Everybody knows Rush Limbaugh. Who ever heard of Phil Zelikow?

[Octafish]

They both are professional communicators -- the former famous on the radio, the later recognized in academic and governmental circles.

Unlike consumers of Corporate McPravda, DUers are more likely to know Dr. Zelikow from his service as the Executive Director of the 9-11 Commission. President Obama recently appointed him to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.



Illustration by Joseph Nectvetal of /seconds.org

Although less well known than the fascist gasbag, Phil Zelikow is by far the more important voice for our nation and planet's future. The reason: He's been given authority with which to shape history from behind the scenes.

In his book, "The Commission," New York Times reporter Philip Shenon chronicles how, at the very least, Zelikow helped protect the reputation of his former co-author and then-national security advisor Condoleeza Rice. Of course, a case could be made that it was more than a reputation what got protected, gross incompetence and criminal negligence and all.

Then, there's the matter of claiming to not know Karl Rove and not telling anyone to report ever receiving phone calls from Mr. Rove. That's some serious not-knowing, Reaganesque, if truth be told.

My biggest problem with the guy has to do with his interpretation of what President Kennedy really said. Dr. Zelikow and his co-author Ernest R. May wrote "The Kennedy Tapes." The work has added to what scholars know about the workings of the Kennedy White House. Unfortunately,

What JFK Really Said

The author checked the Cuban-missile-crisis transcript in The Kennedy Tapes against the recorded words. He discovered "errors that undermine its reliability for historians, teachers, and general readers

by Sheldon M. Stern
The Atlantic

EXCERPT...

An unforgettable moment in these unique historical records concerns JFK's apprehension that military action in Cuba might touch off the ultimate nightmare of nuclear war, which he grimly describes at a meeting on October 18 as "the final failure." Brian McGrory, of The Boston Globe, who listened to this tape with me in 1994, after it was declassified, used those words in the lead of his article on the newly released tapes. But when I checked the transcript recently, I was unable to find "the final failure." Certain that the editors must be right, since they had technically cleaner tapes, I listened again; there is no question that Kennedy says "the final failure." The editors, however, have transcribed it as "the prime failure."

SNIP...

The participants then discuss evidence that work on the missile sites is continuing. They debate whether to add petroleum, oil, and lubricants (POL) to the list of quarantined materials immediately, or to wait twenty-four hours to see if talks proposed by UN Secretary-General U Thant produce a breakthrough. McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's national security adviser, suggests that they "leave the timing until we've talked about the U Thant initiative." The inaccuracy in The Kennedy Tapes is especially bizarre in this case, with Bundy saying "leave the timing until we've talked about the attack thing." These last two examples—"the destroyers " and "the attack thing"—could easily leave a reader wondering what in the world these men were talking about. (Three days later, on October 29, U Thant was mentioned again. JFK asserts, "We want U Thant to know that Adlai is our voice." But The Kennedy Tapes transcribes this line as "We want you to know that Adlai is our voice.")

October 27 saw the darkest moment in the crisis. An unconfirmed report was received at midday that a U-2 spy plane had been shot down over Cuba by a Soviet SAM missile, and the pilot killed. On the tape of the late-afternoon meeting Kennedy discusses whether to order an air strike on the SAM sites if the incident is repeated (a delay that produced consternation at the Pentagon). He declares that two options are on the table: begin conversations about Khrushchev's proposal to swap Soviet missiles in Cuba for U.S. missiles in Turkey, or reject discussions until the Cuban crisis is settled. Kennedy chooses the first, with the caveat that the Soviets must provide proof that they have ceased work on the missile sites. He repeatedly refers to "conversations" and "discussions" and concludes, "Obviously, they're not going to settle the Cuban question until they get some conversation on Cuba." Incredibly, The Kennedy Tapes substitutes "compensation" for "conversation." It's easy to imagine how Cold War veterans like Rusk, Bundy, and McCone would have reacted to any suggestion of compensation for the Soviets in Cuba.

