Monday, October 02, 2006
Pants on Fire?
- October 2, 2006
Rice Dismisses Charge That She Ignored Qaeda Warning
By Philip Shenon
SHANNON, Ireland, Oct. 2 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was "incomprehensible" that she could have ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
- In her first direct comments about the book, Secretary Rice told reporters traveling with her to the Middle East on Sunday night that she did not believe there had ever been such an exchange with Mr. Tenet.
- Nor, she said, did she remember if she even met with Mr. Tenet in the White House on July 10, 2001, the date identified in Mr. Woodward's book, "State of Denial," which went on sale last weekend. Ms. Rice was President Bush's national security adviser at that time.
- "I don't recall a so-called emergency meeting," she continued, adding that "it was not unusual that George and I would meet, in a sense, unscheduled" in the White House, especially during such a tense period.
- Ms. Rice said she had no specific recollection of meeting with Mr. Tenet and Mr. Black on July 10, 2001.
- "We'll have to go back to the records to see if there was a meeting" that day, Secretary Rice said.
- "The idea that I would have somehow ignored that, I find incomprehensible -- especially given that in July, we're getting a steady stream of quite alarmist reports of potential attacks."
My, what a lot of carefully worded non-denial denials! Why doesn't Rice just say, "This meeting and warning never happened"? After all, the Secretary of State of the United States of America should be able to find out pretty quickly if and why she met with the Director of the CIA on a certain day.
Perhaps this sentence is a clue to the problem:
- "What I can be quite certain of 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," she said.
Really?
Seems to us we recall her having trouble remembering that exact thing not very long ago. Oh yes -- here it is:
Rice, May 16, 2002:
- "I don't think that anybody could have predicted that these people would take an aeroplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon," she said.
Rice, May 19, 2004:
- BEN-VENISTE: I want to ask you some questions about the August 6, 2001, PDB. We had been advised in writing by CIA on March 19, 2004, that the August 6 PDB was prepared and self-generated by a CIA employee. Following Director Tenet's testimony on March 26 before us, the CIA clarified its version of events, saying that questions by the president prompted them to prepare the August 6 PDB.
Now, you have said to us in our meeting together earlier in February, that the president directed the CIA to prepare the August 6 PDB.
The extraordinary high terrorist attack threat level in the summer of 2001 is well-documented. And Richard Clarke's testimony about the possibility of an attack against the United States homeland was repeatedly discussed from May to August within the intelligence community, and that is well-documented.
You acknowledged to us in your interview of February 7, 2004, that Richard Clarke told you that al Qaeda cells were in the United States.
Did you tell the president, at any time prior to August 6, of the existence of al Qaeda cells in the United States?
RICE: First, let me just make certain...
BEN-VENISTE: If you could just answer that question, because I only have a very limited...
RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but it's important...
BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president...
RICE: ... that I also address...
It's also important that, Commissioner, that I address the other issues that you have raised. So I will do it quickly, but if you'll just give me a moment.
BEN-VENISTE: Well, my only question to you is whether you...
RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but I will...
BEN-VENISTE: ... told the president.
RICE: If you'll just give me a moment, I will address fully the questions that you've asked.
First of all, yes, the August 6 PDB was in response to questions of the president -- and that since he asked that this be done. It was not a particular threat report. And there was historical information in there about various aspects of al Qaeda's operations.
Dick Clarke had told me, I think in a memorandum -- I remember it as being only a line or two -- that there were al Qaeda cells in the United States.
Now, the question is, what did we need to do about that?
And I also understood that that was what the FBI was doing, that the FBI was pursuing these al Qaeda cells. I believe in the August 6 memorandum it says that there were 70 full field investigations under way of these cells. And so there was no recommendation that we do something about this; the FBI was pursuing it. I really don't remember, Commissioner, whether I discussed this with the president.
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
RICE: I remember very well that the president was aware that there were issues inside the United States. He talked to people about this. But I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about.
BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
Now, the...
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
What possible explanation could there be?
