Book: 911 Commission Executive Director Had Closer White House Ties Than Publicly Disclosed
The Sept. 11 commission’s executive director had closer ties with the White House than publicly disclosed and tried to influence the final report in ways that the staff often perceived as limiting the Bush administration’s responsibility, a new book says.
Philip Zelikow, a friend of then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, spoke with her several times during the 20-month investigation that closely examined her role in assessing the al-Qaida threat. He also exchanged frequent calls with the White House, including at least four from Bush’s chief political adviser at the time, Karl Rove.
Zelikow once tried to push through wording in a draft report that suggested a greater tie between al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Iraq, in line with White House claims but not with the commission staff’s viewpoint, according to Philip Shenon’s “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.”
Shenon, a New York Times reporter, says Zelikow sought to intimidate staff to avoid damaging findings for President Bush, who at the time was running for re-election, and Rice. Zelikow and Rice had written a book together in 1995 and he would later work for her after the commission finished its job and she became secretary of state in 2005.
The Associated Press obtained an audio version of Shenon’s book, which is to go on sale Tuesday.
Reached by the AP, Zelikow provided a 131-page statement with information he said was provided for the book. In it, Zelikow acknowledges talking to Rove and Rice during the course of the commission’s work despite a general pledge he made not to. But he said the conversations never dealt with politics.
The White House had no immediate comment Sunday.
According to the book, when Democratic commissioner Bob Kerrey learned the extent of Zelikow’s ties to the administration, he confronted Republican chairman Tom Kean and demanded to know why someone with such apparent conflicts of interest had been hired.
“Look Tom,” Kerrey is quoted as saying, “either he goes or I go.” Kean eventually persuaded Kerrey to stay.
Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, the panel’s Democratic vice chairman, praised Zelikow as a “person of integrity” who was upfront in disclosing his background and White House contacts. It made sense for commission staff to contact the White House regularly to get information, Hamilton said, and the book also notes that Zelikow was such a dogged negotiator that even then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales found him irritating and subsequently refused to meet with him.
“Did he try to sway the report to protect the administration? I think the answer was no,” Hamilton told the AP.
The book says phone logs maintained by the commission’s executive assistant showed at least two calls from Rove to Zelikow’s office number in June 2003, and two more calls in September. During that time, the commission was in the midst of its fact-finding.
Zelikow ordered the assistant to stop keeping phone records of his contacts with the White House, the book said, but the panel’s general counsel instructed her to ignore the order.
The phone logs do not record Zelikow’s calls out, nor do they show calls on his cell phone, which he relied on for most outgoing calls. Records from the Government Accountability Office, which maintained some of the commission’s phone records, showed frequent calls from Zelikow to telephone numbers in area code 202, with the telephone prefix 4-5-6 - the prefix exclusive to the White House, the book says.
Zelikow, in his written statement, said Rove had called with questions about the Bush library and other business related to Zelikow’s work at the University of Virginia. Zelikow also said he enlisted Rice’s logistical aid on behalf of the commission at one point to get Saudi cooperation so the panel could interview their citizens.
“Rove and I didn’t really know each other,” he said in the statement. “I don’t recall ever having an extended conversation with him, and certainly not about politics or the commission.”
The book seeks to raise new questions about the independence of the bipartisan commission, which was created in 2002 to investigate government missteps that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. Initially opposed by the White House, the panel issued a unanimous 567-page final report in July 2004 during the height of the presidential campaign that did not blame Bush or former President Clinton for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people but did say they each failed to make anti-terrorism a priority.
The book says that in early 2004, Zelikow allegedly sought to add to an initial staff report wording that linked al-Qaida to Iraq. The wording would have said the terrorist network repeatedly tried to communicate with the government of Saddam Hussein, a claim of cooperation the administration had cited to justify the war in Iraq. After a staff protest, Zelikow backed down; the final report said there was no “collaborative relationship” between Saddam and al-Qaida. Zelikow has said that he simply wanted the panel to keep an open mind on the issue.
© 2008 Associated Press
Republican caught lying.
Democrats do nothing.
Repeat.
Why don’t they just come out and say it; the official investigation was a farce!
Anyone ever heard of foxes guarding the hen house. The 9/11 commission was a fraud. You would think the event that lead to two wars would recieve the most thorough examination possible. Yet those in power had to be forced by a group of agreived woman [the Jersy girls] [who had lost husband in the 9/11 event] into doing an investigation at all. Dick Cheney and GW Bush would only testify [not under oath] together in secret with no recording of the interview. Why these conditions?
