Condoleeza Rice on National Security, pre september 11

SamFisher · Sep 26, 2006

This has been mentioned before, but anyway since it's come up again, let's see what Condoleeza Rice and the Bush Administration thought was important with respect to national security and foreign policy in 2000

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20000...ign-2000-promoting-the-national-interest.html

You can read all 9 pages or just skim them - but here's the long and short of it.

Condoleeza, being a johnny come lately cold warrior who cut her teeth as a Soviet expert right as the USSR disappeared, doubtless crossing foreign policy paths with the same cold war era neocons (Perle/Rummy/Wolfy) who brought you such things as arming islamic extremists to fight the soviets, still thinks like one now. Accordingly she doesn't seem to see the non-linear threats like terrorism and seems to be rigidly stuck in cold war paradigm.

Here's her 3 National Security priorities in brief:

1. No more nation building
2. Commies (Russia & China)
3. Rogue States

In detail:

Condi starts off with some distaste and disgust for, of all things the US intervention in Kosovo. I mean - protecting a bunch of muslims from ongoing genocide? When can that ever jsutify anythign?

. There was, of course, a humanitarian disaster looming as well, but in the absence of concerns based on the interests of the alliance, the case for intervention would have been more tenuous.
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Check - interventions for human rights reasons are off the menu (ha...)

The Kosovo war was conducted incompetently, in part because the administration's political goals kept shifting and in part because it was not, at the start, committed to the decisive use of military force
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LOL, sound familiar, I am literally speechless as to that one, I thought it couldn't get more ironic, until.......

Also, there must be a political game plan that will permit the withdrawal of our forces -- something that is still completely absent in Kosovo.
....
If the United States is not prepared to address the underlying political conflict and to know whose side it is on, the military may end up separating warring parties for an indefinite period
...
The president must remember that the military is a special instrument. It is lethal, and it is meant to be. It is not a civilian police force. It is not a political referee.
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....seriously, you can NOT make this stuff up. Anyway, that's just a sideshow.

Condi's next priority? Why, dealing with the red menace of course, like good old fashioned cold warrior.

For America and our allies, the most daunting task is to find the right balance in our policy toward Russia and China.
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I won't bore you with the particulars of thsi because they're largely irrelevant - however it goes on for several pages and it's obvious she considers it a primary goal (shockingly, she blames Clinton for...whatever)

Priority three: Rogue Regimes (priortiy one, Iraq, NK, Iran). Again, not a shocker. Here Condi gets to the answer for beating these regimes: Missile Defense........right....I'm sure if we had a working missile defense shield, Amedinajabad would crumble tomorrow, right?

Al Qaeda? Osama? