the terrorists.… The election is going to go forward." Dean writes "that the Bush administration has completely disregarded the need to protect the workings of our electoral process, which is highly susceptible to terror attacks," noting that large-scale, well-timed terror strikes could catastrophically disrupt the election process. [FindLaw, 7/26/2004] Author and media critic Frank Rich is more prosaic, writing in 2006 that both the terror alerts and the vague threats to consider suspending the elections are merely attempts to frighten and cow the American citizenry. [Rich, 2006, pp. 146]
Entity Tags: US Department of Homeland Security, House Homeland Security Committee, Condoleezza Rice, Christopher Cox, Frank Rich, John Dean
Timeline Tags: 2004 Elections
In early August 2004, Bush administration officials make multiple television appearances to defend increased alert levels in three cities during the previous week (see August 1, 2004). They also highlight the administration's focus on terror threats. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says "You have to go out and warn. You have a duty to warn." New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, appearing on the same program, says that he takes the warnings "very seriously," adding that they "helped to make us even more alert." However, retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander and Democratic presidential nominee, says that the way in which the warnings are used "undercut the credibility of the system." Former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke says the Bush administration's warning system is "a laughingstock" among state, local and business officials he has talked to. He says that Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge "is not a good spokesman for this issue. When he says things like 'Here's a warning,' then in the next breath says the president is doing a great job, that just raises suspicions." [CNN, 8/9/2004] Criticism of the terror alert system is wide-ranging. Robert Butterworth, a trauma psychologist in Los Angeles, says the alert system creates "anticipatory anxiety," in which unnecessary fear is spread among the public. Others believe that the very nature of the system is counter-productive. Robert Pfaltzgraff, a security expert at Tufts University, says that the system could alert terrorists to the information discovered by US officials and could jeopardize sources. The alerts could also be used by terrorists to mislead US officials. "Everyone is looking at truck bombs, car bombs, and suicide bombers," says Randall Larsen, CEO and founder of Homeland Security Associates; "How about if they planned a different kind of attack?" An increase in the alert level could also be seen as a challenge by a dedicated terrorist cell. "There's going to be a core group of people who want to do it in any event, and might even view it is a dare to see if they can actually do it," says Juliette Kayyem, a homeland security specialist at Harvard University. "Basically it's been a failed system so far." [Christian Science Monitor, 8/4/2004]
Entity Tags: Tom Ridge, Wesley Clark, Rudolph ("Rudy") Giuliani, Robert Pfaltzgraff, Robert Butterworth, Homeland Security Associates, Frances Townsend, Condoleezza Rice, Juliette Kayyem, Randall Larsen, Richard A. Clarke
Responding to a New York Times article which described how the CIA and the White House ignored expert opinions that the tubes were not meant for use as rotors in a gas centrifuge, Condoleezza Rice says on ABC's "This Week" program: "As I understand it, people are still debating this. And I'm sure they will continue to debate it."
[Washington Post, 10/4/2004]
A 1996 photograph of one of the Al Qaqaa storage bunkers. [Source: New York Times]The US media learns that Iraq's interim government reports that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives, used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads, and detonate nuclear weapons, are missing from a former military installation (see October 10, 2004). The facility, Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under US control but in reality is "a no-man's land," in the words of the New York Times, "picked over by looters as recently as" October 24. UN inspectors and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had monitored the huge cache of explosives for years. The IAEA says that machine tools usable for either nuclear or non-nuclear purposes are also missing. White House and Pentagon inspectors admit that the explosives disappeared some time after the US-led invasion of Iraq. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was informed of the missing explosives within the last month; according to the Times, "[i]t is unclear whether President Bush was informed." US officials began answering questions about the missing explosives after reporters from the Times and CBS's "60 Minutes" began asking questions. The CIA's Iraq Survey Group has been asked to investigate the disappearance. Similar Explosives Used in Other Terrorist Attacks - The immediate concern, according to US officials, is the explosives' possible use in major bombing attacks against American and/or Iraqi forces. The explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, can be used in bombs strong enough to destroy airplanes or large buildings. The Times notes that the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland (see After December 21, 1988) used less than a pound of such explosive. Larger amounts of the same kinds of explosives were used in the November 2003 Riyadh bombings (see May 12, 2003) and a September 1999 bombing of a Moscow apartment complex (see September 9, 1999 and September 13, 1999). The explosives can also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, the primary reason why it had been, until the invasion, monitored by UN inspectors from the IAEA. Repeated IAEA Warnings - The IAEA had publicly warned about the danger of the Al Qaqaa explosives before the invasion, and after the overthrow of the Iraqi government, IAEA officials specifically told US officials that they needed to keep the facility locked down (see May 2003). Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita says that the missing explosives need to be kept in perspective, as US and allied forces "have discovered and destroyed perhaps thousands of tons of ordnance of all types." Iraq's Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Rashad Omar, tells Times and CBS reporters: "Yes, they [the 380 tons of explosives] are missing. We don't know what happened." Omar says that after the invasion, Al Qaqaa was the responsibility of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which served as Iraq's de facto government until June 2004 (see June 28, 2004). "After the collapse of the regime, our liberation, everything was under the coalition forces, under their control," he says. "So probably they can answer this question, what happened to the materials." The CPA is defunct; Bush administration officials say they don't know where the explosives could be. One senior official says that the Qaqaa complex was listed as a "medium priority" site on the CIA's list of more than 500 sites that needed to be searched and secured during the invasion. "Should we have gone there? Definitely," says one senior official. Another senior official says that US soldiers gave the Qaqaa facility a cursory inspection during the push towards Baghdad in early April, but "saw no bunkers bearing the IAEA seal." Refusal to Allow IAEA Inspections after Occupation - Satellite photos taken in late 2003 showed that two of the ten bunkers containing HMX had exploded, presumably from bombing during the US offensive, but eight remained relatively intact. The Bush administration refused to let the IAEA back into Iraq to inspect and verify the Qaqaa facility or any of the other stockpiles formerly monitored by IAEA officials. By May 2004, the IAEA was warning CPA officials that the facility had probably been looted (see May 2004). More Unguarded Stockpiles - Iraq is dotted with unguarded stockpiles of explosives, say US military and administration officials. One senior administration official notes, "The only reason this stockpile was under seal is because it was located at Al Qaqaa," where nuclear work had gone on years ago. [New York Times, 10/25/2004]
Entity Tags: Lawrence Di Rita, New York Times, Condoleezza Rice, Coalition Provisional Authority, CBS News, Rashad Omar, US Department of Defense, International Atomic Energy Agency
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are re-elected to the US presidency for a second term. In the coming months, some important cabinet officials are replaced. Secretary of State Colin Powell resigns. Condoleezza Rice moves from National Security Adviser to Secretary of State. Her Deputy National Security Adviser Steven Hadley becomes the new National Security Adviser. Attorney General John Ashcroft resigns and is replaced by Alberto Gonzalez. Department of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge resigns and is replaced by Michael Chertoff. [CBS News, 11/30/2004]
Entity Tags: Alberto R. Gonzales, Colin Powell, Tom Ridge, Stephen J. Hadley, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, Michael Chertoff, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, John Ashcroft
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is accused of racism following remarks he makes about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on NBC's Meet the Press. Asked by moderator Tim Russert if he could support conservative Justice Antonin Scalia as chief justice, Reid says Scalia's ethics problems are troubling and that he disagrees with most of his positions, but adds that Scalia "is one smart guy." Asked if he could support Thomas, Reid says: "I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written. I don't—I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice." [NBC News, 12/5/2004] Conservative pundits are quick to accuse Reid of racism, though he never makes any mention of Thomas's race. On December 6, Charles Krauthammer tells a Fox News audience: "In the end, you've got to ask yourself, why Scalia, good, Thomas, bad in the eyes of a man like Reid. I say it's the liberal plantation mentality, in which if you're a man on the right and white, it's OK. If you are the man on the right and you're African-American, it's not." The same day, Clifford May tells a CNN audience: "Look, Justice Thomas is African-American and he's conservative. Some people [like Reid] will never forgive that and think that's an open opportunity to insult him." During his daytime radio broadcast, talk show host Rush Limbaugh tells his audience: "[I]t's not a new page in the playbook but it's certainly not as old as the playbook itself. But it's been around awhile. That is conservative blacks are inept, a la Clarence Thomas.… You notice how easy it is for these people to be critical of blacks." Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto writes that since Reid did not provide examples of Thomas's "poorly written" opinions, "[i]n the absence of such examples, one can't help but suspect that the new Senate Democratic leader is simply stereotyping Thomas as unintelligent because he is black." That evening, Sean Hannity, co-host of Fox's Hannity and Colmes, tells his listeners that Democrats routinely attack minority conservatives such as Thomas, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and federal judge nominee Miguel Estrada, and adds: "What I see is Democrats oppose African-Americans that are conservative, but yet they claim to support minority rights. And what I'm saying here is, why, if you're for the advancement of minorities, why do you oppose every conservative African-American or Hispanic American? Why is this pattern emerging?" On December 7, African-American conservative Armstrong Williams says on Fox's Hannity and Colmes: "Did you hear those racist remarks from Senator Harry Reid about Justice Thomas?… Harry Reid's the one—he said Thomas was an embarrassment. He said he cannot write. That is racism.… That is racism, only because of the hue of his skin.… Read his [Reid's] words. He was a racist." On December 8, Taranto writes in another Wall Street Journal column, "To try to make Republican judges seem menacing, the Dems could call them 'extremist' or 'out of the mainstream' (and if the judges happen to be black, add that their opinions are 'poorly written')." [Washington Post, 12/6/2004; Media Matters, 12/8/2004] Conservative columnist Ann Coulter will include Reid in her much wider attacks against what she calls "liberal racism" (see December 8, 2004).
Entity Tags: Clarence Thomas, Charles Krauthammer, Antonin Scalia, Ann Coulter, Tim Russert, Sean Hannity, Miguel Estrada, Armstrong Williams, Condoleezza Rice, Clifford May, James Taranto, Harry Reid, Rush Limbaugh
Incoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calls North Korea one of the world's six "outposts of tyranny." (The others are Cuba, Myanmar—which Rice identifies by its old name of Burma—Iran, Belarus, and Zimbabwe.) In 2008, author J. Peter Scoblic will cite Rice's characterization as another example of overheated Bush administration rhetoric that makes it all the more difficult to negotiate with the obstinate North Koreans over their nuclear program (see August 2003). [US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1/18/2005 ; BBC, 12/2007; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 243]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), Senate Foreign Relations Committee, J. Peter Scoblic
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says, "I think we have to view, at this point, the government of Venezuela as a negative force in the region."
[Washington Post, 3/15/2005, pp. A01]
Entity Tags: Robert B. Zoellick, Condoleezza Rice
Timeline Tags: US-Venezuela (1948-2005)
Philip Zelikow (second from left) with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (left), and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (right). [Source: Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Photos]Philip Zelikow, formerly the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, will serve as a senior adviser for Condoleezza Rice in her new position as secretary of state. His position, counselor of the United States Department of State, is considered equal to undersecretary of state. [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2/28/2005] Rice says: "Philip and I have worked together for years. I value his counsel and expertise. I appreciate his willingness to take on this assignment." According to author Philip Shenon, Zelikow tells his new colleagues at the State Department that it is "the sort of job he had always wanted." [Shenon, 2008, pp. 418] 9/11 victims' relatives groups had demanded Zelikow's resignation from the 9/11 Commission, claiming conflict of interest, including being too close to Rice (see March 21, 2004).
Entity Tags: Philip Zelikow, Condoleezza Rice
The United States and European Union (EU) indicate that they are ready to work together on a diplomatic approach to encourage Iran to give up its nuclear program. Condoleezza Rice says that the US is willing to drop it objections to Iran's application to the WTO and "consider, on a case-by-case basis, the licensing of spare parts of Iranian civilian aircraft." Europe, on the other hand, which has been under pressure from the Bush administration to harden its policy toward Iran, says it will have "no choice" but to support the issue being brought up at the UN Security Council if Iran does not discontinue its suspected nuclear weapons program. Up until now, the US and EU have been unable to agree on a single approach to dealing with Iran. [New York Times, 3/12/2005]
Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the US is opposed to the proposed Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline because it would strengthen Iran and thus negatively affect the United States economically. "Our views concerning Iran are very well known by this time, and we have communicated our concerns about gas pipeline cooperation," she says. [Al Jazeera, 3/19/2005]
The Army suppresses an unclassified report by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed think tank that often does research for the military. The report, entitled "Rebuilding Iraq," was compiled over 18 months; RAND submitted a classified and an unclassified version, hoping that the dissemination of the second version would spark public debate. However, senior Army officials are disturbed by the report's broad criticisms of the White House, the Defense Department, and other government agencies, and the Army refuses to allow its publication. A Pentagon official says that the biggest reason for the suppression of the report is the fear of a potential conflict with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The unclassified version of the report will be leaked to the New York Times in February 2008. That version finds problems with almost every organization and agency that played a part in planning for the Iraq invasion. Bush, Rice Let Interdepartmental Squabbles Fester - The report faults President Bush, and by implication his former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, for failing to resolve differences between rival agencies, particularly between the departments of Defense and State. "Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff," the report finds. Defense Department Unqualified to Lead Reconstruction Effort - The report is also critical of the Defense Department's being chosen to lead postwar reconstruction, citing that department's "lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution." The Bush administration erred in assuming that reconstruction costs would be minimal, and in refusing to countenance differing views, the report says. Complementing that problem was the failure "to develop a single national plan that integrated humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, governance, infrastructure development and postwar security." As a result, the report finds, "the US government did not provide strategic policy guidance for postwar Iraq until shortly before major combat operations commenced." State's Own Planning 'Uneven' and Not 'Actionable' - It questions the "Future of Iraq" study (see April 2002-March 2003), crediting it with identifying important issues, but calling it of "uneven quality" and saying it "did not constitute an actionable plan." Franks, Rumsfeld Exacerbated Problems - General Tommy Franks, who oversaw the entire military operation in Iraq, suffered from a "fundamental misunderstanding" of what the military needed to do to secure postwar Iraq, the study finds. Franks and his boss, Rumsfeld, exacerbated the situation by refusing to send adequate numbers or types of troops into Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. Strengthened Resistance to US Occupation - The poor planning, lack of organization, and interdepartmental dissension together worked to strengthen the Iraqi insurgency. As Iraqi civilians continued to suffer from lack of security and essential services, resentment increased against the "negative effects of the US security presence," and the US failed to seal Iraq's borders, foreign and domestic support for the insurgents began to grow. RAND Study Went Too Far Afield, Says Army - In 2008, after the Times receives the unclassified version of the report, Army spokesman Timothy Muchmore explains that the Army rejected the report because it went much farther than it should in examining issues pertinent to the Army. "After carefully reviewing the findings and recommendations of the thorough RAND assessment, the Army determined that the analysts had in some cases taken a broader perspective on the early planning and operational phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom than desired or chartered by the Army," Muchmore will say. "Some of the RAND findings and recommendations were determined to be outside the purview of the Army and therefore of limited value in informing Army policies, programs and priorities." Recommendations - The Army needs to rethink its planning towards future wars, the report finds. Most importantly, it needs to consider the postwar needs of a region as much as it considers the strategy and tactics needed to win a war. [New York Times, 2/11/2008]
Entity Tags: US Department of Defense, George W. Bush, New York Times, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), Thomas Franks, Timothy Muchmore, US Department of State, US Department of the Army, RAND Corporation