There was no mention of WTC building 7 in the report. A 600 ft. tall building that wasn’t hit buy a plane mysteriously collapses to dust in it’s own footprint, falling at freefall speed.
This event needs a thorough and honest investigation. We haven’t had that. It has been swept under the rug. Just move along they tell us, nothing to see here. If you question us you aren’t patriots.
This event more than any other has been used to shape our foreign and domestic policies. We need the real unvarnished truth no matter how ugly it is. We will have to deal with it.
How come we’re the only ones who knew of the ties between bush and Zelikow BEFORE the fact? Oh, that’s right, everyone else is stuck with getting their information from the Ministry of Propaganda, including each other. Thanks, guys for another startling revelation!
This commission looks like the Warren Commission “investigating” the JFK assassination, with somewhat similar results (nothing to be seen here).
kathyodat
Scum! Get rid of this pro-Iraq war crowd of Politicoes– Mc
Cain and Clinton included.
Gentle readers: Democratic party is part of the problem.
From Scoop Jackson, to Richard Perle, To Allbright, to Clinton 1 and now Clinton 2 they are/were all pro war CREEPS! Corporate, DLC, AIPAC wing of the Dem Party
This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has spent even a little time looking into Zelikow’s background (although it’s always nice to have some more detail to flesh out the case against this traitor).
(But don’t let any of this encourage you to entertain CONSPIRACY THEORIES! God forbid! I mean, Noam Chomsky has spoken, isn’t that good enough?)
Right, tumbl, anyone who has any lingering questions about 9/11 can pretty much expect to be labeled an alien, outcast, crackpot, to be tarred and feathered in the public square.
They had something to hide, their own actions demonstrate that. The question is whether there’s an iceberg below the tip or not.
Doh! Didn’t the whole country know Zelicow PUBLICLY authored a book with RICE? Doesn’t 75% of the population suspect that Bush holding hands with Cheney and refusing to testify under oath was a tad, uh, SUSPICIOUS?
Able Danger, say what? Saudis drug-runners training on CIA-cocaine airbases tied to the military, say what?
You silly conspiracy theorists! OUR COUNTRY is too stupid to have a conspiracy. And besides, it would be too big to be possible. Everyone would know about it.
How ’bout them Giants!
locust (1st post) - I think your comment hits the nail on the head for about 90% of the stories on CD about BushCo corruption. No other comments needed. I would only add right after “Dems do nothing”…”and Repubs know it”.
‘ The Sept. 11 commission’s executive director had closer ties with the White House than publicly disclosed and tried to influence the final report in ways that the staff often perceived as limiting the Bush administration’s responsibility, a new book says.’
Good Lord, amazing, mind bending, stunning stuff. What they lied to us? (Allegedly) No, impossible. And they did not of course disappear all the 9/11 evidence and ship it off to China and India? (Allegedly) Every forensic shred (Allegedly)
The big question is why the ‘biggest disaster to hit America since Pearl Harbour’ has not been the subject of scrupulous forensic investigation for however long it takes. No one hiding anything? Surely not.
Lee Hamilton’s comment? Is that supposed to be reassuring? Only if you have read absolutely nothing about the history of Congressional oversight of the CIA, which is probably an oxymoron.
Please google Lee Hamilton Spartacus for a great site with lots of different sources and examples.
Lee was My bipartisan pointman for the October surprise, and Iran-Contra coverups so he was definitely qualified for the 9/11 commission.
By the way, if anyone has any doubt as to how these political investigations work, I strongly recommend the Great book The Last Invevestigation by Gaeton Fonzi. The author was a lead investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations into the JFK and MLK assassinations in the late 1970s.
This book is a priceless anatomy of Coverup by committee. You will never say “someone woulda talked” again. They did talk. It doesn’t matter. Books like Fonzi’s break down the laborious dichotomy that has been build up between structural analysis and “”"Conspiracy Theory”"”. These are opposites only if you haven’t read anything, but The Nation magazine!
pubicly disclosed? Is this a Freudian slip or do they not have editors at the AP?
The 9/11 Commission has always been a joke. No actual investigation into the 9/11 attacks has taken place to date. The people that run around calling CONSPIRACY THEORISTS a bunch of nincompoops are the ones obstructing actual justice. They obviously haven’t read the report. It’s a complete joke.
Until we all get together and admit that a serious investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 9/11 attacks MUST take place, then the real facts will never be known.
“The 9/11 Commission did not fulfill its mandate to thoroughly investigate the 9/11 attacks. A real investigation into the events of Sept. 11 that examines all of the evidence has never been done and is still needed.”