On October 29, the day after Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles, the President and his advisers, relieved but not euphoric, conclude that surveillance and the quarantine will continue until the missiles have actually been removed. After a lull in the meeting, during which the conversation turns to college football, the President observes, "I imagine the Air Force must be a little mad," referring to the division of responsibility for aerial photography between the Air Force and the Joint Chiefs' photo-reconnaissance office. The Kennedy Tapes transcribes this as "I imagine the airports must be looking bad," which must leave many readers scratching their heads: the removal of the missiles had nothing to do with Cuban airports. Kennedy then ponders why, in the end, the Soviets decided to back down. He notes, "We had decided Saturday night to begin this air strike on Tuesday." No effort was made to conceal the military buildup in southern Florida, and Kennedy wonders if the impending strikes pushed the Russians to withdraw their missiles. The Kennedy Tapes, however, has JFK saying "We got the signs of life to begin this air strike on Tuesday," making his shrewd speculation unintelligible.

ONE particular error, among scores not cited above, seems to epitomize the problems with these transcripts. On the October 18 tape Dean Rusk argues that before taking military action in Cuba, the United States should consult Khrushchev, in the unlikely event that he would agree to remove the missiles. "But at least it will take that point out of the way," The Kennedy Tapes has Rusk saying, "and it's on the record." But Rusk actually said that this consultation would remove that point "for the historical record." The historical record is indeed the issue here.

CONTINUED...

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/05/stern.htm

Personally, I understand Dr. Zelikow's a fine fellow. Brilliant, well-read and a great writer and thinker, people who know him say.

Where I have a problem with him is his version of Truth. It is that of the Establishment, or the Powers-That-Be and their instrument for running democracy their way, the national security state.

So, as we approach the 48th anniversary of taking the disastrous course of a national policy geared primarily toward the needs of War Inc, Wall Street and the relatively few who profit from owning and operating them, we are left to wonder what the next 48 years will be like: The Establishment's or those of JFK and Democrats like him? I know which version I'll hold and which path I'll follow.

[Duppers]

1. I know who he is

I wrote UVA to tell them, that as long as he's at the university, to never ask me for another donation.

I am profoundly disappointed in Pres. Obama's appointments.

[Octafish]

13. Thank you for sharing that, Duppers! Virginia is one of the great universities of the world.

Integrity. You obviously keep the concept in its original form.

[mod mom]

15. Wouldn't Thomas Jefferson be turning in his grave?

rec'd

[Hubert Flottz]

25. "I am profoundly disappointed in Pres. Obama's appointments."

Me too...the kind of crew you'd expect a republican pResident to drag in.

[russspeakeasy]

29. Yeah, I really wonder where in hell he gets some of these people.

:evilfrown: Who is doing his winnowing ?

[Major Hogwash]

2. Is he CIA?

Or does that matter these days?

[Octafish]

14. Dunno, Major Hogwash. He publicly disagreed with the agency regarding torture.

This blog includes the original article:

Zelikow: Dubious arguments that “torture works”

[tech5270]

3. Didn't tell me anything I didn't know.

Can you say PNAC? I knew you could!

[Octafish]

16. Please start a journal, tech5270.

It's easy. It's free. Then, you can share what you do know.

BTW: From what I know, Zelikow was not a signatory to PNAC. Some of his writings, however, may have inspired members of that organization.

[JackRiddler]

45. Zelikow did help craft the 2002 World Domination version of the Defense Policy Guidelines...

i.e., the preemptive war doctrine a.k.a. Bush doctrine. He was one of the intellectual architects of the Iraq invasion.

[underpants]

4. Sounds like J. C. Bancroft Davis - they are sociopaths

A passing remark
Bancroft Davis, the Court Reporter and former president of Newburgh and New York Railway

The decisions reached by the Supreme Court are promulgated to the legal community by way of books called United States Reports. Preceding every case entry is a headnote, a short summary in which a court reporter summarizes the opinion as well as outlining the main facts and arguments. For example, in U.S. v. Detroit Timber and Lumber (1905), headnotes are defined as "not the work of the Court, but are simply the work of the Reporter, giving his understanding of the decision, prepared for the convenience of the profession."<5>

The court reporter, J.C. Bancroft Davis, wrote the following as part of the headnote for the case:

"The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does."<6>

In other words, corporations enjoyed the same rights under the Fourteenth Amendment as did natural persons.<7> However, this issue is absent from the court's opinion itself.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/underpants/156

[Octafish]

18. ''He who controls the past, controls the future.''

Thanks for the kind reminder and link to your excellent journal, underpants. It is well past time to put things in their proper place -- outdoors in the garage. It's way past time to move people out from under the overpass and into the sheltered indoors enjoyed by the ownership class.

I'd really like the Senate to ask fired investigator Dana Leseman's thoughts regarding Dr. Zelikow's service as ED. Background from Shenon:

http://books.google.com/books?id=sOUFNF3tQGAC&pg=PT172&lpg=PT172&dq=dana-leseman+%2B+philip-zelikow&source=bl&ots=_Y-lMMRyZ1&sig=zvydfcG9Tqoep2Kw8D4kr5i8CjM&hl=en&ei=zmmDTtnjGuGCsgL2ncijDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

[AzDar]

5. I know of Zelikow. I wasn't aware of the fact, however, that Obama had made this appointment...

Good. Lord.
:wtf:

[Octafish]

19. A kinder, gentler War Inc.

Whether it's business or drinks at the playa, people in the know, just know...

Defense Policy Board: Richard Perle
Policy Profiteers: Right-Wing Think Tanks & Bush's Foreign Policy
Weapons-Makers Cashing In on the War on Terrorism

excerpted from the book

How Much Are You Making On The War Daddy?
A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration

by William D. Hartung
Nation Books, 2003, paper

EXCERPT...

p86
Just as Perle was stepping down as the chairman of (Defense Police Board) DPB, the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity released a report indicating that he was not alone among his colleagues on the board in taking an active role as an arms industry consultant, executive, and investment advisor while serving as a close advisor to Donald Rumsfeld. The Center found that nine of the board's thirty members had relationships with weapons contractors that together had received over $76 billion in contracts from the Pentagon in the most recent year for which figures are available. Perle's partners in influence peddling include his neo-con fellow traveler R. James Woolsey, who runs the Global Strategic Security practice for Booz Allen Hamilton, a beltway bandit which bagged $68O million in Pentagon contracts in Fiscal Year 2002; Jack Sheehan, a retired general who works for Bechtel, which is currently cashing in on the rebuilding of Iraq; David Jeremiah, a retired admiral with ties to the Mitre Corporation, a major Pentagon R&D contractor, which is run by fellow DPB board member James Schlesinger, who served as defense secretary prior to Donald Rumsfeld's first go-round at the job back in the mid-1970s.

p88
... Perle and his DPB partner in crime R. James Woolsey who alleged links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. It was Perle and his colleagues at the DPB who suggested that Saddam Hussein's forces possessed nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that posed an imminent threat to the United States. And it was Perle and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith who have pressed most vigorously for a U.S.-backed puppet government led by the Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, a high-living, alleged embezzler who had not stepped inside the country for forty-five years before the Pentagon dropped him in behind U.S. Iines during the early stages of "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Perle's advice on Iraq has been wrong on all counts. Professional intelligence analysts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and around the world have persuasively argued that there were no operational links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda prior to the spring 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. U.S. forces failed to find workable nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons in Iraq after taking control of the country. U.S. forces dispatched Saddam Hussein's regime relatively quickly, but it was far from the "cakewalk" that Perle and company-echoed by high administration officials and allies like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney-claimed it would be. The Iraqi people have not arisen as one to welcome U.S. forces as liberators, and more U.S. troops have died in the occupation phase of the war than were killed in the period leading up to the collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein. The costs of the war- in lives and dollars-are already several orders of magnitude higher than the neo-con brigades claimed they would be. And United States forces will be bogged down in Iraq for many more months to come.

Despite this record of bad advice-which has undermined the security of our nation and the safety of our troops-Donald Rumsfeld sang Perle's praises when he stepped down as chair of the DPB, calling him a man of "deep integrity and honor," with a "deep understanding of our national security process." Not only did Rumsfeld fail to acknowledge that his long-time fellow partisan had done anything wrong, but his high praise for Perle sounds like it could have been lifted straight from a letter of recommendation. I wouldn't be surprised if Rumsfeld's words, or a summary thereof, appear in one of Perle's future pitch letters for Trireme.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporate_Welfare/Perle_ThinkTanks_HMOWD.html

Money. Power. Money. Power. Money. Power. Ad infinitum or until secret government is ended and Democracy restored...

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. It is info and links like that which made you an early entry on my buddy list, Octafish.

:hi:

[grasswire]

6. thank you n/t

[Octafish]

28. You are most welcome, grasswire!

Did you read this -- balanced and fair -- analysis of Dr. Zelikow by HNN (History News Network of George Mason University)? It was written by Max Holland. Thus, it's more damning than anything I could write:

Philip Zelikow: A critic assesses his role in steering the 9-11 Commission

EXCERPT...

If for no other reason, Shenon’s book is valuable because it finally provides a coherent explanation for how the 9/11 panel came to have an executive director who simultaneously oversaw the investigation and was a subject of it—an unprecedented situation. According to Shenon, Zelikow minimized, to a point of disingenuousness, the exact nature of his activities until (or so the commissioners thought) it was too late to fire him. Kean and Hamilton, of course, knew and appreciated from the outset that Zelikow was a friend and former colleague of then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, one of the principal officials whose conduct would be scrutinized. Zelikow had served with her on the National Security Council (NSC) under Brent Scowcroft during the presidency of George Bush’s father, and they had written a book together about German reunification. The commission co-chairmen were also aware that Zelikow’s connections were not just past but current; Bush had appointed him to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), one of the most sensitive advisory posts an administration “outsider” can hold.

According to Shenon, however, Zelikow failed to disclose on his résumé several more egregious conflicts-of-interest, including the critical fact that as a member of Rice’s transition team in 2000-01, he had been the architect responsible for demoting Richard Clarke and his counter-terrorism team within the NSC. As Shenon puts it, Zelikow’s reorganization plan “laid the groundwork for much of went wrong at the White House” in the months before 9/11.<6> There was also the fact that Zelikow had secretly authored, at Rice’s request, the Bush administration’s post-9/11 national strategy paper released in September 2002, a doctrine that justified unilateral and pre-emptive attack whenever Washington felt threatened.<7> Given his other entanglements, Zelikow’s role on the transition alone was probably sufficient to disqualify him from serving as executive director, and this latter involvement compounded the problem. It was as if J. Lee Rankin, Zelikow’s equivalent on the Warren Commission, had written a book with J. Edgar Hoover, frequented Jack Ruby’s burlesque joint, and donated money to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee before November 22.

Shenon quotes Kean as saying he “wasn’t sure” that he knew anything about Zelikow’s work on Rice’s transition team before he agreed to hire him, but when he did find out he found it “worrisome.”<8> Hamilton, for his part, told Shenon, “I think I did , but I don’t think I’d swear to that.” In any case, Hamilton admitted that he did not know any of the “details” of what Zelikow had done during the transition.<9> Zelikow, meanwhile, has provided various explanations whenever this issue has arisen. He has claimed, despite the absence of these entanglements on his résumé, that Kean and Hamilton knew all about his past work with Rice because he told them orally. They have no clear recollection of that. Zelikow has also insisted that his transition role was so widely and even publicly known that Kean and Hamilton could not have been unwitting.<10> Lastly, Zelikow has attempted to defuse the extremely sensitive matter of his loyalties, by telling Shenon, for example, that “I don’t think Tom or Lee or I anticipated the extent to which the commission’s work would be used as a partisan battlefield.”<11> It was this kind of patently false and dismissive remark that used to infuriate the Jersey Girls. They knew better at this point in their crash education.

In October 2003, as word of Zelikow’s conflicts spread, the 9/11 relatives’ umbrella group, the Family Steering Committee, released a statement demanding Zelikow’s resignation or recusal from the part of the investigation involving the NSC. Shaken by the demand, Zelikow decided on a pre-emptive strategy: he told Kean and Hamilton that he wanted to describe the exact nature of his pre-commission activities under oath. But even before Zelikow’s examination by general counsel Daniel Marcus, the co-chairmen made clear they wanted to keep the indispensable Zelikow in place, eight months into the investigation. Marcus was instructed to do what needed to be done on the recusal front, and “make it work.”<12>

CONTINUED...

