In the week since she stuck a Ferragamo-shod foot in her mouth, new and disturbing information has come to light. The real issue is one of hubris and incompetence and an unwillingness to hear anyhthing this administration did not want to hear. I'm no big fan of Bob Woodward. He stopped being a reporter and started being an author a long time ago. That is my personal opinion. Nothing more nothing less. After the fawning Bush at War his credibility waned with a lot of people. And now he's back, this time with State of Denial. Attempting to atone, apparently.
In State of Denial, he seems to verify the "Bush Bubble" most of us have all been pretty certain of for years. And the Bubble not only exists, it apparently encloses all those with high access to the "Decider."
"Tenet and Black felt they were not getting through to Rice. She was polite, but they felt the brush-off….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. Rice and the Bush team had been in hibernation too long....
"Afterward, Tenet looked back on the meeting with Rice as a lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the attacks. Rice could have gotten through to Bush on the threat, Tenet thought, but she just didn't get it in time. Black later said, 'The only thing we didn't do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head.'"
How frustrating that must have been, for professional intelligence analysts to be blown off by the National Security Advisor, who apparently went mental shoe-shopping while they were trying to get her attention and head off the worst attack in our history.
Condi apparently has Ronald Reagan's memory deficits, because she has no recall of the meeting. None. (Perhaps that is because she wasn't listening and/or did not want to hear?) That just doesn't sit well with me - an NSA advisor who doesn't recall meeting with her intelligence chiefs.
Responding to the Woodward book, Rice told The Washington Post for Monday's edition that an aide was checking on the meeting, but added, "What I am quite certain of, however, is that I would remember if I was told--as this account apparently says--that there was about to be an attack in the United States. The idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible."
Well, I wish I could believe her, but I can't. Too many people are telling the same story, and hers is the one that differs. She did not reveal this meeting to the September 11 commission, and that equals a purjury trial.
Someone is misremembering, and it looks to like it's Condi. And if she is, she is in deep shit indeed. And if she knowingly carried water for the warhawks, ignored intelligence and help frogmardh us to war? If she is guilty of what it looks like she is guilty of, she should be charged with one count of manslaughter for every death caused by the terror attacks of September 11.
If her inaction is proved intentional, I just have one thing to say to Condi - Leavenworth is lovely this time of year.