Lorie Van Auken
Mindy Kleinberg
East Brunswick, N.J., Dec. 22, 2007
http://activistnyc.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/statements-by-lorie-van-auken-mindy-kleinberg-and-donna-marsh-o%e2%80%99connor/
“Tell a big enough lie, often enough, and it becomes the truth.” Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister.
The day the 9/11 Commission Report came out I bought a copy and looked through the table of contents for the chapter on the put option trades in American and United Airlines stock. Then I went to the index looking for the Commission’s findings on the trades, then I went to the Commission’s web site and googeled it every way possible to find what they’d discovered. Zip, Zilch, Nada. In less than an hour I knew that the report was B.S.
Last October I heard Lee Hamilton gave a speech at Earlham College in Richmond Indiana. While he did field a couple of questions from 9/11 Truth oriented students the overwhelming majority of the audience did not have a clue about Hamilton’s roll in covering up Iran Contra or the whitewash 9/11 investigation. It made my stomach churn thinking Earlham had paid the SOB several thousands of dollars for the appearance.
Ho hum… This is very old news,
But I’m glad it’s being revisited.
Before long, though, it will be
pushed to the back pages once again.
Will the truth about 9-11 ever become mainstream?
Probably not in my life time.
Peace
Conspiracy theorists? what about the coincidence theorists? You know, most every American? It’s a coincidence that two towers imploded that were designed to sustain airlines flying into them. It’s a coincidence WTC7 imploded as well. It’s a coincidence NORAD exercises for that very event were occurring that day. It’s a coincidence Cheney took over NORAD and bumped the exercise up from October to 9/11. It’s a coincidence PNAC called for “a new Pearl Harbor”. It’s a coincidence FBI agent John O’Neill who ruffled feathers in Qatar when he went over there inspecting the bombing of the Cole was smeared, set up, forced out, and offered a job as head of security at the WTC that began on, wait for it…9/11 that ended his life. etc… Come on now, they new it was coming; they needed those buildings to fall; they needed people to keep quiet. SO THEY HIRED A SAUDI DEMOLISHIONS CREW! duh. And the rest is revisionist history.
Let’s face it. The present White House crowd has more pricks in it than a quilting circle’s pin cusion.
Well, considering the extensive ability of our government to monitor and investigate calls, I’m sure that the CELL PHONE RECORDS of his calls could be ordered by the Henry Waxman Government Corruption Squad. But then, what would be done with them?
Of course, getting anyone in Congress to actually GIVE CONSEQUENCES is another matter. They seem to think we’re all stupid, and that just TELLING everyone about the abuse is enough.
This is why they have such an incredibly low approval rating.
I’d like to see a serious progressive challenge each of these sitting incumbents who have continued voting for the war and occupation funding and who have REFUSED to even start the investigations for impeachment.
Adam Schiff (D-CA), for one, just blows off the suggestion that he should do something, saying he “disagrees.”
Guess what, incumbents, YOU ARE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES and NOT princes who have dictatorial powers…or maybe you think you do…since you’ve continued to ignore your constituencies year after year while slurping at the corporate “contribution” trough.
###
Zelikow and Rice relationship is old news. Did anyone ever think this commission would work independent of the WH?
BeForKids here’s some info the Warren Commission forgot?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4315024059102108031
Great posts, everyone. Sometimes it gets so ridiculous all you can do is ridicule them and laugh. Thanks to you all.
kathyodat
Imagine that. If this keeps up for another 20 years I could begin to get suspicious.
workrena, they didn’t forget, they obliterated. I watched “The Men Who Killed JFK”, it has all this and more. The last segment is especially revealing. The killing shot actually angled slightly upward and surely came from the storm drain directly under the grassy knoll.
What I consider important is that the American public didn’t want to face the reality that our country has been hijacked and that any President who doesn’t toe the line will be assassinated. So naturally I fear for Obama who wants to change the course of this country, and if he gets assassinated, it would likely be set up as a racist incident, only further polarizing our society. I suppose his best protection would be to choose Edwards, Kucinich or Gravel as vice President and then never be in the same place at the same time. That’s if he could make it that far. RFK didn’t.
kathyodat
Shakker: I propably don’t have 20 years on this mudball. Could we speed that up so I get to know how the story ends?
I’m still numb from the assassinations of John, Bobby, and Martin. And still waiting for the answers. Guess I’ll never know. Will one of you youngsters contact me in the afterlife and let me know how it all turns out?
