Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - January 31, 2008, 9:56AM
The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation
The book is being closely held until its release next month, but Max Holland, a D.C. area blogger and author, was somehow able to snag an advance audio copy at his local bookstore.
A lot of what has been "censored," it turns out, revolves around the commission's executive director Philip Zelikow. According to Holland, Shenon reports that
Zelikow 1) hid the depth and breadth of his relationship to key members in the administration, 2) had a number of private conversations with Karl Rove (funny how he keeps popping up) while he was on the panel, and 3) succeeded in softening the final report's judgment on the Bush Administration's responsibility.Second, about those phone calls. Shenon reports that
not only did Zelikow frequently talk to Rove, but that he tried to hide it, even requesting that his secretary not take messages. Zelikow denies this, too, and tells Justin, "I never discussed the 9/11 Commission with him, not at all. Period."
And then there's Zelikow's influence on the final product:
Even after his recusal, Zelikow continued to insert himself into the work of “Team 3,” the task force responsible for the most politically-sensitive part of the investigation, counter-terrorism policy. This brief encompassed the White House, which meant investigating the conduct of Condoleeza Rice and Richard Clarke during the months prior to 9/11. Team 3 staffers would come to believe that Zelikow prevented them from submitting a report that would have depicted Rice’s performance as “amounting to incompetence, or something not far from it.”
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/005182.phphttp://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2008/01/commission-conf.htmlhttp://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4218157&page=1