[PufPuf23]

7. Know Zelikow. A tactical and connected propagandist.

9-11 Commission Executive Director, etc. etc.

Disturbs me that POTUS Obama has hired Zelikow on a policy advisory board.

Long live (some) blue links at DU.

[Octafish]

38. Karl Rove left no records of telephoning Dr. Zelikow

A revealing interview of someone who understands the meaning of "limited hang-out" from the good people at DemocracyNow!:

EXCLUSIVE: Former 9/11 Commission Chief Philip Zelikow on Allegations He Secretly Allowed Karl Rove & White House to Influence 9/11 Probe

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez
DemocracyNow.org
Feb. 7, 2008

Earlier in the week, we spoke to Philip Shenon, author of The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. Shenon suggested that Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, sought to minimize the Bush administration’s responsibility for failing to prevent the September 11th attacks. Shenon also revealed that Karl Rove repeatedly called Zelikow during the probe. Today Zelikow responds in his first broadcast interview since the publication of Shenon’s book. (includes rush transcript)

EXCERPT...

PHILIP ZELIKOW: I did not have phone logs. This is a garble of something that’s probably come second — you know, two or three layers removed from people who don’t actually understand the way our office worked. But no one in the office thought that I was concealing anything from the commissioners, and the commissioners don’t think I was concealing anything from them, because they were briefed on all these contacts.

And they also knew very well what my relationship with the White House was, since, as the commissioners have recently put it, Zelikow was the White House’s biggest problem. And they, the commissioners, if you will just call them and ask them, will point out that I was actually a source of constant trouble for the White House, and the White House had hoped that the Commission would put someone else in my job. And in fact, the White House’s biggest supporters, like Bill Safire, were slamming me in their columns during 2004, because I was leading the Commission to knock down the theories they supported. So it’s —- I think this -—

CONTINUED...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/7/exclusive_former_9_11_commission_executive

PS: Thank you, PufPuf23, for caring about Who's Who and What's What!

[defendandprotect]

8. KR

[Octafish]

39. What Phil Shenon told DemocracyNow!

From the good folks at DemocracyNow!, an interview with NYT reporter and author, Phillip Shenon:


New Book Alleges 9/11 Commissioner Philip Zelikow Minimized Scrutiny of Bush Admin Failure to Prevent al-Qaeda Attack

New York Times reporter Phillip Shenon joins us to talk about his new book, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. Shenon says 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow had close ties to both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Bush political adviser Karl Rove. He suggests that Zelikow sought to minimize the Bush administration’s responsibility for failing to prevent the September 11th attacks. (includes rush transcript)

Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Feb. 5, 2008

EXCERPT...

AMY GOODMAN: You talk about, in your book, the commission, that’s just being released this week, just being released today, Zelikow’s secret relationship with Karl Rove. He’s this week becoming a commentator on Fox News, but much more relevant was his top status within the White House, top adviser to President Bush.

PHILIP SHENON: Well, what I can tell you is that in 2003, Karl Rove called Zelikow a number of times at the commission. We know this because there are phone logs recording Rove’s calls in. Now, Zelikow had a lot of ties to the Bush administration, and that was known to some degree when he signed onto the investigation. And he had assured the commission that he would do his best to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and would cut off most of these ties with his friends in the White House and elsewhere.

It becomes known on the commission staff in 2003 that despite these promises, Zelikow is having conversations with, of all people, Karl Rove, and this creates, as you might imagine, a huge amount of alarm and suspicion on the commission staff. You know, what is the executive director of the 9/11 Commission doing talking to Karl Rove? Now, Rove’s people at the White House, you know, his friends and allies there, and Zelikow insist that there was — that this was completely innocent and that this involved Zelikow’s work at the University of Virginia. And indeed Zelikow’s work at the University of Virginia centered around presidential histories, so Karl Rove is somebody he would have normally at the university had some sort of contact with, I assume.

And there’s an odd development thereafter, which is Zelikow calls in his secretary, shuts the door and informs her that she is no longer to keep phone logs of his contacts with the White House. The secretary is alarmed by this, worries that she’s being asked to do something improper and then contacts the chief lawyer for the commission to alert him to what’s happened. As I say, this whole sequence creates a great alarm and a great suspicion about what Zelikow was up to.

