The Neocons' Ties to the 9/11 Commission's Report
by William Hughes
(Monday, February 25, 2008)
There was little chance that the 9/11 Commission was going to establish
the full truth. One
reason why: Its Executive Director, the Neocon-loving Philip D. Zelikow,
had his own agenda, to
wit: protecting the interest of the Bush-Cheney Gang and linking “Al-Qaeda
to Iraq.” Zelikow
had previously written a book with Condi Rice, authored a paper used to
justify the preemptive
attack on Iraq and worked on Bush’s presidential transition team in
2000/2001.
“A lie would make no sense, unless the truth were felt to be dangerous.”
-- Carl G. Jung
Philip Shenon’s insightful “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the
9/11 Investigation,”
is a book that I found hard to put down. An investigative reporter for the
NY Times, he gives a
detailed history of the so-called “official” inquiry, authorized by the
U.S. Congress, into the
tragedy of September 11, 2001. One of the central characters in this
compelling saga is a
master manipulator, Philip D. Zelikow. He ran the Commission as its
Executive Director. The
idea that this guy, who had close ties to Condi Rice, was interested in
revealing the full
truth about 9/11 is simply preposterous. Why? Because, he had co-authored
a book with Rice,
worked on President Bush’s transition team in 2000/2001, and wrote a
Neocon-like policy paper,
which was used to justify the horrific Iraq War. Zelikow should have had
the words “Conflict of
Interest” branded on his Neocon-loving forehead!
Mr. Shenon underscored that in mostly every government commission, like
the one for 9/11, it is
the Executive Director, who is the key player in shaping the ultimate
findings of that body.
The author put it this way: “It is a polite fiction in Washington that the
reports of
blue-ribbon federal commissions are written by the commissioners
themselves. In truth, most of
the reports are written by a professional staff led by a full time
director.”
Zelikow denied that he had any conflict of interest in accepting his
czar-like role. This was
so even after it was disclosed, that as the Executive Director, he made
and received numerous
telephone conversations from Karl Rove, “Bush’s Brain,” and that he had
several visits with
Rice, in the White House.
On another front, Zelikow supposedly had such an “abrasive” personality,
that even Henry
Kissinger, himself, was leery of him! According to the author:
“Zeiklow...had...[an] outsize
ego and fierce temper; his anger was a thing to behold, his face growing
bright red, his well
chosen insults flying in every direction.”
The Commission’s charter was to establish that the Bush-Cheney Gang’s
“9/11 Mythology” was holy
dogma. [1] Any evidence, no matter how persuasive, showing a differing
point of view was
outside of the scope of its limited, narrowly focused inquiry. For
example, the fact that a
structural steel-framed skyscraper, WTC-7, a 47-story office building
structure, collapsed in
6.5 seconds, (free fall speed), even though it wasn’t struck by any jet
airplane, didn’t raise
an eyebrow for the 9/11 Commission. [2] Also, the highly suspicious
conduct of those “Five
Dancing Israelis,” over in New Jersey, who were caught joyfully taping the
WTCs destruction,
didn’t show up on its monitor either. [3] Experts have submitted that
there are aspects of
9/11, many with probative value, that the Commission chose not to
investigate. [4]
Prior to 9/11, the Bush-Cheney Gang was given plenty of explicit warnings
of an “imminent
terrorist attack” inside the U.S. Take one: On July 12, 2001, Thomas
Pickard, the acting
director of the FBI, met with the then-Attorney General, John Ashcroft.
Pickard told him:
“We’re at a very high level of chatter that something ‘big’ is about to
happen. The CIA is very
alarmed...” Ashcroft, a political has-been from Missouri, barked back at
the veteran FBI man:
“I don’t want to hear about that anymore. There is nothing I can do about
that.” The author
emphasized how the White House had also “done so little in response to
[the CIA’s George]
Tenet’s repeated warnings of an al-Qadea attack.” Which brings me to the
proverbial “smoking
gun,” the crux of the matter, the “Presidential Daily Briefing,” (PDB), of
Aug. 6, 2001.
Keep in mind, that leading up to that critical period of time, i.e., just
before 9/11, that it
was Rice who was in charge of the powerful National Security Council
(NSC). It was her primary
duty to keep Bush informed about any possible terrorist attack in the U.S.
Enter Richard Clarke. He was an expert on counter-terrorism and an
important member of the NSC
team. He attempted in early 2001, to repeatedly warn the White House about
al-Qaeda. Instead of
listening to Clarke, however, the author pointed out: “Rice moved Clarke
off center stage, in
part at THE URGING OF ZELIKOW and the transition team.” In any event, the
PDB of Aug. 6, 2001,
prepared by the CIA, and based on its latest Intel, including Intel from
the FBI, specifically
warned Bush, V. P. Dick Cheney, Rice, among others, that the threat of a
terrorist attack by
al-Qaeda, in the U.S., was “CURRENT AND SERIOUS.” This crucial document
was entitled: “BIN
LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN THE U.S.”
