Posted on 04/07/2004 8:09:30 AM PDT by Fedora
Today I noticed that Condoleezza Rice was being criticized by Leslie Gelb:
Friends, Foes Say Rice Has Spirit, Toughness She'll Need for Sept. 11 Testimony
At the same time, Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, who has known Rice for two decades, says he has seen a stiffening in her philosophical approach over the years.
Gelb's name rang a bell, and upon searching I discovered Gelb was responsible for hiring Richard Clarke to the State Department:
Clarke Known As Abrasive but Efficient
Leslie Gelb, who hired Clarke for his first State Department job in 1979
Now Gelb has also been involved in several major national security leaks, including the Pentagon Papers:
The Pentagon Papers and Their Continuing Significance
Amid his own growing doubts about the war he had encouraged, McNamara quietly left the government in early 1968. Before doing so, however, he ordered a small staff in the Department of Defense to undertake a secret study of U.S. decision-making about Vietnam since the end of the Second World War. The study was directed by Leslie Gelb.
About nine months into the [Pentagon Papers] project, Daniel Ellsberg of the Rand Corporation climbed aboard. Even though Ellsberg behaved erratically throughout and failed to meet deadlines, Gelb and [Paul C.] Warnke agreed to give him "personal access to the entire study."
Powell, 53:
On May 16, while testifying before the United States Senate, Ellsberg, before taking the oath, stated that Warnke, Halperin and Gelb were not involved in his theft of the Papers. No one had asked him that question. . .but later, after Sen. Strom Thurmond insisted that he be put under oath, he did not discuss this matter.
Powell, 90:
On February 14, 1985, Leslie Gelb broke a front-page story in the New York Times titled "U.S. tries to Fight Allied Resistance to Nuclear Arms." In it, Gelb revealed that the United States had drawn up plans to deploy nuclear depth charges in Canada, Iceland, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, the Azores, the Philippines, Spain, and Diego Garcia in time of war. Gelb's source for this classified information? The Institute for Policy Studies. . .These stories struck a raw nerve in the alliance. . .and subsequently led to the demise of the ANZUS alliance.
Powell, 103:
. . .Leslie Gelb, of the New York Times, described the institute [the Institute for Policy Studies] as "one of the premiere centers for foreign policy perspectives."
Further searching reveals that Gelb began his political career working for antiwar Senator Jacob Javits, whom was considered for invitation by event organizers to the VVAW's Dewey Canyon III rally:
Director of Policy Planning and Arms Control for International Security Affairs, Department of Defense (1967-69); Executive Assistant, U.S. Senator Jacob K. Javits (1966-67)
During the 1970s, one of Javits' major concerns was the question of who has the power to make war. He was the first member of Congress to propose legislation reestablishing congressional (rather than presidential) responsibility to commit U.S. armed forces abroad in the absence of a formal declaration of war. This War Powers Resolution passed the Senate in April 1972 and again in July 1973. It became law over President Nixon's veto on November 7, 1973.
This week in history 25 years ago--February 21, 1971: Stalinists push "People's Peace Treaty"
Both the Stalinists and the ex-Trotskyists of the Socialist Workers Party proposed that big business politicians such as Democratic Senator George McGovern and Republican Senator Jacob Javits should be invited to speak at the antiwar demonstration set for April 24 in Washington, DC.
Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty : John Kerry and the Vietnam War, 361
Just as the VVAW members were arriving in the capital, New York Senator Jacob Javits held a private dinner at his home where Secretary of State Melvin Laird was the guest of honor. It was a carefully staged event. Javits had eight other Republican members of the House and the Senate also stop by. AFter dinner. . .Pennsylvania Senator Hugh Scott dropped the gauntlet. "You don't see any hawks around here," he told Laird in a non-nonsense fashion. "The hawks are all ex-hawks. There's a feeling that the Senate ought to tell the President to get the hell out of the War."
So Richard Clarke was hired by Leslie Gelb, an individual involved in the Penagon Papers leak, who in turn started his political career working for Jacob Javits, an ally of the VVAW. Interesting, no?