Thanks
The media totally overlooks the lack of answers from 911. I have never once heard any mainstream journalist mention that Bush’s family was in charge of security for the World Trade Center. They dismiss all questions as conspiracy theories.
We should have let Saddam handpick his prosecutors too. I’m sure they would have given him a medal of freedom!
One of my favorite post 911 lies was Dubya’s claim on Sept 11 2002 that “we have killed or captured two-thirds of al Qaida.”
al Qaida has no address, bank account, logo/flag, constitution, etc etc, most of them do not speak English-most of our intelligencers do not speak Arabic yet somehow in one year Bush handled the vast majority of “terrrists” as if he knew exactly in which cave each terrorist had been hiding before 911. Accepting this utter nonsense as fact begs the question, from whose orifice did all of these al Qaida “insurgents” in Iraq materialize? Blame Falluja? After Falluja was scorched where did they come from? They are still coming exponentially with every civilian casualty…
Imagine, the 911 O-mission report barely even mentions Saudi Arabia while 15 out of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.
Our government, by the fascists for the war profiteers, knows how disinterested most Americans are in understanding the world. That is why so many American morons suggest we simply “Nuke ‘em”.
Reasonable people should have sensed the fix was in and the country was in really deep shit on the investigative front when the Bush White House initially proposed Henry Kissinger as chair the 911 Commission. The White House, and guys like Zelikow, labored diligently to insure that at the end of the process, it would be impossible to see the forest because of all the trees.
To its credit, the eventual Commission Report is in well-organized, readable plain English, but suffers from its narrow, preordained focus. It is simply a critique (of sorts) of the official national security establishment narrative. Unfortunately, this official narrative was cast in stone within three days of the commission of the crime - a time frame that raises far more doubts than the end product claims to resolve.
The rubble of the WTC center was still literally smoldering when Secretary of State Colin Powell and numerous other high ranking Bush officials publicly declared with complete confidence that there was no evidence whatsoever that the intelligence agency of any foreign power had a anything to do with the 911 attacks. No nation state involvement, period. Osama, Zwahiri, and their merry band of ghouls pulled the whole thing off from a cave out somewhere near the Hindu Kush, as certainly as Colonel Mustard did it in the kitchen with the revolver.
Spurred by pressures from the victims’ families and the efforts of some maverick investigative journalists, from 1992-1994 a House committee, a Senate committee, and finally the 911 Commission itself sought access to the classified background documentary evidence that established (or which might cast doubt upon) the official narrative. The Bush White House has successfully stonewalled release of much of those basic documents to this day, on grounds review even by Congress, under the most stringent controls, would jeopardize US national security, and our relations with unidentified foreign governments.
All this has the sweet aroma of horseshit about it, and self-serving horseshit to boot. In the most immediate aftermath of 9/11, the first order of business for all the partisan leaders inside the beltway was to join hands and promise not to demagogue each other while the debris was still warm.
Nobody sniped at Little George for reading My Pet Goat to the kiddies in Florida while the nation needed the undivided attention of its commander-in-chief. By the same token, Karl Rove refrained from blaming it all on the Clintons. This gentlemens’ agreement not to engage in partisan fingerpointing over which President and party was most to blame for 911 held up for over a year, despite rumblings from the grassroots on both the left and on the right.
The unraveling of the bipartisan deal began in earnest in the fall of 2002, when the Democratic leadership began to realize how they had been snookered. Suddenly, the White House propaganda machine unleashed it psy-ops campaign to stampede the Iraq War AUMF resolution through Congress right before the midterm elections,demonizing Saddam Hussein as Hitler reincarnate, pontificating ominously about mushroom clouds and yellow cake, anthrax and drones, plus mysterious, clandestine, no doubt perfidious contacts in the recent past between Iraqi intelligence, Mohammed Atta, Osama bin Laden, and the all purpose Jordanian boogeyman Abu Musab Zarqawi.
Talk about amnesia. Scarcely a year earlier, the nation had been repeatedly assured 911 was solely the work of Al Quaeda and some rag tag, quasi-governmental Taliban enablers, who deserved bombing because they were guilty of only harboring the plotters. By the spring 2003 shock and awe invasion, it was declared to have been state-sponsored terrorism after all, all along.
Release of the 911 Commission Report prior to the 2004 presidential campaign fulfilled its intended mission. Some fault was attributed to Clinton’s policies, some fault to the Bush regime. Accountability for 911 balanced out evenly inside the DC beltway as a bipartisan political exercise, allowing the Bushies to keep on laughing all the way to the bank.
