Quick, get Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice some Ginkgo biloba. It’s clear she needs it after you read this:
A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.
The account by Sean McCormack came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, 2001, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible� she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. McCormack also said records show that the Sept. 11 commission was informed about the meeting, a fact that former intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed on Monday.
When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Mr. Woodward’s reporting.
Now, after several days, both current and former Bush administration officials have confirmed parts of Mr. Woodward’s account.
Earlier reports said the 911 commission hadn’t been informed, which takes some of the punch out of this latest tidbit.
The original version suggested that (a)Rice was using the old “I can’t recall” legalism to wiggle out of a crisis and (b)information was witheld from the 911 commission.
This report confirms that (a) the warnings were given and (b) Ms. Rice perhaps needs to take a few herbs for her memory (“President WHO just called me from the Oval Office???”).
But there’s significance on another, greater: it’s yet another blow to the reputation of a Bush administration member’s image. This has not been the best two weeks for the image of the administration or the Republican party’s House leadership.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.