The Flaws Of The 9/11 Commission: NYT Reporter/Author Philip Shenon On His New Book

[ihavenobias]

Investigative reporter Phillip Shenon of the New York Times on TYT for an interview on his new book 'The Commission' on the 9/11 report:

http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/2/7/19244/84623

[CherylK]

1. Very good interview!

I might have to buy that book!

[ihavenobias]

2. Yeah, I might have to buy a copy myself n/t

[orleans]

3. just saw him on the daily show

sounds like something we all should read

some snips from an interview w/amy goodman on democracy now
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/5/new_book_alleges_9_11_commissioner
(download the audio)

PHILIP SHENON: Well, what I can tell you is that in 2003, Karl Rove called Zelikow a number of times at the commission. We know this because there are phone logs recording Rove’s calls in. Now, Zelikow had a lot of ties to the Bush administration, and that was known to some degree when he signed onto the investigation. And he had assured the commission that he would do his best to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and would cut off most of these ties with his friends in the White House and elsewhere.


It becomes known on the commission staff in 2003 that despite these promises, Zelikow is having conversations with, of all people, Karl Rove, and this creates, as you might imagine, a huge amount of alarm and suspicion on the commission staff. You know, what is the executive director of the 9/11 Commission doing talking to Karl Rove? Now, Rove’s people at the White House, you know, his friends and allies there, and Zelikow insist that there was—that this was completely innocent and that this involved Zelikow’s work at the University of Virginia. And indeed Zelikow’s work at the University of Virginia centered around presidential histories, so Karl Rove is somebody he would have normally at the university had some sort of contact with, I assume.


And there’s an odd development thereafter, which is Zelikow calls in his secretary, shuts the door and informs her that she is no longer to keep phone logs of his contacts with the White House. The secretary is alarmed by this, worries that she’s being asked to do something improper and then contacts the chief lawyer for the commission to alert him to what’s happened. As I say, this whole sequence creates a great alarm and a great suspicion about what Zelikow was up to.



PHILIP SHENON: Congressman Hamilton has always-–throughout the investigation was a big champion of Dr. Zelikow’s. Mr. Hamilton was very much involved in the decision to hire Dr. Zelikow in the first place. I will tell you that I think there are a large number of people on the commission staff at least who would certainly disagree with congressman Hamilton.

snip

PHILIP SHENON: In 2002, this is before the creation of the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice contacts Zelikow at the University of Virginia, and asks him to prepare a document for the White House that would justify a pre-emptive war, an attack against an enemy that did not necessarily pose an immediate threat to the United States. In many ways, it would be a document that would turn American military doctrine on its head. Zelikow does this and produces a quite masterfully written memo called the “National Security Strategy of the United States,” issued in September in 2002. And very few people know this document was written by Philip Zelikow of the University of Virginia. That really would not be well known for another two years.

Now, bringing the story forward a bit, Bob Kerrey comes across the memo listing all of Zelikow’s ties to the White House and his contacts and his friendships and announces immediately to Tom Kean, the chairman of the commission, that “it’s either him or me,” “Zelikow goes or I go,” “how could you possibly have hired someone with so many conflicts of interest to run this investigation?”