Rice "Uninterested in Advising" Bush Pre- 9/11, Wanted to Be "Closest Confidante"

Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress at 11:12 AM on February 4, 2008.

A new book singles out Condoleezza Rice as inept, more interested in being President Bush's buddy than securing the nation.

Post Tools
EMAIL
PRINT
13 COMMENTS

rice and bush

Share and save this post:

AlterNet Social Networks:

Got a tip for a post?:
Email us | Anonymous form

PEEK RSS Feed

Main AlterNet RSS Feed

Tomorrow, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon will release his book The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, revealing "failure at the highest levels of the United States government."

Shenon singles out Condoleezza Rice as inept, more interested in being President Bush's buddy than securing the nation. Newsweek editor Evan Thomas writes a preview of the book:

The official ineptitude uncovered by the commission is shocking. Dubbed "Kinda-Lies-a-Lot" by the Jersey Girls, Ms. Rice comes across as almost clueless about the terrorist threat. "Whatever her job title, Rice seemed uninterested in actually advising the president," Mr. Shenon writes. "Instead, she wanted to be his closest confidante -- specifically on foreign policy -- and to simply translate his words into action."

An example of this incompetence is the fact that on July 10, 2001 -- two months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- then-CIA director George Tenet met with Rice and warned her about a threat from al Qaeda that "literally made [his] hair stand on end." Rice was polite, but gave them the "brushoff."

The 9/11 commission, however, heard about this meeting only after it completed its report. Shenon reveals that commission executive director Philip Zelikow, a close friend of Rice, stopped staffers from submitting a report depicting Rice's performance prior to 9/11 as "amount[ing] to incompetence."

Another particularly bumbling figure in Shenon's book is John Ashcroft. On July 17, 2001, the then-Attorney General "received the same CIA briefing about an imminent al-Qaida strike on an American target." While Rice was interested in cozying up to Bush, Ashcroft was focused on protecting gun owners:

Attorney General John Ashcroft appears more interested in protecting gun owners from government intrusion than in stopping terrorism, and dismissively tells [acting FBI director Thomas] Pickard that he doesn't want to hear any more about threats of attacks.

UPDATE: According to Shenon, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was intent on placing blame on the Clinton administration. When Ashcroft "unveiled a memo that seemed to cast the antiterror record of the Clinton Justice Department in an unflattering light, Gonzales and his aides high-fived each other."

UPDATE II: Emptywheel has more.

Tagged as: bush, 9/11, terrorism, bush administration, rice, gonzales, ashcroft, tenet

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Deputy Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.

Return to PEEK » Post Tools: EMAIL PRINT 13 COMMENTS PERMALINK

Also in PEEK
Will Joe Lieberman Be the Only Dem to Sabotage Health Reform? Joe Lieberman will work with Republicans to kill health care reform, no matter the consequences for the millions who are counting on this bill to pass. Post by Steve Benen. November 24, 2009.	What Does it Mean to Take Sarah Palin and the Tea-Bagger Set "Seriously"? I know we're supposed to, but ... Post by Joshua Holland. November 24, 2009.	Everyone's Talking About Stupak, But What About the Health Care Bill's More Insidious Features? The current bill involves some quietly coercive (and racist) provisions that no one wants to mention. Post by Jill Filipovic. November 24, 2009.