Philip Zelikow, the chief adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (see February 28, 2005) and the former executive director of the 9/11 Commission (see Shortly Before January 27, 2003), writes a classified memo challenging the Justice Department's legal justifications for its authorizations of torture. Zelikow writes his memo after gaining access to four secret memos from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (see April 16, 2009), in his role as Rice's policy representative to the National Security Council's Deputies Committee. Rice and her legal adviser, John Bellinger, are the only others besides Zelikow to have been briefed on the memos. Zelikow was aware of what many of the suspected terrorists did, or were alleged to have done, through his experience on the 9/11 Commission. The evidence against most of them is "damning," he will later write: "But the issue is not about who or what they are. It is about who or what we are." In the memo, which he will publicly discuss four years later (see April 21, 2009), Zelikow focuses on three main areas of contention. First, the question should not be whether waterboarding (or any other particular technique) is torture, but on the idea of a program of authorized torture. The program used numerous well-planned, carefully considered methods of physical coercion to gain information from detainees, or as Zelikow will write, "to disorient, abuse, dehumanize, and torment individuals over time." Waterboarding is only one of many objectionable, and illegal, techniques being used against prisoners. Second, the question of torture should not first be settled by lawyers. The moral and professional aspects of such an issue should be dealt with before asking lawyers to justify such actions. Better questions would be: Are these methods reliable in getting important information? And does the garnering of such information, even if such can be proven, justify the moral position of using torture? In 2009, Zelikow will write: "There is an elementary distinction, too often lost, between the moral (and policy) question—'What should we do?'—and the legal question: 'What can we do?' We live in a policy world too inclined to turn lawyers into surrogate priests granting a form of absolution. 'The lawyers say it's OK.' Well, not really. They say it might be legal. They don't know about OK." Finally, the legal opinions themselves have what Zelikow calls "grave weaknesses." Many of the OLC opinions, particularly the May 30, 2005 opinion (see May 30, 2005), "presented the US government with a distorted rendering of relevant US law." He goes on: "The case law on the 'shocks the conscience' standard for interrogations would proscribe the CIA's methods," in his view. Moreover, the OLC position ignores "standard 8th Amendment 'conditions of confinement' analysis (long incorporated into the 5th Amendment as a matter of substantive due process and thus applicable to detentions like these). That case law would regard the conditions of confinement in the CIA facilities as unlawful." And, while "the use of a balancing test to measure constitutional validity (national security gain vs. harm to individuals) is lawful for some techniques… other kinds of cruel treatment should be barred categorically under US law—whatever the alleged gain." The logical extension of the OLC's position is that since the "substantive standard is the same as it is in analogous US constitutional law… the OLC must argue, in effect, that the methods and the conditions of confinement in the CIA program could constitutionally be inflicted on American citizens in a county jail. In other words, Americans in any town of this country could constitutionally be hung from the ceiling naked, sleep deprived, waterboarded, and all the rest—if the alleged national security justification was compelling. I did not believe our federal courts could reasonably be expected to agree with such a reading of the Constitution." White House Orders Copies Destroyed - Zelikow will admit he has no standing to offer a legal opinion. However, he will write: "I felt obliged to put an alternative view in front of my colleagues at other agencies, warning them that other lawyers (and judges) might find the OLC views unsustainable. My colleagues were entitled to ignore my views. They did more than that: The White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo." Zelikow will say he believes that copies still exist in State Department archives. [Foreign Policy, 4/21/2009; Politico, 4/21/2009]
Entity Tags: Office of Legal Counsel (DOJ), Central Intelligence Agency, Bush administration (43), 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice, National Security Council, US Department of State, Philip Zelikow, John Bellinger, US Department of Justice
A delegation from India visits Pakistan to discuss cooperation in the oil and gas sectors. The 11-person delegation is headed by Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyar. The two countries agree to establish a working group to review the legal, technical, commercial, and financial parameters of the proposed Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline (see 1993 and January 27, 2003) that would transport natural gas 2,775 km from Iran to India via Pakistan. They plan to start the project by December 31, 2005. [Islamic Republic News Agency, 6/5/2005; Tribune (Chandigarh), 6/5/2005] At a press conference on June 6, Aiyar is asked about US concerns expressed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in March (see March 19, 2005) that the pipeline would strengthen Iran. Aiyar responds that construction of the pipeline is contigent only upon an agreement being made between India and Pakistan. [Tribune (Chandigarh), 6/5/2005] India and Pakistan also discuss the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) pipeline (see January 18, 2005), which they agree should extend to India. [Tribune (Chandigarh), 6/5/2005; Associated Press, 6/5/2005] The delegation also explores the possibility of exporting Indian diesel to Pakistan. [Islamic Republic News Agency, 6/5/2005]
Entity Tags: Mani Shankar Aiyar, Condoleezza Rice
During a news conference in Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urges China, Russia, and India to support US threats of imposing sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programs. Iran needs to get a "unified message," she says. "I think that after the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) report a couple of days ago, it is clear that Iran is not living up to its obligations, and so UN Security Council referral seems to be a reasonable option." [US Department of State, 9/9/2005; BBC, 9/10/2005]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, International Atomic Energy Agency