Suggestion to Barack Obama: slip into your campaign laundry list of promises, a simple pledge to personally review each and every document sought and withheld from the Congress and/or the 911 Commission within thirty days of taking office. Promise to declassify, for the purposes of historical accuracy, everything withheld so far unless the Homeland Security can show beyond a reasonable doubt that release now (eight years after the crime) would in fact harm the national interest.
I mean, why shouldn’t the American people know all there ever was to know, and still is to know, about the passenger lists, the surveillance of the hijackers on American soil, the substance of the intercepted electronic chatter as translated, Able Danger, and the contacts that existed between our sixteen national intelligence agencies and those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, the Mossad, the above all Pakistani ISI?
Bill from Saginaw
If you think BillfromSaginaw unloaded a ton, he’s only begun to scratch the surface! Your advice to Barack is well taken - - if he makes it. My onlym hope in all of this is that a segment of the MSM is finally taking notice of what is really “old” news - - stuff that was around at least as early as 2004, and being investigated by independent sleuths long before that. Until we can have a REAL investigation, with subpoenas and testimony under oath, we may never get the real story.
Oh, and yes, what about WTC-7, and Guilianai’s “disaster response” headquarters to go along with the Bush family’s Security Center for the whole WTC?
NMBill February 4th, 2008 12:25 pm
“Why don’t they just come out and say it; the official investigation was a farce!”
The major “players” on this committee said from the very beginning they didn’t want to point fingers; therefore, they never asked questions that would have led to uncovering the truth lurking behind 9/11.
Case closed……..from the very beginning!
Bill, Obama will do nothing of the sort. He knows which side his bread is buttered on…the corporate side. And anyway, he probably knows he’d be dead about 5 minutes after the words got out of his mouth.
It is painfully obvious that a new investigation of 9/11 is warranted. The issue will not go away because there are thousands (maybe millions) of Americans who, after going back and taking a closer look at the events, see that what the government peddled to us was the true conspiracy theory.
Those responsible (Zelikow among them) for 9/11 are constantly badgered and harassed (as well they should be) by American citizens who see through the lies we’ve been told, and these 9/11 conspirators should know that they will never be let off the hook for their murderous and treasonous acts on that September day.
If the American people allow their politicians to let 9/11 go down in history without a truly independent investigation, then this country deserves every bit of fucking misery it is going to go through as a result of allowing straight-up fascists to run amok with our resources and armed forces.
If there ever was a case for keeping Guantánamo open…just for our homegrown.
Credible or not:
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html
You decide.
this will prove whatever true believers wish it to prove…
those who understand that the government screwed up, big time, will be satisfied,again, that there was no probing to throw out the screw-ups and those who still think the government arranged everything, wired buidings with explosives, wired jesus for directions, etc, will also be convinced…meanwhile, the world is under assault by an empire that threatens to crumble on all of our heads, and people are still looking for an x-files conspiracy answer to all problems…
might as well vote for billary or obama or mccain…that will solve the mystery of building twelve, or whatever…
alexwashington February 4th, 2008 8:35 pm
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html
Alex,
Thanks for the link - it helps put this issue into perspective.
“Republican caught lying.
Democrats do nothing.
Repeat.”
. . . And a book gets written well after the fact!
For the state of this great country, why don’t the whistleblowers blow while it’s happening. Only two that I know of — Wilson and Obama.
In case Commondreams readers are not aware, there is an initiative in New York City underway to launch a new investigation into 9/11. They need 45,000 signatures of NYC voters by the end of April in order to qualify. Mike Gravel has just signed on to be one of the Commissioners for the new investigation.
Here is a link for further information:
www.nyc911initiative.org
Please go to their website and check it out. If you can afford a contribution, please give them something to help. If you can go to NYC to help circulate petitions, please go.
If we can help qualify this initiative for the ballot in NYC, IT WILL PASS OVERWHELMINGLY. This will be the “tipping point” the whole world is seeking in order to find out the TRUTH about what happened on 9/11/01.
Thank you,
Abbybwood
They conveniently put Zelikow, considered by some Washington insiders the likely architect of the 9/11 official myth (his specialty - how myths shape public opinion about their history, blah blah), in charge of the commission to run the investigation. How repuke of them. Scan his “experience” section on Wikipedia (not my original source for this info, but there is a good summary of it there).
Let us all hope that Truth is more compelling than even the most elaborate lies and will rear It’s lofty beautiful head and shine Its Light upon the scurrying rats who find there is no place to hide their dastardly deeds any longer.
