Before Rice Agreed to Testify in Public, 9/11 Comm. Exec. Dir. Faxed WH 1945 Photo

Yahoooo ^ | 4/5/04

[areafiftyone]

Zelikow Warned White House Counsel That Unless Rice Testified in Public, Photo Would '...Be All Over Washington in 24 Hours'

NEW YORK, April 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Last Monday morning 9/11 commission executive director Philip Zelikow faxed a photograph to the White House counsel's office with a note saying that if the White House didn't allow national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify in public before the commission, the photograph would"...be all over Washington in 24 hours," Newsweek has learned. The photo, from a Nov. 22, 1945, New York Times story, showed presidential chief of staff Adm. William D. Leahy, appearing before a special congressional panel investigating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The point was clear: The White House could no longer get away with the claim that Rice's appearance would be a profound breach of precedent.

• Zelikow, a University of Virginia historian, had been poring over records of the Pearl Harbor inquiries for months, report Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and National Security Correspondent John Barry in the April 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, April 5). Those probes, Zelikow believes, are the clearest blueprint for the 9/11 panel's work. "This is what happens when you hire historians," jokes commission chairman Thomas Kean.

  A White House aide says it is "fatuous" to say the Leahy photo forced the White House to capitulate. But after battling with the panel for nearly a year over documents and testimony, the White House finally relented and said Rice would testify publicly under oath. Next week, the panel is slated to hear from Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Janet Reno, and two former FBI directors, Louis Freeh and his interim successor, Thomas Pickard.

  People close to the commission are expecting a bitter confrontation between Pickard and Ashcroft. Pickard is expected to scorch Ashcroft for showing little interest in terrorism before 9/11, Newsweek has learned. The A.G. denied proposed funding increases for FBI counterterrorism programs. Ashcroft is expected to say that Pickard could have shifted resources if he thought it was so important. Commissioners will ask both of them why bin Laden family members were flown out of the country after the attacks.

  The FBI lapses have led some commissioners to consider recommending an overhaul of U.S. intelligence in their final report, due July 26. That could include a proposal to break up the FBI and create a new domestic spy agency, similar to Britain's MI5, to hunt terrorists inside the country. "This is perhaps our most difficult choice," Kean tells Newsweek. FBI Director Robert Mueller is fighting the idea. A possible compromise: a semi-independent anti- terrorist unit inside the FBI.

                        (Read Newsweek's news releases at
                   www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.")
  

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Well, in any case, the spotlight is on Condi now. And I rather suspect that the Administration's protests had a Bre'r Rabbit quality-- much fuss and noise about not throwing Condi into the briar patch. The Dems will regret her appearance.

[Conservababe]

Isn't there a difference between a chief of staff and a security adviser?

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[The Wizard]

totally unrelated.......see post about "Briar Patch Strategery"

[freekitty]

Why isn't anyone looking into the matter of this Zekilow committing blackmail. He is dispicable.

[areafiftyone]

Why are the freakin democreeps singling out Condi? She hasn't done anything to provoke them. They make me sooo sick!

[GB]

I don't know if the position of "National Security Adviser" existed in 1945 ... but Leahy's relationship with FDR would've been close to that status.

I agree with the "briarpatch" scenario, though ... Condi is going to hit the ball out of the park Thursday, and the opposition is going to rue the day they made such an issue out of this.

[Quilla]

Despicable!!

You took the word right out of my mouth.

[jackbill]

In many of the TV interviews I've seen Condi talk about a precedent in effect since Eisenhower. Eisenhower was not president until 1953.

[adam_az]

"Why isn't anyone looking into the matter of this Zekilow committing blackmail. He is dispicable."

They should fax him a copy of his oath of office and some writing about the Founders intent on the issue of Separation of Powers. Of course, there's be no point publishing something like that in the news... Most public school grads won't get it.

[Lyford]

Isn't there a difference between a chief of staff and a security adviser?

Yes there is. But for the purposes of the White House's privilege claim, not much of one. Their argument, as I understand it (and someone is sure to correct me if I'm wrong), is a separation of powers argument, that the legislative branch has no right to compel testimony from executive-branch non-confirmed employees. In that argument, there really isn't much difference between a chief of staff and a security adviser...

[twigs]

The Dems NEED a black constituency who believe that they need the democrats to live and get ahead. If they figure out that they can do it on their own (as many of them are doing), then the dems will begin to lose their base. If blacks, historically the most disenfrancized and lowest socio-economic level group in this country, begin to realize that the free market, as opposed to government hand-outs and regulation, is the ticket to success, then others will begin to get that message too. There will no longer be a need for what the Dems peddle. Minorities really tend to look up to role models. People like Dr. Rice must make the Dems tremble in their boots. Remember the hispanic man who did not get approved by the judicial committee? Same issue.

[Buck W.]

"Why are the freakin democreeps singling out Condi?"

Because she is their worst nightmare: a successful, intelligent, articulate, black female CONSERVATIVE. She has had the temerity to leave more than one democrat plantation.

[Physicist]

Why are the freakin democreeps singling out Condi? She hasn't done anything to provoke them.

On the contrary, a black woman, who is not a liberal, in a position of real power, is the deepest threat the 'rats can imagine.

[bored at work]

tear 'em up Condi

[motzman]

The photo, from a Nov. 22, 1945,

AFTER the War was over. Not during the War.

[freeperfromnj]

This commission is a JOKE. Drudge pointed out on his show last night that Kean said Condi's testimony should be 'exciting'. So it's about ratings now? This is nothing but a partisan rat show and I'm angry that it will become part of history.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

WE ARE NOW AT WAR, in a new Century with an Enemy that is now just around the corner and up our streets.

The President's Chief of Staff testfied before a Pearl Harbor Commission...

AFTER WORLD WAR II had already been won by US, thanks in part to the secrecy kept between a wartime President and his advisors.

.