Speaking at the New America Foundation, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, argues that power in Washington has become so concentrated, and the inter-agency processes within the Federal government so degraded, that the government is no longer capable of responding competently to threatening events—whether such events are natural disasters or international conflicts. He describes how successive administrations over the last five decades have damaged the national security decision-making process and warns that new legislation is desperately needed to force transparency on the process and restore checks and balances within the federal bureaucracy. The process has hit a nadir with the Bush administration, he says, whose secrecy and disregard for inter-agency processes has resulted in disastrous policies, such as those toward Iraq, North Korea, and Iran, and the policies that resulted in the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. "Fundamental decisions about foreign policy should not be made in secret," he says. "You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it." He says, "[T]he case that I saw for four-plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations, and perturbations in the national-security [policy-making] process." This approach to government also contributed to the failures in responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "Decisions that send men and women to die, decisions that have the potential to send men and women to die, decisions that confront situations like natural disasters and cause needless death or cause people to suffer misery that they shouldn't have to suffer, domestic and international decisions, should not be made in a secret way." His speech includes a very direct and open attack on the Bush administration. "What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made. And then when the bureaucracy was presented with those decisions and carried them out, it was presented in such a disjointed incredible way that the bureaucracy often didn't know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out." Wilkerson contrasts the current president with his father, George H.W. Bush, "one of the finest presidents we have ever had," who, in Wilkerson's opinion, understood how to make foreign policy work. Wilkerson likens George W. Bush's brand of diplomacy to "cowboyism" and notes that he was unable to persuade US allies to stand behind his policies because "it's hard to sell shit." He explains that Bush is "not versed in international relations and not too much interested in them either. There's a vast difference between the way George H. W. Bush dealt with major challenges, some of the greatest challenges at the end of the 20th century, and effected positive results in my view, and the way we conduct diplomacy today." Wilkerson lays the blame for the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse directly at the feet of the younger Bush and his top officials, whom Wilkerson says gave tacit approval to soldiers to abuse detainees. As for Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser and now Powell's successor at the State Department, she was and is "part of the problem." Instead of ensuring that Bush received the best possible advice even if it was not what Bush wanted to hear, Rice "would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president." Wilkerson also blames the fracturing and demoralization of the US military on Bush and his officials. Officers "start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam," he says, "and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel." Wilkerson is particularly scathing in his assessment of the Pentagon's supervisor of the OSP, Douglas Feith, one of the original members of the Cabal. Asked if he agrees with General Tommy Franks's assessment of Feith as the "f_cking stupidest guy on the planet." Wilkerson says, "Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man. And yet, after the [Pentagon is given] control, at least in the immediate post-war period in Iraq, this man is put in charge. Not only is he put in charge, he is given carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw themselves in a closet somewhere.…That's telling you how decisions were made and…how things got accomplished." [American Strategy Program, 10/19/2005; Financial Times, 10/20/2005; Inter Press Service, 10/20/2005; Salon, 10/27/2005]
Entity Tags: Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Lawrence Wilkerson, George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, George Herbert Walker Bush
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Condoleezza Rice says that the US is seeking to encourage "a new strategic alignment" that is emerging in the Middle East between "responsible" leaders on the one side, and extremists on the other. She says the US is working with Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and certain reformist leaders in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories "to empower democratic and other responsible leaders across the region." (Notably, only two of these countries—Turkey and Israel—have democratic forms of governments) Explaining the US's interest in the Middle East, she says: "The security of this region is an enduring vital interest for the United States. America's presence in this part of the world contributes significantly to its stability and success." [US Congress, 1/11/2007 ] According to a later article by veteran reporter Seymour Hersh, the policy she is describing is actually aimed at rolling back the influence that Iran has gained since the US invasion of Iraq (see Late 2006).
Ronald Neumann. [Source: US State Department]The Taliban carry out their largest offensive in Afghanistan since 2001. Suicide bombings increase four-fold to 141 and roadside bombings double (see 2004-2007). 191 US and NATO soldiers die in 2006, making it nearly as statistically dangerous to fight in Afghanistan as in Iraq. But US assistance to Afghanistan drops 38 percent from $4.3 billion in 2005 to $3.1 billion in 2006. Ronald Neumann, US ambassador to Afghanistan, argued against the cut. He also warns in a February 2006 cable to his superiors that the Taliban is planning a strong spring offensive. Afghan president Hamid Karzai and some US military officials make similar warnings. But despite such warnings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will later say, "There was no doubt that people were surprised that the Taliban was able to regroup and come back in a large, well-organized force." The US will boost aid to $9 billion in 2007 in response to the offensive. [New York Times, 8/12/2007]
Entity Tags: Hamid Karzai, Taliban, Ronald Neumann, Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admits that the US has committed "thousands" of "tactical errors in Iraq," but made "the right strategic decision" to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. "This could have gone that way, or that could have gone this way," she says of the war and the subsequent occupation. "I am quite certain there are going to be dissertations written about the mistakes of the Bush administration," she says. "I know we've made tactical errors—thousands of them, I'm sure. But when you look back in history, what will be judged is did you make the right strategic decisions. I believe strongly that it was the right strategic decision, that Saddam [Hussein] had been a threat to the international community long enough." Retired General 'Outraged' - Retired General Greg Newbold calls Rice's statement "an outrage," and says, "It reflects an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting" (see April 9, 2006). [BBC, 3/31/2006; CNN, 4/1/2006] Rice Backpedals - When asked to give specific examples of those "tactical mistakes," Rice backpedals, saying: "First of all, I meant it figuratively, not literally. Let me be very clear about that. I wasn't sitting around counting.… The point I was making… is that, of course, if you've ever made decisions, you've undoubtedly made mistakes. The important thing is to get the big strategic decisions right, and that I am confident that the decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein and give the Iraqi people an opportunity for peace and for democracy is the right decision.… The other point I was making to the questioner is that I'm enough of a historian to know that things that looked brilliant at the moment turn out in historical perspective to be mistakes, and the things that look like mistakes turn out to have been right decisions." [CNN, 4/1/2006]
