How the Sept. 11 commission blew it

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES ^ | June 27, 2004 | MARK STEYN

[anita]

The big news out of the report was, as the Washington Post headline had it, "Al-Qaida-Hussein Link Is Dismissed." As it happens, the report didn't "dismiss" anything, but you can't blame the media for rushing out special commemorative editions and sending out 11-year old newsboys to shout, "Uxtry! Uxtry! New Bush Lie! Vote Kerry!"

The actual report put it this way:

"We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida cooperated on attacks against the United States."

That means what it says: As intelligence types always say, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. And, insofar as there was a lack of evidence, it was only for specific links between Saddam and specific attacks against the United States.

[beaversmom]

Might be because BenVeniste is a Clinton bagboy and pond scum to boot.

Where's Cheney?? We need an F-bomb thrown at this puke.

[Jorge]

Ben Veniste attends Bush bashing Moore film and no one is calling that conflict of interest

We should thank him.
Ben Veniste's televised slimey attacks on Rice really doomed the 9-11 commission's reputation.

His smarmy accusations and Condi's great responses really were the highlight of the commission's testimonies.

[Watery Tart]

He has always looked like a mafia godfather to me.

Yes! Mafia written all over him. Especially when he was wearing that awful, cheesy pinstriped suit.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[SquirrelKing]

So now, when are they going to arrest Gorelick for treason?

Another FReeper put it best: When she becomes a Republican.

[SquirrelKing]

Recipe for a great weekend:

Beer.
Beach.
Barbecue.
The good ol' Steyn ping list.

Thanks Poke, Rob & Dog!

[MplsSteve]

If there's any truth to what you say, it seems as though Ben Veniste has a possible conflict of interest.

If there is in fact no conflict of interest, then Ben Veniste (and Gorelick) need to put themselves in a position where there is not even the slightest appearance of impropriety.

By attending the Fahrenheit 911 premiere (and meeting w/Clinton), Ben Veniste has failed that test.

Why isn't the media reporting this?!

[ravingnutter]

Writing in today's Times on what he calls "The Zelikow Report," Safire takes aim at the newly issued staff report that dismissed out of hand any real connection between Iraq and al-Qaida, which led to a media broadside claiming it was a conclusion of the Commission itself, which it was not.

"'Panel Finds No Qaida-Iraq Tie' went the Times headline," Safire wrote. "'Al Qaida-Hussein Link Is Dismissed' front-paged The Washington Post. The A.P. led with the thrilling words 'Bluntly contradicting the Bush Administration, the commission. ... ' This understandably caused my editorial-page colleagues to draw the conclusion that 'there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaida. ...'"

Thrilling but untrue, the columnist notes. It was not the judgment of the commissioners, but merely an assertion of the "runaway" staff headed by ex-N.S.C. [National Security Council] aide Philip Zelikow. "After Vice President Dick Cheney's outraged objection, the staff's sweeping conclusion was soon disavowed by both commission chairman Tom Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton," Safire reported.

"Yesterday, Governor Kean passed along this stunner about 'no collaborative relationship' to ABC's George Stephanopoulos: 'Members do not get involved in staff reports.'" Safire: 9/11 Commission's Runaway Staff

[freekitty]

Couldn't have said it better.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

But what nobody except Michael Moore and the rest of the conspirazoids would dispute is that there is a significant accumulation of circumstantial links between al-Qaida and Iraq -- including meetings between Osama bin Laden himself and Iraqi officials, the presence of al-Qaida operatives at Iraqi embassy functions, the presence of al-Qaida associates within Iraq, etc.... A couple of days later, on June 21, commission member John Lehman went on "Meet the Press" and mentioned a lieutenant-colonel in Saddam's Fedayeen who had significant ties to al-Qaida, including sitting in on a three-day meeting in Malaysia in January 2001 with several of the 9/11 hijackers. This, said Lehman, is "new intelligence, and this has come since our staff report has been written." Really? I mentioned the lieutenant-colonel in question in a column in the Australian a month ago. I first heard of it months before that. And I'm just a third-rate pundit, not a big commission with gazillions of dollars and unlimited access. The reality is this: There are connections between Saddam and al-Qaida. A mere 14 months after the liberation of Iraq, we don't yet know enough to reach a definitive conclusion about those connections. The jury is still out, and so should the commission's camera-hoggers have been.

Interesting article for your "Salman Pak, etc." Archives, xzins; Steyn Ping.

[xzins]

Thanks OP. The jury is still out, and so should the commission's camera-hoggers have been.

911 Commission is out to lunch and a tremendous waste of time and money.

This will get added to my list.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I'm still waiting for the commission to investigate the 911 commission to be formed.

[Wolfstar]

How the 9/11 commission blew it

Let me count the ways. They blew it to the depth and breadth and height their souls can reach...

(Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning)