Oh That Condi: Rice Almighty What a Pal!
Way back in 2000 when the world was just a wee bit less crazy, Secretary of State-in-waiting Condoleezza Rice was a member of Chevron’s board of directors and head of its public policy committee, which oversaw areas that could be of potential political concern (which is to say embarrassment) for the giant oil company.
That makes the news that Chevron was knowingly paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of the defunct U.N. oil-for-food program all the more . . . uh, interesting.
Under a deal being negotiated with federal prosecutors, Chevron would be fined $25 to $30 billion, which is chump change for the U.S.’s second largest oil company.
While my inclination is to suggestion that Condi should be pilloried in Lafayette Park across from the White House, it occurred to me that she was, after all, a sinologist at the time and wasn’t hip to all that Iraq stuff, a pattern which continued after she became national security advisor in 2001.
In fact, by her own admission, she was still fighting the Cold War when that 9/11 messiness occurred.
Incidentally, Chevron had named one of its double-hulled supertankers for Condi in 1995 but renamed it the “Altair Voyager” after catching flak following her nomination to the White House post.
11 Responses to “Oh That Condi: Rice Almighty What a Pal!”
Condo is one of the most inept bureacrats ever to strut across the public stage. Were she a white male she’d never have lasted.
Who says Neo-Cons are against quotas?
Shaun, I use to drive over the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge every week and see that ship with her name on it. It disgusted me then and still does, given what has transpired from her Followship (rather than Leadership) as National Security Advisor to the President and as Secretary of State. She will go down in history as one of the least effective Secretary of State’s in the country along with Bush being the worst President’s in US History. And all this brought to you from Stanford University. Makes you wonder what has happened to education too at the University level.
PC, Charles. PC is what happened.
Dr. Rice is a brilliant scholar whose specialty was the Soviets’ role in the Cold War. She tutored W when he was running for president. But, she has not proven to be effective either as National Security Advisor-when she ignored the 9/11 warnings or as Sec State, where she is unable to emerge from the shadow diplomacy of Dick Cheney. I do think she did a good job with N. Korea, but not with the Middle East, where the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was allowed to fester into the fiasco in Lebanon, while we sat back and did nothing. She is finally trying to get back to that role, but there is so much distrust for us by now, that it is probably useless.
KR – I agree with your comments except for the PRNK part. I think Condo lacks the assertiveness to push her agenda. During the hawkish Bolton era, Condo remained silent and in the backround. Her mentor Scowcroft critisized the administration and her policies. The renewed talks had more to do with Chris Hill, than the works of Bolton, Condo or Zoellick.
Well, if we didn’t get too worked up about Halliburton opening a subsidiary in Grand Cayman to get around US sanctions against doing business in Iran under Dick Cheney I don’t think we should get too worked up about this.
And of course the Cayman Islands have long been a hotspot of activity for Oil Services companies…
Davebo Knows [tm]:
> Halliburton opening a
> subsidiary in Grand
> Cayman to get around
> US sanctions against
> doing business in Iran
> under Dick Cheney
No attack on Iran yet, right? (Least of all on the oil infrastructure that enables Iran to exploit its oil fields and finance terrorism)
Oh, and it’s a great tax savings, I’m sure.
Rudi- I was mostly crediting the State Dept. Condi might not have been responsible for a breakthrough but she didn’t waylay the effort like Bolton would have either- the hawks in the administration including Bolton and Cheney were furious because we didn’t succeed by bringing N Korea to its knees- that is more their style- force over negotiation.
I honestly think that if Bush had kept Powell at State, and not allowed Cheney to interfere, we would have a more balanced, productive foreign policy that relied on mutual cooperation instead of the threat of force. It was one of many short-sighted decisions of this administration.
Brilliant scholar? Great, so she’s qualifired to grade term papers. Next.
“…it occurred to me that she was, after all, a sinologist at the time and wasn’t hip to all that Iraq stuff, a pattern which continued after she became national security advisor in 2001.”
And there I thought that pattern continued to this day.
Yes but as we have seen with a host of “brilliant” people who formerly populated this administration- Feith, Wolfowitz, Perle- “brilliant” academics don’t always formulate policies that work in the real world. Often they don’t understand the subject of their theories well enough to predict their behavior. Yes, that is how I see the neocons- they predict the behavior of others based on liberal Western values and norms, without taking the time to study the Islamic Mideast. Rice herself may not be a neocon, but she has never emerged from their shadows sufficiently to cast her own imprint on the ME. And as NSA she never understood the Islamic fundamentalist threat.