Entity Tags: Saddam Hussein, Gregory Newbold, Bush administration (43), Condoleezza Rice
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald files a brief with the court that states unequivocally that the White House orchestrated an attempt to besmirch the character and integrity of former ambassador Joseph Wilson (see June 2003, June 3, 2003, June 11, 2003, June 12, 2003, June 19 or 20, 2003, July 6, 2003, July 6-10, 2003, July 7, 2003 or Shortly After, 8:45 a.m. July 7, 2003, 9:22 a.m. July 7, 2003, July 7-8, 2003, July 11, 2003, (July 11, 2003), July 12, 2003, July 12, 2003, July 18, 2003, and October 1, 2003). The New York Times describes Wilson as "the man who emerged as the most damaging critic of the administration's case that Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons." Bush, Cheney at Heart of Smear Campaign - Fitzgerald's court filing places President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney directly at the center of the controversy, which erupted when conservative columnist Robert Novak used information from White House sources to "out" Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as a covert CIA agent (see July 14, 2003). According to Fitzgerald, the White House engaged in "a plan to discredit, punish, or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." The filing concludes, "It is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to 'punish Wilson.'" Fitzgerald's portrait of events is at odds with the Bush administration's narrative, which attempts to portray Wilson as a minor figure whose criticism of the Iraq invasion comes from his personal and political agenda. Fitzgerald is preparing to turn over to the defense lawyers for Lewis Libby some 1,400 pages of handwritten notes—some presumably by Libby himself—that should bolster Fitzgerald's assertion. Fitzgerald will file papers in support of his assertion that Bush ordered the selective disclosure of parts of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (see October 1, 2002) as part of the White House's attempt to discredit Wilson. Fitzgerald: Cheney Headed Campaign - Fitzgerald views Cheney, not Bush, as being at what the Times calls "the epicenter of concern about Mr. Wilson." Fitzgerald notes that Wilson's op-ed in the New York Times (see July 6, 2003) "was viewed in the Office of the Vice President as a direct attack on the credibility of the vice president (and the president) on a matter of signal importance: the rationale for the war in Iraq.… Disclosing the belief that Mr. Wilson's wife sent him on the Niger trip was one way for defendant to contradict the assertion that the vice president had done so, while at the same time undercutting Mr. Wilson's credibility if Mr. Wilson were perceived to have received the assignment on account of nepotism." Neither Bush's then-National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, nor Rice's deputy and eventual successor, Stephen Hadley, knew of the information declassification, Libby indicates. [US District Court for the District of Columbia, 4/5/2006 ; Los Angeles Times, 4/7/2006; New York Times, 4/11/2006; National Journal, 6/14/2006; Washington Post, 7/3/2007] Bush Authorized Leak of Classified Intelligence - Fitzgerald's filing also states that, according to Libby's earlier testimony (see March 5, 2004 and March 24, 2004), Bush directly authorized the leak of classified intelligence to reporters as part of the Wilson smear campaign (see April 5, 2006). Democrats Dismayed at Allegations of Bush Involvement - Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) says: "After the CIA leak controversy broke three years ago, President Bush said, 'I'd like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information.' Now we find out that the president himself was ordering leaks of classified information.… It's time for the president to come clean with the American people." And in a letter to Bush, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking minority member of the House Oversight Committee, writes in part, "Two recent revelations raise grave new questions about whether you, the vice president and your top advisors have engaged in a systematic abuse of the national security classification process for political purposes." [Los Angeles Times, 4/7/2006]
Entity Tags: Frank R. Lautenberg, George W. Bush, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), Office of the Vice President, Joseph C. Wilson, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Henry A. Waxman, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Valerie Plame Wilson, Stephen J. Hadley
Retired Marine Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, until October 2002 the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is another in a small but vocal group of current and retired generals voicing public dissent against the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. Newbold writes an op-ed for Time magazine, and leads off by saying that after Vietnam, he and other career military officers determined never again to "stand by quietly while those ignorant of and casual about war lead us into another one and then mismanage the conduct of it." But, Newbold writes, it happened again. He takes responsibility for his own actions in planning for the invasion of Iraq, but notes that "[i]nside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior to me uncomfortable. But I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat—al-Qaeda." Newbold retired from the military in late 2002, "in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy. Until now, I have resisted speaking out in public. I've been silent long enough." The cost of the Bush administration's "flawed leadership continues to be paid in blood," he writes, and that blood debt drives him to speak out. A Justifiable War - Invading Afghanistan was the right thing to do, Newbold says, to take on the Taliban and al-Qaeda. And though invading Iraq was unnecessary and wrong, he says, the US cannot now just withdraw precipitously: "It would send a signal, heard around the world, that would reinforce the jihadists' message that America can be defeated, and thus increase the chances of future conflicts. If, however, the Iraqis prove unable to govern, and there is open civil war, then I am prepared to change my position." Outrage - Newbold writes of his deep anger at the words of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who recently said that "we" made the "right strategic decisions," but made thousands of "tactical errors" (see March 31-April 1, 2006). Newbold calls that statement "an outrage. It reflects an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting. The truth is, our forces are successful in spite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it." Instead, he writes: "What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures.… My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions—or bury the results." Many of the Pentagon's highest-ranking generals bear their own blame, Newbold writes, in "act[ing] timidly when their voices urgently needed to be heard. When they knew the plan was flawed, saw intelligence distorted to justify a rationale for war, or witnessed arrogant micromanagement that at times crippled the military's effectiveness, many leaders who wore the uniform chose inaction." Some few actually believed the rationale for war, others were intimidated, and many believed that their sense of duty and obedience precluded their speaking out. "The consequence of the military's quiescence was that a fundamentally flawed plan was executed for an invented war, while pursuing the real enemy, al-Qaeda, became a secondary effort." Many members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, "defaulted in fulfilling their constitutional responsibility for oversight." Many media reporters, editors, and pundits ignored the warnings and instead played up the rationale for war. New Visions, New Strategies - The first thing to do, says Newbold, is to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld along with "many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach." The US owes their troops, living and dead, a debt of gratitude and the responsibility to "construct a unified strategy worthy of them. It is time to send a signal to our nation, our forces and the world that we are uncompromising on our security but are prepared to rethink how we achieve it." More generals and others in positions of leadership need to speak out, Newbold concludes, and make sure that we as a nation are not "fooled again." [Time, 4/9/2006]
Entity Tags: Gregory Newbold, Bush administration (43), Al-Qaeda, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, US Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Taliban
Peter Hoekstra. [Source: Public domain]The House Intelligence Committee, led by Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), releases a 29-page report entitled "Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States" that blasts the CIA and other US intelligence agencies for lacking "the ability to acquire essential information necessary to make judgments" on Iran's nuclear program, its intentions, or its ties to terrorism. [House Intelligence Committee, 8/23/2006] Democrats Excluded From Report - The report is generated strictly by the Republicans on the committee; input from Democratic members was quite limited. The author of the report is ex-CIA officer Frederick Fleitz, a former special assistant to Undersecretary of Defense John Bolton and a hardliner on Iran. Not surprisingly, Fleitz's report fully supports the Bush administration's position that Iran is moving aggressively to acquire nuclear weapons, and thusly poses an significant threat to the US. It also claims that the US intelligence community has not tried to collect or collate evidence to prove Fleitz's assertion that Iran, a majority-Shi'ite nation, has close and sinister ties to al-Qaeda, a Sunni organization, as well as some responsibility for the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Fleitz and his researchers used nothing more than publicly available documents for his report, and did not interview any intelligence officials. Hoesktra, who publicly releases the report before it is approved by the full committee, says his purpose is to avoid the intelligence "mistakes" that led the US to conclude that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. It is widely believed that Hoekstra's decision to release the report is part of a larger effort by the Bush administration to pressure Iran to suspend its nuclear program, a push supported by few US allies. Democrats on the committee have little confidence that the report is complete and accurate; ranking subcommittee member Rush Holt (D-NJ) says the report is not "prepared and reviewed in a way that we can rely on." [Washington Post, 8/24/2006] Cherrypicking - The report will never be voted on or discussed by the entire committee, in essence short-circuiting Democrats from the review and approval process. Ranking member Jane Harman (D-CA) says the report "took a number of analytical shortcuts that present the Iran threat as more dire—and the Intelligence Community's assessments as more certain—than they are." It is not long before the report is thoroughly debunked. Further analysis shows the report to be riddled with errors; additionally, it fails to include key information, mostly from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that disproves the report's claims about Iran's nuclear program. When the report is officially presented in September 2006, IAEA officials and others will term the report "outrageous and dishonest," and provide evidence refuting its major claims (see September 14, 2006). Gary Sick, an Iran expert and a former National Security Council under Jimmy Carter, notes that the report's claim that Iran has "the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East" entirely ignores the far larger arsenals possessed by Israel and Saudi Arabia. "If you are going to take on the entire US intelligence community, it is a very good idea to at least get your basic facts straight," Sick says. "It is a sloppy attempt to lay the ground for another 'slam-dunk' judgement and a potential rush to war. It deserves to be recognized for what it is." David Albright agrees: "This is like prewar Iraq all over again." Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, says, "You have an Iranian nuclear threat that is spun up, using bad information that's cherry-picked and a report that trashes the [IAEA] inspectors." Weeks after the November 2006 elections, the CIA will report that it can find no evidence supporting Fleitz's contention that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program. [Inter Press Service, 8/25/2006; Washington Post, 9/14/2006; Vanity Fair, 3/2007] An Attempt to Undermine Rice and Diplomatic Outreach? - Many committee Democrats believe that the report is an attempt by hardline Republicans to undermine Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has agreed to talk with the Iranians under certain conditions. Bolton, Fleitz, and others oppose any diplomacy or discussion with Iran. Bolton is now the US ambassador to the UN; he and Fleitz worked diligently during President Bush's first term to undermine the efforts of Rice's predecessor, Colin Powell, to engage Iran, North Korea, and Syria in diplomatic talks. Many Washington neoconservatives have denounced the Bush administration's tentative move towards diplomatic talks with Iran as nothing more than "appeasement." (Perhaps in the same vein, Fleitz is now working on a similar report on North Korea's weapons program; a draft leaked to the Washington Post contains allegations about the North Korean program that also cannot be substantiated.) [Inter Press Service, 8/25/2006; Washington Post, 9/14/2006] 'Unusually Slick' Hoax - Former CIA official Ray McGovern calls the report an "unusually slick" hoax that is nothing more than an attempt to frighten Congress and the American people into supporting the Bush administration's more aggressive posture towards Iran. McGovern notes that in recent weeks Hoekstra told a Fox News audience that weapons of mass destruction were indeed found in Iraq—"We were right all the time!"