Cheney promptly called the president in Florida, who had just boarded Air Force One, and urged him not to come back to Washington immediately. In the PEOC, the vice president was joined by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, among others. . .A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the agents with the president that "Air Force One is next." According to the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible. (I have a second, on-the-record source about that: Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, tells me: "When the president said 'I don't want some tinhorn terrorists keeping me out of Washington,' the Secret Service informed him that the threat contained language that was evidence that the terrorists had knowledge of his procedures and whereabouts. In light of the specific and credible threat, it was decided to get airborne with a fighter escort."). . .The most worrisome aspect of these revelations has to do with the credibility of the "Air Force One is next" message. It is described clearly as a threat, not a friendly warning — but if so, why would the terrorists send the message? More to the point, how did they get the code-word information and transponder know-how that established their mala fides? That knowledge of code words, presidential whereabouts and possession of secret procedures indicates that the terrorists may have a mole in the White House — that, or informants in the Secret Service, F.B.I., F.A.A. or C.I.A. If so, the first thing our war on terror needs is an Angleton-type counterspy.
Rice: Not Clear Whether Mole Involved in Air Force One Threat
U.S. intelligence officials have not ruled out the possibilty that a government mole may have given terrorists the top secret code language they used to deliver the threat "Air Force One is next" as the World Trade Center and Pentagon were under attack. In an interview with Tony Snow of "Fox News Sunday," National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice confirmed that the Sept. 11 threat against President Bush's life included a "coded name.". . .In a related development, the FBI has taken into custody two Saudi nationals who were found with computer files labeled "killpresidentbush.exe," the New York Daily News reported Saturday. The two suspects tried to board a plane from New York to Los Angeles on Sept. 13, two days after the Twin Tower and Pentagon attacks. They had tickets dated Sept. 11. "The two are among a group of 10 material witnesses now in custody," the News reported. The FBI has declined to make their identities public.
Have you seen anything following up on this?
SEPTEMBER 13, 2001 Thursday : (JFK International Airport in NY : ) A man was questioned Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Authorities said he was found to have a fake pilot's license. - "More arrests coming, U.S. says : So far, 25 people arrested for immigration violations are being questioned by federal investigators in connection with Tuesday's attacks," © St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2001 - Information from Cox News Service, Associated Press, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune was used in this report. cache http://www.sptimes.com/News/091601/Worldandnation/More_arrests_coming__.shtml. , current page , http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:HBTXAfMKTmsC:www.sptimes.com/News/091601/Worldandnation/More_arrests_coming__.shtml+%22Mohammed+Jaweed+Azmath+%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
SEPTEMBER 13, 2001 : (JFK NY TO LA CA FLT : TERROR WEB : BUSH ASSASSINATION PLOT : TWO SAUDIS TRY TO BOARD FLIGHT FROM KENNEDY AIRPORT TO LA WITH TICKETS DATED 9/11/2001) Two key witnesses in the terror attack probe were found with a computer file labeled "killpresidentbush.exe" and documents linked to a money launderer for Osama Bin Laden, sources told the Daily News. The witnesses were identified as Saudi nationals who tried to board a flight from Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles two days after the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack, a source familiar with the federal investigation confirmed. Their names remain secret. The two men showed up at Kennedy Airport on Sept. 13 seeking to board a Los Angeles-bound flight with tickets dated Sept. 11, the day of the attack. Authorities at the airport grew suspicious because their tickets were backdated and because all four of the flights that were hijacked flew out of Eastern airports and were bound for the West Coast. The Daily News has learned that authorities found two pieces of evidence that prosecutors believed could link the two Saudis to the terror plot. One of the men had a computer file labeled "killpresidentbush.exe," said a source familiar with the investigation. The source would not describe the contents of the computer file. The other man had documents with references to a man the FBI has identified as a money launderer for Bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire who has called for Muslims to attack American civilians. Investigators were taking the potentially explosive evidence very seriously. The "killpresidentbush" reference was of particular significance because of death threats that were made against the President on Sept. 11 — the day of the attacks. The White House revealed afterward it had received information that the terrorists' ultimate goal was to kill President Bush. - Two Saudi Nationals Eyed In Plot to Slay Bush /Computer File Found : killpresidentbush.exe , GREG B. SMITH, NY daily News, 9/22/01