Yaeh right, star!!!! But I need this to happen in my lifetime and I am still waiting for the truth to come out about JKK, MLK, RFK, Wellstone et al. Truth has got her work cut out for her, no?
“Truth” is a crap word, suggesting a pseudo-scientific foregone conclusion.
What we need is open, scientific, independent, ongoing and scholarly process. The facts will emerge then.
All kidding aside. Do you think that more people are really troubled by all the questions, and inconsistencies with the accounts of what happened on 9/11 than we think and they’re just too afraid or intimidated to ask their questions out loud (meaning to others outside their very close knit circles)? I just have to click my ruby heels together and believe that SURELY more people than just us are at the very least troubled by all the weirdness:
1) Steel pulverizing after a relatively low temp fire and buildings with steel grids falling at free fall speed
2) Building 7
3) Reluctance to even investigate the biggest crime perpetrated against the United States
4) Don’t get me started on the Pentagon
5) NORAD missing in action
6) So on
7) Ad infinitem
It’s almost like, there’s this big elephant crapping all over the room and people just keep stepping around the poop.
I have a cousin who was dating a married man once and she would brag on and on about how he loved her and was so good to her and wanted to marry her. Everyone in the family knew he was married and would never leave his wife (after all this sham relationship lasted at least 10 years). Family members just went along with this fantasy and never acknowledged that they knew. One day in frustration, I screamed and said to my family why are we entertaining these obvious lies. Of course, I was the one who got blamed for upsetting the apple cart and causing trouble. Maybe people just like being blissfully ignorant. Does anyone have a deserted island that I may purchase?
Yep, the report was a sham. The Bushies didn’t even want a Commission on the matter, so it’s no surprise that they stacked it with a fixer.
For the folks here though, there are two questions as to the rationale for the fix:
1. Bushies facilitated the 9-11 attack; or
2. Bushies want to cover up their incompetence.
Everyone tends to believe No. 1 because Bush has gotten so much mileage out of being “a wartime pResident.” However, point No. 2 was already demonstrated by Congressional questioning; i.e., the National Intelligence Estimate stated, “Bin Laden poised to attack.” And the Clinton administration’s Clark warned the incoming Bushies too.
Even now, Republicans have thwarted attempts to make the ports more secure by funding and mandating security measures. Meanwhile, our civil liberties have been curtailed without improving security as a consequence.
Conspiracies are hard to prove (that’s why they are conspiracies) but the amount of lying coming from every Bushy, on just about everything, just encourages the assumption that 9-11 was an inside job.
To me, the occurrence of 9-11 seems analogous to the way the U.S. supposedly conducts coups abroad. They just quietly let the generals in the other country know their displeasure with the regime and offer support. Then, they wait for the coup to happen.
If U.S. officials looked the other way, or were deliberately “incompetent,” then a 9-11 attack would be bound to happen.
It also helps to have “Bandar Bush” as a family friend, maybe, considering that 15 of 19 hijackers supposedly came from southern Saudi Arabia.
Philip Zelikow (executive director)
Perhaps no more glaring conflict of interest attracted opposition from victim families and 9/11 activists than that of the commission’s executive director Philip Zelikow. Concerns were raised when it was disclosed that only two commission members and Zelikow might be allowed to see certain classified presidential records, including the much ballyhooed and publicly debated presidential daily briefing (PDB) of august 6, 2001.
He viewed the August 6th PDB as a red herring and a hubristic pretext over which the commission could make a show of ‘battling’ the White House for information. The PDB, titled, ‘bin Laden determined to strike in us’ was eventually released in a one and a half page version that was presented to the world as ‘complete.’
Nothing could have been further from the truth. The respected German paper Die Zeit published a story in October of 2002, well before the PDB became an issue, stating that the pdb was actually eleven and one half pages long. CTR documents more than a dozen specific warnings which foretold hijacked airliners being crashed into the World Trade Center during the week of September 9th.
Other warnings, such as massive insider trading on financial markets from Hong Kong to Tokyo, to Chicago, to New York, to London and Berlin told those who were watching that the airlines involved would be United and American.
The insider trading, acknowledged and documented by the likes of CBS News, Bloomberg, and respected financial commentators was given the complete brush off by the Kean commission in its final report. All it said was that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda did not make the trades.
The controversy arising from the public debate over Zelikow forced even the New York Times to comment on some of his more obvious conflicts of interest.
‘Advocates for the families said they were alarmed by the commission’s disclosure on Thursday that only one of the 10 commissioners would have access to a wide range of the briefings, and that the only person from the commission with similar access would be its staff director, Philip Zelikow, who has close ties to Condoleezza Rice and other senior officials in the Bush administration.
