Washington DeCoded - 30 January 2008
Commission Confidential
EXTRA
By Max Holland
In a revelation bound to cast a pall over the 9/11
<http://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2007/04/the_politics_an.html>
Commission, Philip Shenon will report in a forthcoming book that the panels
executive director, Philip Zelikow, engaged in surreptitious
communications with presidential adviser Karl Rove and other Bush
administration officials during the commissions 20-month investigation into
the 9/11 attacks.
Shenon, who led The New York Times coverage of the 9/11 panel, reveals
the Zelikow-Rove connection in a new book entitled The
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446580759/1n9867a-20> Commission:
The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, to be published next month
by TWELVE <http://www.twelvebooks.com/content/index.asp> books. The
Commission is under an embargo until its February 5 publication, but
Washington DeCoded managed to purchase a copy of the abridged audio version
from a New York bookstore.
In whats termed an investigation of the investigation, Shenon
purports to tell the story of the commission from start to finish. The
books critical revelations, however, revolve almost entirely around the
figure of Philip Zelikow, a University of Virginia professor and director of
the Miller Center of Public Affairs prior to his service as the commissions
executive director. Shenon delivers a blistering account of Zelikows role
and leadership, and an implicit criticism of the commissioners for
appointing Zelikow in the first placeand then allowing him to stay on after
his myriad conflicts-of-interest were revealed under oath.
Shenons narrative is built from extensive interviews with staff
members and several, if not all, the commissioners. He depicts Zelikow as
exploiting his central position to negate or neutralize criticism of the
Bush administration so that the White House would not bear, in November
2004, the political burden of failing to prevent the attacks.
The Commission includes these specific revelations:
Kean and Hamilton appreciated that Zelikow was a friend and former
colleague of then-national security adviser Condoleeza Rice, one of the
principal officials whose conduct would be scrutinized. Zelikow had served
with her on the National Security Council (NSC) during the presidency of
Bushs father, and they had written a book together about German
reunification. The commission co-chairmen also knew of Zelikows October
2001 appointment to the Presidents Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
According to Shenon, however, Zelikow failed to disclose several additional
and egregious conflicts-of-interest, among them, the fact that he had been a
member of Rices NSC transition team in 2000-01. In that capacity, Zelikow
had been the architect responsible for demoting Richard Clarke and his
counter-terrorism team within the NSC. As Shenon puts it, Zelikow had laid
the groundwork for much of went wrong at the White House in the weeks and
months before September 11. Would he want people to know that?
Karen Heitkotter, the commissions executive secretary, was taken aback on
June 23, 2003 when she answered the telephone for Zelikow at 4:40 PM and
heard a voice intone, This is Karl Rove. Im looking for Philip.
Heitkotter knew that Zelikow had promised the commissioners he would cut off
all contact with senior officials in the Bush administration. Nonetheless,
she gave Zelikows cell phone number to Rove. The next day there was another
call from Rove at 11:35 AM. Subsequently, Zelikow would claim that these
calls pertained to his old job at the University of Virginias Miller
Center.
The full extent of Zelikows involvement with the incumbent administration
only became evident within the commission on October 8, 2003, almost halfway
into the panels term. Determined to blunt the Jersey Girls
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Girls> call for his resignation or
recusal, Zelikow proposed that he be questioned under oath about his
activities. General counsel Daniel Marcus, who conducted the sworn
interview, brought a copy of the résumé Zelikow had provided to Kean and
Hamilton. None of the activities Zelikow now detailedhis role on Rices
transition team, his instrumental role in Clarkes demotion, his authorship
of a post-9/11 pre-emptive attack doctrinewere mentioned in the résumé.
Zelikow blandly asserted to Marcus that he did not see any of this as a
major conflict of interest. Marcuss conclusion was that Zelikow should
never have been hired as executive director. But the only upshot from these
shocking disclosures was that Zelikow was involuntarily recused from that
part of the investigation which involved the presidential transition, and
barred from participating in subsequent interviews of senior Bush
administration officials.
Some two months later, as Bob Kerrey replaced disgruntled ex-Senator Max
Cleland on the panel, the former Nebraska senator became astounded once he
understood Zelikows obvious conflicts-of-interest and his very limited
recusal. Kerrey could not understand how Kean and Hamilton had ever agreed
to put Zelikow in charge. Look Tom, Kerrey told Kean, either he goes or I
go. But Kean persuaded Kerrey to drop his ultimatum.
In late 2003, around the time his involuntary recusal was imposed, Zelikow
called executive secretary Karen Heitkotter into his office and ordered her
to stop creating records of his incoming telephone calls. Concerned that the
order was improper, a nervous Heitkotter soon told general counsel Marcus.
He advised her to ignore Zelikows order and continue to keep a log of his
telephone calls, insofar as she knew about them.
Although Shenon could not obtain from the GAO an unredacted record of
Zelikows cell phone useand Zelikow used his cell phone for most of his
outgoing callsthe Times reporter was able to establish that Zelikow made
numerous calls to 456 numbers in the 202 area code, which is the exclusive
prefix of the White House.
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 Rices performance as amount[ing] to incompetence, or
something not far from it.
In Without Precedent, Kean and Hamiltons 2006 account of the 9/11
panel, the two co-chairmen wrote that Zelikow was a controversial choice
. . . [but] we had full confidence in Zelikows independence and abilityand
frankly, we wanted somebody who was unafraid to roil the waters from time to
time. He recused himself from anything involving his work on the NSC
transition. He made clear his determination to conduct an aggressive
investigation. And he was above all a historian dedicated to a full airing
of the facts. It was clear from people who knew and worked with him that
Zelikow would not lead a staff inquiry that did anything less than uncover
the most detailed and accurate history of 9/11.
Shenons radically different account of the commissions inner workings
promises to achieve what none of the crackpot conspiracy theorists have
managed to do so far: put the 9/11 Commission in disrepute.
The Commission will be reviewed in the February issue of Washington
DeCoded.
http://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2008/01/commission-conf.html
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