SEPTEMBER 14, 2001 Friday : (Arrest and detention of JFK witness on first material witness warrant in NY) The Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested a the JFK witness Friday evening in NY. Officials said the man was associated with the brother of bin Laden and is being held under a material witness warrant. Such warrants allow authorities to keep someone in custody without charging them with a crime if that person is considered important to an investigation.- "More arrests coming, U.S. says : So far, 25 people arrested for immigration violations are being questioned by federal investigators in connection with Tuesday's attacks," © St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2001 - Information from Cox News Service, Associated Press, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune was used in this report. cache http://www.sptimes.com/News/091601/Worldandnation/More_arrests_coming__.shtml. , current page , http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:HBTXAfMKTmsC:www.sptimes.com/News/091601/Worldandnation/More_arrests_coming__.shtml+%22Mohammed+Jaweed+Azmath+%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
More trivia:
McDermott, Bonior And Thompson- Did The Democrats and Their Media Allies Make A Deal with Hussein-
(snip)
The origins of the FBI's terror-related interest in Mr. Elgindy are unclear. But it might have stemmed from a tip that was provided by angry executives from small companies who banded together to fight him for wreaking havoc on their stock by short-selling -- selling borrowed shares in hopes of turning a profit if the stock falls. After Sept. 11, these executives approached the FBI with a tip about Mr. Elgindy's possible short-selling of key industry stocks ahead of the terrorist attacks, the executives involved said. His adversaries also pointed out that Mr. Elgindy is a Muslim whose brother, Khaled Elgindy , is active in Islamic advocacy groups in Washington. Khaled Elgindy delivered humanitarian aid to Iraqis in May 1998 with a U.S. group called the International Relief Association, according to news accounts at the time.
(/snip)
Sounds like you have given this much thought. I wish you luck. Anything that can expose the criminal enterprise that is the DemocRAT party is worthwhile.
37. It was also disclosed that attention on Elgindy was focused as a result of the 9/11 securities manipulation probe. (For more about that subject, see FTR#’s 327, 331, 335, 357.) “The investigation that led to charges against five people, including a current and a former FBI agent, with using confidential government data to manipulate stock prices was an almost accidental result of probes into the September 11 terror attacks and to some degree convicted spy Robert Hanssen . . . His adversaries also pointed out that Mr. Elgindy is a Muslim whose brother, Khaled Elgindy, is active in Islamic advocacy groups in Washington.” (“Terror Probes Led to Stock-Fraud Case;” by Michael Schroeder, Gary Fields, Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Aaron Elstein; Wall Street Journal; 5/24/2002; pp. C1-C3.)
What you bring up there reminds me that, if I recall right, Al Qaeda was plotting a hit on Bush at the G-8 summit earlier that year, in conjunction with protests led by environmentalist groups or something to that effect. I have the details somewhere in my archives, will try to dig that up after supper--have to run to eat now, but more on this later. Anyway, I thought that was relevant to the issue you raise there, in that it would indicate Al Qaeda had been plotting an attempt against Bush for some time prior to 9/11.
BIN LADEN PLOTS BUSH HIT (New York Post, June 13, 2001)
International security forces are working furiously to thwart a plot by Saudi terror master Osama bin Laden to assassinate President Bush and other world leaders at a major economic summit next month. Italian officials say they've been warned by German intelligence services that bin Laden is secretly financing neo-Nazi skinhead groups throughout Europe to commit acts of violence during the summit, sources told The Post. The attack could also come from the sky in the form of a bizarre James Bond-style strike by remote-control airplanes packed with plastic explosives, Germany's largest newspaper reported yesterday. The planes would fly into the compound where Bush and the heads of state of major European powers will be meeting at the July 20 G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, the Bild newspaper reported.
Here is a related article, though the link no longer works--probably there's another link somewhere that is still live and would have the same information:
Italian Police Raid G8 Protesters' Headquarters (by Brian Williams)
GENOA (Reuters) - Italian police raided the headquarters of the umbrella group behind anti-capitalist riots against the Group of Eight summit just hours before world leaders were to end their violence-ridden meeting on Sunday.
Witnesses said armed police led about 15 activists from a school in the Italian city of Genoa which the Genoa Social Forum had made their living quarters and headquarters since the summit started on Friday.
``Police entered this evening with search warrants and took computer discs,'' Enzo Lefebe, a freelance journalist working for the group, told Reuters. ``Six people have been injured.''
About 100 police in riot gear stood outside the school just after midnight (6 p.m. EDT) as the detained activists were driven off in a police van.