‘The commission has previously rejected a request from victims’ families to limit Mr. Zelikow’s responsibilities sharply in light of potential conflict of interests involving the White House.
‘The families’ advocates said the decision to have Mr. Zelikow be one of only two commission officials with wide access to the highly classified documents – the other is Jamie S. Gorelick, a Democratic commission member who was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration ˜ raised new questions about the investigation’s impartiality.
‘Mr. Zelikow, who wrote a book with Ms. Rice in 1995, was on the Bush administration’s transition team for the national security council and has acknowledged having contacts earlier this year with Karl Rove, president Bush’s chief political adviser, about Mr. Zelikow’s scholarly work at the University of Virginia.’
What’s more, Zelikow had been serving as a member of president Bush’s foreign intelligence advisory board (pfiab) since 2001 and he also made a September 2002 public statement saying that us military action against Iraq would be based upon a desire to protect Israeli interests rather than any real threat from Iraq.
Perhaps the worst conflict of interest was the fact that Zelikow had advised the incoming Bush administration on terror-related intelligence matters and had several discussions about bin Laden and al Qaeda in 2000-2001 with Richard Clarke.
By rights, he should have been a witness testifying under oath before the commission instead of its executive director. When many of the victim families learned of this they were justifiably outraged at an arrangement that would have never been permitted in a court of law.
Booksense:
I love your analogy with the “big elephant crapping all around the room, and people just keep stepping around the poop”
This just sums up life in the West today, you mustn’t interfere or help, you must never be the first to point something out, and most importantly, never, never appear to be at odds with your peers, because you face exclusion for ever.
Most people don’t have the balls or integrity to be different, and say what they mean. I have been told that I am not a very political person, because I can’t keep my mouth shut, and have to tell it like it is. The people who say this, have no idea of politics in the real World.
We recently had the comments by the devil’s harlot (I might not get away with that one, but there I go again) Debra Cagan, who said “I hate all Iranians”, in the presence of visiting UK members of Parliament. Why have none of these spineless creatures come forward, and said “yes, that is what she said”, on main stream television. Instead, they skulk at the sidelines, unsure of how it will affect their career. If someone could give me the names of those MPs, I will contact them personally, and ask for details.
I really hate this World, for the lies, cowardice, cheating and murder, in fact everything which our governments in the US and UK are guilty of.
I was always puzzled by the reaction to Bush at the elementary school on 9-11 Day. He was whispered, “the nation is under attack” and he did not even flinch, or get the hell up immediately and go to work. Instead he kept reading about MY PET GOAT. And the Secret Service did not hustle him out of the room, at any time.
But perhaps what was whispered was actually not, “the nation is under attack”. Perhaps it was instead something like, “Cheney Plan A executed. It’s done.” That would be wild.
But if it were the case, then Bush continuing to sit there with the kids for another 11 minutes makes perfect sense. Absolutely. Finish up the book with the kids. No Secret Service need bustle him out. Everything is UNDER CONTROL.
The PNAC Plan for a New Pearl Harbor became reality. All subsequent events make sense. And the two Israeli spies that were caught by police on the New Jersey shore on 9-11 while actually monitoring the crashes, they were quickly deported to Israel where they disappeared. Never mind about all that. All is right with the world. If you don’t think too hard about it.
Great comments all, the question is,”what are we going to do about it”?
I trust that most here understand that this is simply business as usual and it is the same whether a Repug or a Dem is in office! We are laboring under a sick and corrupted system and it matters little who we elect the system simply overwhelms them all.
“Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, the panel’s Democratic vice chairman, praised Zelikow as a “person of integrity” who was upfront in disclosing his background and White House contacts. It made sense for commission staff to contact the White House regularly to get information, Hamilton said, and the book also notes that Zelikow was such a dogged negotiator that even then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales found him irritating and subsequently refused to meet with him.”
http://fawcett911.us/DemRepNeoHistory.html
1980 The “October Surprise”
It seems that former CIA director and Vice Presidential candidate George Herbert Walker Bush, in yet another treasonous act, was involved in negotiations with people connected to the people who’d taken Americans hostage in Iran, to delay their release. (The Reagan-Bush Presidential campaign was concerned that President Carter would get the hostages released in October and win the November election.)
As “coincidence” would have it, the hostages were released just as Reagan and Bush were inaugurated, January 1981.