—and observes that the entire report is a calculated public relations effort based on overzealous falsehoods and not on verifiable fact. The cover of the report depicts Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad giving a suspiciously Nazi-like salute, and the first page repeats Ahmadinejad's assertion that Israel "must be wiped off the face of the map." He also notes that Fleitz, whom he describes as Bolton's "chief enforcer" when Bolton was at the State Department, once told State Department intelligence analysts Christian Westermann that it was "a political judgment as to how to interpret" data on Cuba's biological weapons program (a program that only existed in Bolton's imagination) and that the intelligence community "should do as we asked" in making its reports. McGovern concludes, "Hoekstra's release of this paper is another sign pointing in the direction of a US attack on Iran. Tehran is now being blamed not only for inciting Hezbollah but also for sending improvised explosive devices [IEDs] into Iraq to kill or maim US forces. There is yet another, if more subtle, disquieting note about the paper. It bears the earmarks of a rushed job, with very little editorial scrubbing.… It seems to me possible that the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal told Hoekstra to get the paper out sooner rather than later, as an aid to Americans in 'recognizing Iran as a strategic threat.'" [Antiwar.com, 8/26/2007] Replay of Flawed Iraqi Intelligence - Many observers agree with McGovern that the report is a replay of the dangerously flawed intelligence estimates that pushed Congress to approve military action against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Gary Sick goes even further back to draw a comparison between Hoekstra's report and the mid-1970s effort by Ford aides Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld's so-called "Team B" to provide an "alternative" intelligence assessment on the threat posed by the then-Soviet Union. The report "is really intended as a sort of Team B report of what at least one [Congressional] staffer believes the intelligence community should be reporting on Iran." [Inter Press Service, 8/25/2006] Author and national security expert John Prados takes an even grimmer view: "The fact that this act has been perpetrated by a congressional committee whose job it is to oversee US intelligence is further evidence that intelligence oversight has become part of the problem, not the solution." [Tom Paine (.com), 8/25/2006]
Entity Tags: John Prados, John R. Bolton, Mohamed ElBaradei, National Security Council, Ray McGovern, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Jane Harman, Saddam Hussein, Rush Holt, Peter Hoekstra, James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Institute for Science and International Security, Condoleezza Rice, David Albright, Colin Powell, Central Intelligence Agency, Al-Qaeda, Christian Westermann, International Atomic Energy Agency, Frederick Fleitz, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, House Intelligence Committee, Gary G. Sick, Donald Rumsfeld, Hezbollah
Philip Zelikow, who is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's closest aide, gives a speech asserting that the US must seriously address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Otherwise, Zelikow says, the US may have trouble securing the support of Arab moderates and Europeans in dealing with the Middle East. The speech seems to be the result of a long discussion of the topic between Rice and former Bush adviser Brent Scowcroft (see October 2004). The counterattack from the neoconservatives in Vice President Cheney's office, who want nothing to do with any settlements with the Palestinians, is immediate and fierce. Cheney's office issues harsh condemnations of Zelikow, and neoconservative-friendly newspapers such as the Jerusalem Post and the New York Sun publish news reports designed to undermine Zelikow's message. Rice refuses to stand up to Cheney on behalf of Zelikow, and the State Department officially repudiates Zelikow's remarks. Zelikow resigns his post. The neoconservatives' views on the Israeli-Palestinian issue remain the guiding force behind the Bush administration's Middle East policies. [Unger, 2007, pp. 8]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Brent Scowcroft, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, US Department of State, Philip Zelikow, Office of the Vice President
Original cover to Woodward's 'State of Denial.' [Source: Barnes and Noble]Journalist Bob Woodward's new book State of Denial is released. While the book focuses mainly on politics regarding the Iraq war, it also describes an urgent warning that then-CIA Director George Tenet gave to Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser at the time, and other White House officials on July 10, 2001 (see July 10, 2001). [New York Times, 9/29/2006; New York Daily News, 9/29/2006; Washington Post, 10/1/2006] This warning had been mentioned in passing in a 2002 Time magazine article, but it had escaped widespread attention until Woodward's book. [Time, 8/4/2002] The meeting is particularly controversial because neither the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry nor the 9/11 Commission mentioned in it in their final reports. The 9/11 Commission had learned about it from Tenet in early 2004 (see January 28, 2004). Rice and a number of 9/11 Commissioners deny knowing about the July meeting for several days, until documentation surfaces in the media detailing the meeting and Tenet's testimony to the commission (see October 1-2, 2006 and September 30-October 3, 2006). Details about the July meeting and surrounding controversies are reported on by the mainstream media for about a week, but there are no articles on it in any prominent newspaper after October 3, 2006. On October 5, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) formally asks Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for hearings about the revelations in Woodward's book, including controversies surrounding the July meeting. Kerry says in a letter to Lugar, "It is necessary to understand the mistakes of the past in order to ensure they are not repeated, and having testimony from the parties under oath will help to sharpen recollections and clarify the exact nature of this important meeting." However, no hearings take place. [Kerry, 10/5/2006]
Entity Tags: Bob Woodward, Condoleezza Rice, Bob Kerry, 9/11 Commission
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