The school was about 2-1/2 miles from the ``Red Zone'' where G8 leaders from Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, Canada and the United States are meeting.
Activists leaned out of windows shouting ``assassins'' as police searched the school. One person was taken to an ambulance. The ``Death in Genoa summit,'' tragically marked by the first death of a protester in two years of attacks on international economic gatherings, drew to a close with world leaders visibly traumatized by events of the past three days.
[SNIP]
The leaders from Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States will leave parts of the ancient port of Genoa in ruins from anti-globalization riots.
[SNIP]
Police said they did not rule out a last effort by hardcore protesters, still enraged by the death of a young Italian shot by police on Friday, to disrupt the final hours of the summit. It was not know if the raid on the forum was to head off new violence. A ring of steel around the summit in the port area and a ''zero tolerance'' policy toward protesters has so far stopped demonstrators breaching the so-called ``Red Zone'' protecting the leaders. Volleys of tear gas, water cannons and police charges kept mainly anarchist protesters at bay as they tried to enter the zone. Nearly 300 people have been injured and more than 100 arrested. Dozens more protesters were detained briefly.
several articles in the Wall Street Journal on the incident revealed the FBI learned of this illegal activity accidentally. As it turns out, the FBI happened to have been monitoring the activity of its own agents in the aftermath of the Robert Hanssen spy conviction. Elgindy was also being monitored for potential terrorist activities as he is a Muslim and a well known contributor to many Muslim organizations.
This is also interesting:
Fox Special Report With Brit Hume (by Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Carl Cameron, Brian Wilson, Jim Angle, Fox News, October 16, 2001)
There's now a disturbing indication that Robert Hanssen, the FBI man accused of spying for the Russians in what officials said at the time of his arrest was a massive security breach, ended up helping Osama bin Laden. As correspondent Carl Cameron reports, Hanssen sold the Russians an extremely sensitive piece of U.S. technology, and the indications are that they, in turn, sold it to bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network. . .Hanssen lived in a quiet Virginia neighborhood outside Washington until his arrest. Sources say to avoid the death penalty, for what some have described as the worst U.S. intelligence breach in decades, he confessed to giving Russia vast amounts of information, including, sources say, a software program developed by the Inslaw company in Washington. The software program is called Promis. Sources tell Fox that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have used and constantly modified Promis software to manage caseloads, track and store classified information, and keep it secure for decades. But the concern is that bin Laden or Al Qaeda could get on-line and use it to monitor the worldwide criminal investigation and hide themselves, to monitor the worldwide financial investigation and hide their money, or monitor government operations of the governments that use the software. . .It's interesting to note that shortly after the attacks, when the U.S. crackdown on bin Laden's finances began, bin Laden in Afghanistan granted an interview to a near eastern journalist, and he was talking about the efforts to freeze his money. And he said -- quote -- "Al Qaeda's youths are highly educated and are as aware of the cracks in the financial and the computer systems of the world as they are in the lines in their hands."
I wish I knew where I was trying to get to, too!--LOL! :) I'm mostly just following where the trail leads, but if I were to try to define what I'm looking for, putting it in the context of the thread's initial topic of the Pentagon Papers, I guess you could say I'm trying to connect the dots between 1) those who contributed to the attacks on Nixon and the intelligence community during the Watergate period; 2) the subsequent penetration of the intelligence community by the likes of Ames, Hannsen, etc., esp. as this touches on Iraq and Islamic terrorism (e.g. Hannsen's above-mentioned suspected selling of US computer technology to Bin Laden, Ames' selling of US technology to Russia via Iraq, Ames' links to Valerie Plame, etc.); and 3) those like Wilson, Clarke, etc. currently seeking to turn the 9-11 Commission into Bush's Watergate. Hope that helps.
bump and ping - this doesn't get old
Yes, that's very interesting. I wonder what antiwar groups Clarke's protests involved. At that time the VVAW and its active-duty counterpart, the GI Movement, were helping the American Friends Service Committee run an operation (which went under such names as National Action Research on the Military Industrial Complex aka NARMIC and Ad Hoc Military Buildup Committee aka AHMBC) to collect intelligence from antiwar military personnel about US military operations. Since about 1966-1967 the GI Movement had been encouraging draftees who were against the war to stay within the military and "bore from within" rather than dodging the draft.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.