The reason we don’t know more about it is because Democrat Lee Hamilton squelched the House Of Representative’s subsequent “investigation” into the matter. This is one of the earlier known occasions on which Democrat Lee Hamilton, CFR member and long-time Bush family fixer, let “the bad guys” get away with treason.
By the way all the Presidential candidate, except for Kucinich and Paul, are member of the CRF. Boy, they must hate the Internet!
I really, really, don’t like conspiracy theories, it all sounds very whacko to me. But here I am unable to conclude anything else but that a conspiracy indeed exists. This is amazingly serious and yet, not one candidate talks about this and the people believe it is a conspiracy, yet the people are not clamoring for an investigation. You would think everyone would be up in arms. Go figure. The immigrants organize a huge march to protect their interests and the American people don’t do anything to protect their nation. What the hell is that?
Philip Zelikow has actually admitted that he deliberately ignored evidence of Bush administration complicity in
9-11. The following is from an account by Tom Hansen of a conversation he had with Zelikow in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Oct. 14, 2004. Tom Hansen’s full account of that conversation was published in Global Outlook magazine.
————————–
I told Dr. Zelikow that this secrecy of the 9/11 Commission is still fueling
conspiracy theories and distrust throughout the country and around the world.
Then I asked him why he and the Commission and the staff don’t simply release
photos and other information to the public so that we can rest assured that
the Commission has fully investigated and answered these and other persistent
questions. His answer was that the staff, including himself of course as
Executive Director, made a conscious decision not to dignify these “outrageous
conspiracy theories” by investigating them or reporting on them. In my opinion, this
statement by Dr. Zelikow lends credence to Professor Griffin’s charge that
Zelikow’s staff acted as a filter of what would be investigated and reported.
Dr. Zelikow then told me he could see my point about the public wanting to know
more, and he said he would go back to the Commission staff and re-visit the
question of what to release. We’re still waiting.
Re: conspiracy theories.
The problem isn’t the word “conspiracy”. Conspiracy is simply a crime, or plot to commit one, that involves more than one person. It’s defined in the legal books. We know, off the bat, that 9/11 was a conspiracy. The question is which people committed it, where their money came from, and why.
In science and the humanities, theories becomes facts when they are fully exposed to open scholarship, complete transparency, experiment, etc. as the case may be.
In politics and religion, theories “become facts” in quite a different way: some unquestionable authority demands it, by fiat.
Here’s YOUR question of the day:
Does this process actually produce facts? Or must it always yield to an orthodoxy?
People need to dig a lot deeper re: the attack on the World Trade Center. Something went on, here.
I think we have already connected the dots and filled in almost all the holes with the great posts here form Alexwashinton and Abbywood.
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html
The hiding of Able Danger even during Clinton is revealing from the above site.
I don’t think anything well be done until Bush is out, but weather the next prez will have the balls? … Well you know me, I live on hope.
If you want to do something please write to all your friends in NYC and everywhere else with a link to this article and about the new initiative for a new investigation at http://www.nyc911initiative.org/ Hope you can copy and paste, folks.
Lets get to work!
I forgot here is the link to Able danger http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050917&articleId=965
Just to let you know about one simple fact in JFK that disproves three shots were fired from the “snipers window” …one of the three empty shells found by the window had a large enough dent on the lip that it could’t have been fired. Whoever was up there was leaving a message and I got a hunch that messenger was shot.
A quick note to “Lizard”" and “ddiam”: The Official 9/11 Commission Report was (and is) a “conspiracy theory” just as much as any of the other “conspiracy theories” that are floating around out there - - and it fits Paul Bramscher’s legal definition of “conspiracy” to a “T”!
Willie Nelson (on a live broadcast yesterday )questions 911 report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnWRrH5t_H0
The question that should be asked of oneself or anybody else is:
” what would you do if you knew for certain that your gouvernment was responsible for perpertrating 911 what would you do ????????
The answer to that question is the reason that people aren’t in the steets demanding the action be taken.
I think the one thing the majority of posters here agree on is that we got neither an independent nor a complete investigation of the events of 911. What this story makes clear is that we have a pretty reasonable explanation for why we did not, although that explanation is by no means complete.
Let us just refuse to buy into the “conspiracy” framing altogther—what we, the people, who have done our homeowrk know for certain is, that powerful forces within this government have successfully blocked this investigation, making the 911 Commission Report useless, at best, and outright deceptive at worst ( for what it leaves out).
Pure and simple—WE NEED A REAL IMPARTIAL INVESTIGATION.
That said, I fear it ain’t gonna happen. I hope I am worng.
This was printed shortly after 9/11/2001.
http://www.911-strike.com/