CONTINUED...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/5/new_book_alleges_9_11_commissioner

Gosh. One almost needs a super-computer to track all the myths flying zipping around those days.

[bluesmail]

9. bookmarking

[Octafish]

40. What Bob Kerrey (D-Neb) said about Shenon's book and Dr. Zelikow...

Bob Kerrey Reviews “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation” by Philip Shenon

By Bob Kerrey
Prairie Fire
March 2008

EXCERPT...

Mr. Shenon raises legitimate questions about the impartiality and fairness of the commission’s Executive Director Philip Zelikow. There is some basis in doubting whether Mr. Zelikow could be impartial. In December 2003, after Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle asked me if I would serve as the replacement for Sen. Max Cleland, I thought seriously about turning down the offer because I did not know if I could devote the time needed to do the job well. Prior to meeting Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton for lunch to discuss the matter, I went to the commission’s offices to read several documents, including Mr. Zelikow’s memorandum, for the record. This memorandum detailed the important role he had in 2001 in drafting many of the new administration’s national security directives. His friendship with Condoleezza Rice, among other things, appeared to me to pose a fatal conflict of interest.

Had I been on the commission from the beginning and known his work history, I would not have hired him. Coupled with Mr. Zelikow’s strong, forceful and occasionally offensive personality, it seemed to me that there must have been better choices. However, I overcame my doubt and joined the commission. Over the next eight months Mr. Zelikow’s overall performance persuaded me that Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton had made the right choice.

SNIP...

Mr. Shenon makes it clear that Mr. Zelikow was not a White House mole. He was not on the list of people the White House preferred. On several occasions, detailed clearly in this book, Mr. Zelikow took positions that were at odds with the best political interests of the president. Still, in politics perception becomes reality, and though Mr. Shenon tries to be a fair critic, reading this book adds to the perception that Mr. Zelikow’s bias hindered more than it helped.

Three facts about the conditions under which this commission operated add to this perception. The first is the external political rancor that existed through the commission’s life. The heat from outside was as intense as any I have experienced in 16 years of public service. We were being whipped from the left and the right for being a bunch of grandstanding partisans. Daily efforts were made to discredit us before we got close to a final report. Partisans for and against Presidents Clinton and Bush were on alert for any statement they regarded as detrimental to their cause.

CONTINUED...

http://prairiefirenewspaper.com/2008/03/the-commission

Sen. Kerrey also makes clear his understanding of the Commission's mandate and its workings. His is an honest read, IMO.

[bertman]

10. Not just ANY appointment, mind you, but to the President's INTELLIGENCE Advisory Board.

Are we going to ASSUME that this appointment is one that the President approved based on the recommendation of some low-level policy wonk who had not done his/her homework on Zelikow's previous activities?

Or are we going to ASSUME that President Obama appointed Zelikow for the same reason that he hired Robert Gates--continuity of purpose and action?

Or are we going to ASSUME that there were just no other qualified individuals with a strong streak of 'truthiness' who would accept the appointment?



More of the same from the Obama Administration. Just freaking unbelievable.

REC.

[DURHAM D]

11. Well aware of who he is - he is vile. nt

[provis99]

12. yeah, well Leo Strauss was brilliant, too.

He was still an inhuman monster, however.

[mod mom]

17. I hope all DUers read Octafish's posts and for those new to DU

please by all means, check out his well sourced information yourself! Even consider doing a little research on the topic yourself.

Excellent info. Forwarded. :hi:

[nashville_brook]

35. +1

[Zorra]

20. Please, say this isn't so. PNAC Zelikow on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board? WTF?

Damn it! Every time I start to get behind Obama a bit, something this like this happens, and I have another WTF? WHY?!? moment.

Appointing PNAC Zelikow to the Intelligence Advisory Board is an unforgivable insult to all Democrats and all Americans as well, not to mention that may be a huge national security risk.

I really...I really...I'm truly stunned. I can't believe this.

(on edit: i was so knocked out by this information that i keyed a relatively incoherent sentence)

[AverageJoe90]

37. Obama's CLEARLY being manipulated here.

It's about time the people woke up to what was going on.