Comments	Turn comments off sitewide	Give us feedback »
Comments closed. The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.		View:
"confidant" in this case is clearly a two way road to hell [Report this comment] Posted by: channing on Feb 4, 2008 1:33 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] "The White House, already criticized for its connections to Big Oil, now is facing renewed questions over Chevron's decision to name an oil tanker for national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The double-hulled giant, Condoleezza Rice, is part of the international tanker fleet of the San Francisco-based multinational oil firm, named several years ago in honor of Rice when she was a Chevron board member and stockholder. Rice, the former Stanford University provost, served on Chevron's board from 1991 until Jan. 15, when she resigned after President Bush named her to the national security post. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronic... Big Oil has been grooming this traitorous monster for 2 decades so as to give them a "black" and a "female" face to pawn on the public... the traditional image of all those rich white men doing oil was taking a toll on public-approval even in the US. Just intelligent enough to be useful as a Public-Liar/Face and clearly incapable original thought or principle, she has faithfully served, like Alberto Gonzales, with flawless diffusion of every critical issue surrounding this administration and its abundant crimes. Zelikow and Rice were vital in assuring a smooth transition to False-Flag based Wars of Aggression... In fact I'd give them medals for their performances just before their War Crimes Trials, something to hold on to in their lifetime cell-blocks. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] No end to the obfuscation. . . [Report this comment] Posted by: dustdevil on Feb 4, 2008 1:54 PM Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Condi was not incompetent. She did exactly what she was appointed to do. It is the mainstream media that is totally incompetent. No, maybe that isn't right. They are doing exactly what their corporate owners are instructing them to do. That is, of course, to keep confusing the majority of braindead US citizens as to what really happened on 9/11. I'll say this one more time . . . THERE WERE NO TERRORISTS. IT WAS AN INSIDE JOB! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: No end to the obfuscation. . .Did we all imagine those two planes? Posted by: UnEasyOne » RE: No end to the obfuscation. . .Did we all imagine those two planes? Posted by: EncinoM Rice is an excellent corporate flak and remorseless liar [Report this comment] Posted by: UnEasyOne on Feb 5, 2008 7:03 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] National security adviser? Not so much. I'm just grateful that she isn't Kissinger. Of course, Kissinger's footprints are all over this one too. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] The tanker Condoleezza; how apropos. [Report this comment] Posted by: monkeywrench on Feb 5, 2008 2:10 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] There are several reasons why Condosleaza Rice would have an oil tanker named after her: Like her, it is a nearly inert object merely pushed about by what's around it until someone else can manage to get the lumbering hulk to move; It has a hard shell that allows nothing to pass either in or out except through tightly-controlled orifices; When it discharges its oily contents, that process seems go on forever; And, last-but-not-least, in its heart is a cargo of thick, suffocating, impenetrable darkness. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Condi's real agenda [Report this comment] Posted by: Quannah on Feb 5, 2008 6:24 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] "... Whatever her job title, Rice seemed uninterested in actually advising the president," Mr. Shenon writes. "Instead, she wanted to be his closest confidante..." I think what she really wanted was to be a bit more intimate than a mere advisor. Does anyone else remember when she "slipped" and called W. her "husband"? There have been rumors flying all over Washington for over 7 years that these two have been "more than friends." It certainly would explain a lot, wouldn't it? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » Well, thanks.... Posted by: zipper696 » RE: Well, thanks.... Posted by: Quannah ANYONE ELSE [Report this comment] Posted by: fg on Feb 5, 2008 9:29 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Anyone else would have been fired on 9-12-01. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] It's clear that Condi is a whore........ [Report this comment] Posted by: tap17x on Feb 5, 2008 9:31 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] ...........but it's not clear so far that she was literally whoring for Bushit, AKA the Texas Turd, AKA the Imbecile-in-Chief. (Not to insult anyone, of course.) If they are screwing and if "You are whom you fuck," then Condi will become vastly stupid too. If the Texas Turd develops a gap between his teeth, we will finally know the truth. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Coould this be why... [Report this comment] Posted by: bloggeddowninMKE on Feb 6, 2008 5:46 AM Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Condi once accidentally almost called George Bush her husband? Does anyone else remember this? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] The sad thing is... [Report this comment] Posted by: zipper696 on Feb 6, 2008 7:05 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Rice was head and shoulders above the rest of the Administration when it came to smarts. A lot of people (yeah, me too...) thought that her intelligence would be the "voice in the ear" that would keep The Decider from doing dumb things. So much for that theory...:( [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

«	November 2009					»
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

» RE: No end to the obfuscation. . .Did we all imagine those two planes? Posted by: UnEasyOne

» RE: No end to the obfuscation. . .Did we all imagine those two planes? Posted by: EncinoM

» Well, thanks.... Posted by: zipper696

» RE: Well, thanks.... Posted by: Quannah

Newsletter

PEEK archive by date:

Use » and « to view other months.

Search:

» RE: No end to the obfuscation. . .Did we all imagine those two planes? Posted by: UnEasyOne

» RE: No end to the obfuscation. . .Did we all imagine those two planes? Posted by: EncinoM

» Well, thanks.... Posted by: zipper696

» RE: Well, thanks.... Posted by: Quannah