You go girl.
Posted on 04/08/2004 5:17:17 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
Rice Testifies Before 9/11 Cmsn. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Sept. 11 Commission.
You go girl.
Lisa Myers comes on and says, Chris...nothing we've heard rises to the level of findin out the White House has a taping system.
He called her Dr. Clarke about half a dozen times until Condi said "I don't believe I look like Dick Clarke". Lots of laughter. Kerrey never recovered. Hehehehe... Condi was/is amazing...
Bush Aides Said to Take Aim at Iraq After 9/11 39 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said on Thursday the administration discussed "doing something against Iraq (news - web sites)" after the Sept. 11 attacks and drew up contingency plans, but decided against taking action and to stay focused on Afghanistan (news - web sites).
"There was a discussion of Iraq," Rice told the commission investigating the Sept. 11 hijacked airliner attacks.
"Given our exceeding hostile relationship with Iraq at the time ... it was a reasonable question to ask whether indeed Iraq might have been behind this."
She said President Bush (news - web sites) asked for "contingency plans" for Iraq in case it was found to be responsible for Sept. 11 or tried to take advantage of U.S. vulnerability in its immediate aftermath.
Rice said the issue of Iraq was raised by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and pressed by his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, a leading hawk and architect of the later invasion of Iraq.
"Given that this was a global war on terror, should we look not just at Afghanistan but should we look at doing something against Iraq? There was a discussion of that," Rice said.
Her comments -- coming as Iraq descended into bloody chaos not seen since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s fall a year ago -- appeared to confirm allegations by former counterterrorism aide Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that the administration was fixated on Iraq.
U.S.-led troops, meanwhile, battled Sunni and Shi'ite rebels and 11 foreigners were reported kidnapped, just 12 weeks before Washington's planned handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.
"The president listened to all his advisers. I can tell you that when he went around the table and asked his advisers what he should do, not a single one of his principal advisers advised doing anything against Iraq. It was all to Afghanistan," Rice said.
Last month, Clarke said the administration, immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, searched for a way to blame Saddam. He said Bush took him aside and ordered him to "see if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way."
Clarke said he responded that al Qaeda was responsible and that Iraq was not linked to the attacks. However, he agreed to look into Bush's request and again found no cooperation between Saddam and al Qaeda.
Rice sought to play down the priority the president placed on Iraq after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It's not surprising that the president would say, 'What about Iraq,' given our hostile relationship with Iraq," she said. "And I'm quite certain that the president never pushed anybody to twist the facts."
She said Bush, in a conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), had even wondered whether Iran was involved because of the attack's level of sophistication.
Rice recounted a meeting at the White House in which Bush "laid out for me what he wanted to do. And one of the points, after a long list of things about Afghanistan, a long list of things about protecting the homeland, the president said that he wanted contingency plans against Iraq should Iraq act against our interests."
"There was a kind of concern that they might try to take advantage of us in that period," Rice said.
Bush also told her that he wanted contingency plans drawn up "in case we find that they were behind 9/11," Rice said.
Red
One more for ya:
What a bloomin' idiot! And these are supposed to be the guys that'll "get to the bottom of 9/11"? LOL
Unless the memo stated:
"ANY DAY SOON TERRORISTS WILL HIJACK A PLANE AND CRASH IT INTO A TALL METROPOLITAN AREA BUILDING," pressing this as a smoking gun is nothing more than a stunt.
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