[saras]

42. And this is clear exactly how?

[AverageJoe90]

46. All you need to do is look around.

That isn't to say, of course, that POTUS hasn't made his own mistakes.......

[bobthedrummer]

21. K&R We have a rather select intelligence board here too, don't we?

:fistbump:

Philip D. Zelikow Source Watch profile
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Philip_D._Zelikow

[alsame]

22. He should have no role whatsoever in a

Democratic administration.


In Rise of the Vulcans (Viking, 2004), James Mann reports that when Richard Haass, a senior aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell and the director of policy planning at the State Department, drafted for the administration an overview of America’s national security strategy following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Dr. Rice, the national security advisor, "ordered that the document be completely rewritten. She thought the Bush administration needed something bolder, something that would represent a more dramatic break with the ideas of the past. Rice turned the writing over to her old colleague, University of Virginia Professor Philip Zelikow." This document, issued on September 17, 2002, is recognized as a significant document in the Bush administration doctrine of preemptive war.

At the recommendation of Vice Chair Lee H. Hamilton, Zelikow was appointed executive director of the 9/11 Commission, whose work included examination of the conduct of Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush and their administrations. Zelikow's prior involvement with the administration of George W. Bush led to opposition from the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, citing the obvious conflict of interest of having previously worked on the Bush transition team, which recommended candidates for Cabinet positions and other top national security appointments. Many security positions were in fact filled by people associated with the Project for a New American Century (such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld) which advocated a war with Iraq, and lamented that goal would take a long time, unless there was an event like "a new Pearl Harbor." In response to the concerns, Zelikow agreed to recuse himself from any investigation matters pertaining to the National Security Council's transition from the Clinton to Bush administrations, which Zelikow had helped manage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_D._Zelikow

[Roland99]

23. Neocon bastard.

[SpiralHawk]

24. Yet another Republicon OCCULTIST busily burying the truth

http://www.iol.co.za/polopoly_fs/bury-pic-1.1107090!/image/2202407142.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/2202407142.jpg

[Octafish]

27. Guy's a veteran of Poppy Bush madministration national security council staff.

Reagan Was the Butcher of My People

[DearHeart]

26. Freakin unbelievable!!

First Obama appoints a bunch of Wall Street jackasses & criminals and NOW he appoints Zelikow!! WTF???? This guy essentially had Condisleeza demote Richard Clarke and he has massive conflicts of interest when he was on the 9-11 commission, along with being a member of the PNAC and Obama appoints this bastard???:puke:

[formercia]

30. Changing a few words is a big deal

I've seen first hand how it has been used in the real World to completely change the perception of the reader in very subtle ways. Take, for example, a Manifesto. The government decides that an author is a problem to be dealt with. The Manifesto he has written has limited distribution within a close circle of associates. What is done is to get a copy and rewrite it in very subtle ways, so by the time a reader finishes it, the original intent has been deflected or turned on it's head. The next step is to make thousands or Millions of copies that are indistinguishable from the original, except for the subtle change, right down to the type of paper, ink and binding. Even the author, examining a copy in detail would recognize it as his own. By the time he realizes what has happened, he has been discredited and the movement has lost valuable momentum, if not destroyed.

This has been done many, many times, and will be done many times to come, because the Powers That Be have the resources, experience and talent to do it, and they will most likely do it using your Tax Dollars.

[Overseas]

32. I know who he is and I'm sad about this appointment too.

Ah well... maybe it's just to have a variety of opinions on the board.

But I sure wish we didn't have so many of Cheeneey's leave-behinds around.

[shanti]

36. And then there were the burrowers...

Did Obama ever root them out when * left? Or did he even care?

[Wilms]

33. ^

[wildbilln864]

34. k & r! eom...

:hi:

[Wilmer]

41. One assumes...

...that Obama's appointment of Zelikow was well received by the government of Israel. One might even wonder if the latter leaned on the former to do so, the former being only too happy to serve. As usual.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n10/letters

[PufPuf23]

43. kick nt

[OnyxCollie]

44. Kick.

Thanks for the thread, Octafish.