Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

The Many Failings of Condoleezza Rice

The conversation that lays Condi out.

We've been through the damning evidence long before Bob Woodward's book blasted on
to the scene. Condoleezza Rice has been caught time and again with her credibility
hanging out. Of course, there is Iraq,
but what about the chances she had to change the course of history before 9/11?
Or if she couldn't do that, at least do all she could to stop the
attack.

But in order to have an affect on national security you would have to have
one quality beyond all others: instinct. You would have to be able to sense danger
in the spaces of TOP SECRET documents. You would have to understand what isn't
being written or said or communicated by enemies of the United States through communicaes you receive. You would
also have to immediately interpret when danger is drawing near simply by looking
at intelligence the experts bring to you. On all these points, every one, Condoleezza Rice has failed.

Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S.

Who could have imagined they take planes and slam them into buildings? Hart-Rudman,
for one.

Richard Clarke asked for a principals' meeting on January 25, 2001. He was ignored, even though he was the only through line on counterterrorism in the U.S. government, then demoted
for his aggressive efforts.

But what we're learning now adds more evidence to Rice's failings.

ON July 10, 2001, CIA Director George Tenet met with his counterterrorism chief, Cofer Black, at CIA headquarters to review the latest on Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terror organization. Black laid out the case, comprised of communications intercepts and other TOP SECRET intelligence, showing the increasing likelihood that al Qaeda would soon attack the U.S. It was a mass of fragments and dots that nonetheless made a compelling case, so compelling to Tenet that he decided that he and Black should go to the White House immediately. Tenet called Condoleezza Rice from the car, and said he needed to see her now. There was no practical way she could refuse such a request from the CIA director. For months Tenet had been pressing Rice to set a clear counterterrorism policy, including specific presidential orders called findings that would give the CIA stronger authority to conduct covert action against bin Laden. Perhaps a dramatic appearance–Black called it an “out of cycle” session, beyond Tenet's regular weekly meeting with Rice–would get her attention. STATE OF DENIAL, by Bob Woodward

Getting Condi's attention has not been easy. Remember what happened when Hamas
won elections?

“I've asked why nobody saw it coming,” Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. “It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse.” – Condoleezza Rice

“Nobody”? You're the secretary of state, what's this “nobody”
stuff?

However, nothing compares to the run up to 9/11 when Rice was national security
adviser; a big disappointment, according to Scowcroft talking to George H. W.
Bush. We didn't know the half of it then. We sure do now.

It's at this point that we would be wise to step back and take a moment to assess what we have been told and believe about 9/11. Certainly there were intelligence failures. However, the meaning
to that phrase has changed, as in the adults in charge at the White House had
failures of intelligence; human failings so grave as to be derelict in their
most important duty: to protect the people of this country. They have been over-compensating ever since. Contrast the Administration's behavior with George Tenet and Cofer Black's actions when they found out what was coming, as well as what
they did with the information they had. They rushed to transmit it to George W. Bush's
national security adviser who didn't understand what she was being told, because
she possessed no instincts about the urgency of the CIA's call. Condi didn't understand what was put right in front of her face. In battle that type of dense ignorance can get you killed. At least someone
was paying attention at the CIA, which Cheney
and Rumsfeld, with Bush's eager compliance, have undermined at every turn
since taking power.

While Condi slept…

Tenet had been losing sleep over the recent intelligence he'd seen. There was no conclusive, smoking-gun intelligence, but there was such a huge volume of data that an intelligence officer's instinct strongly suggested that something was coming. He and Black hoped to convey the depth of their anxiety and get Rice to kick-start the government into immediate action. … … … The NSA was intercepting ominous conversations among bin Laden's people–more than 34 in all–in which they made foreboding declarations about an approaching “Zero Hour,” and a pronouncement that “Something spectacular is coming.” …Two weeks earlier, he had told Richard A. Clarke, the NSC counterterrorism director, “It's my sixth sense, but I feel it coming. This is going to be the big one.” - STATE OF DENIAL

What would it take to get through this time? Remember, this is before Bin Laden
Determined to Attack Inside U.S. But the response Tenet and Black got from Rice
is likely the reason the PDB was written.

But Tenet had been having difficulty getting traction on an immediate bin Laden action plan, in part because Rumsfeld had questioned all the NSA intercepts and other intelligence. Could all this be a grand deception? Rumsfeld had asked. … On June 30, a TOP SECRET senior executive intelligence brief contained an article headlined, “Bin Laden Threats Are Real.” Tenet hoped his abrupt request for an immediate meeting would shake Rice. … First, al Qaeda was going to attack American interests, possibly within the United States itself. Black emphasized that this amounted to a strategic warning, meaning the problem was so serious that it required an overall plan and strategy. Second, this was a major foreign policy problem that needed to be addressed immediately. They needed to act right now, that very moment, to undertake some action–covert, military, whatever–to thwart bin Laden. … … – STATE OF DENIAL

Instead, the Bush administration toiled on strategic missile defense, ignoring warnings and even the final PDB. The 9/11 Commission reminded us of history, when Richard
ben Veniste asked Condi the question.

Woodward's book brings it all back.

…They both felt they were not getting through to Rice. … … Tenet left the meeting feeling frustrated. Though Rice had given them a fair hearing, no immediate action meant great risk. Black felt the decision to just keep planning was a sustained policy failure. … …. … - STATE OF DENIAL

To this day Condoleezza Rice has not been held accountable for her pathetic
performance as national security adviser, which will go down as one of the gravest national security failings in U.S. history. The only one
that trumps her is the man who took us into Iraq.

NOTE: Here is a small sampling of other people covering the contagion of information bubbling up since Woodward's book broke: McClatchy, earlier post of mine,
“Countdown” with Keith Olbermann, Mahablog, Christy @ FDL, Froomkin, with others finally picking it up as well. It's staggering the cover Rice and others, including Bush, received on the run up to 9/11 up until now.