On Sept. 4, 2001, Clarke warned Rice yet again. Here is how he put it:
“Are we serious about
dealing with the Al Qaeda threat? Decision makers should imagine
themselves on a future date
when the CSG is not successful in stopping Al Qaeda attacks and hundreds
of American lay dead
in several countries, including the U.S. What would those decision makers
wish they had done
earlier? That future day could happen at any time.” On top of Clarke’s
memo, the Commission
revealed that “more than 40 PDBs presented to Bush from January 2001
through September 10,
2001, included references to bin Laden.” Some of the family members of the
9/11 victims--the
author called them, “the Jersey Girls”--regularly referred to Rice as:
“Kinda-lies-a-lot” Rice!
As an aside, also in Shenon’s book, Sen. John McCain was mentioned in a
favorable light. He was
one of the first members of the U.S. Congress to insist on an
“independent” probe of 9/11. The
author then reported how Sen. McCain “despised [President] Bush, and the
people around him,
especially [Karl] Rove,” He blamed the Bush-Cheney Gang for supposed
“dirty tricks” that they
pulled on him, during the 2000 presidential election. Now, if Sen. McCain
would only come clean
about the cover-up of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, on June 8,
1967. [5]
Getting back to Clarke. When he heard on Jan. 27, 2003, that Rice’s crony,
Zelikow was
appointed as director for the Commission, he said: “THE FIX IS IN!” The
author explained:
“Clarke understood that with Zelikow--Zelikow of all people--in charge,
there there was ‘no
hope’ that the commission would carry out an “impartial” investigation of
the Bush’s
administration’s bungling of terrorist threats in the months before
September 11. Could anyone
have a more obvious conflict of interest than Zelikow?”
To show Zelikow had his own agenda, he arranged for Abe Sofaer to testify
at the Commission
first public hearing on March 31, 2003, in NYC. The author wrote: “It
seemed odd that he was
the Commission’s very first expert witness. Sofaer had no special
expertise on the events of
9/11. He appeared there, mostly, as an advocate for the American invasion
of Iraq--the invasion
had been launched a week earlier--and a champion of the [Neocon] concept
of ‘preemptive
defense’ or ‘preemptive war.’”
If Sofaer wasn’t off point enough, Zelikow followed up with another doozy
of a witness at the
Commission’s hearing, in July, 2003. It was Laurie Mylroie of the
Neocon-infested “American
Enterprise Institute.” The author said that Mylroie promoted the dubious
idea that “Iraq and
Al-Qaeda were effectively one.” Who do you think in the Bush-Cheney Gang
was the biggest
“booster” of Mylroie? If you answered the Neocon Paul Wolfowitz, a “key
architect of the Iraqi
invasion,” you would be right. Her book, “Study for Revenge,” was
fulsomely praised by him.
Mylroie also thanked another Neocon, Irv “Scooter” Libby, then V. P.
Cheney’s top lag dog, for
his help on her book. Libby was later convicted of perjury by a federal
jury in the Valeri
Plame/CIA-related matter. [6]
As the 9/11 staff prepared its “interim” report for the Commission,
Zelikow attempted to
rewrite it to “link Al-Qaeda to Iraq.” Some of the staffers rebelled and
Zelikow, despite being
an ultra pushy character, backed off. A few of the staffers considered him
a “White House
mole.” The Commission also refused to buy V.P. Cheney’s yarn of “an Iraqi
link to 9/11.”
The bottom line is: 9/11 didn’t have to happen, no matter who really
orchestrated the monstrous
deed. The Commission’s Report basically found “no fault” as far as the
Bush-Cheney Gang’s role
in the tragedy was concerned. [7] Its Report also helped to “reelect Bush
as president.” The
clever Zelikow, with his ties to the Neocon ideologues, got what he
wanted, but the country
didn’t. The full truth about 9/11 has yet to see the light of day.
Finally, Zelikow ended up with a government sinecure--Counselor to the
U.S. Secretary of
State--Condi Rice! It’s all enough to make you want to throw up!
Notes:
[1]. http://911Review.com/myth/index.html
[2]. http://www.wtc7.net/index.html
[3]. http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
fiveisraelis.html
[4]. http://www.911truth.org/
and
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/
and
http://911Review.com/
and
http://www.prisonplanet.com/
[5]. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/
Hughes0712.htm
[6]. http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/
blogs/voices.php/2007/06/17/p17602
[7]. http://www.9-11commission.gov/
|
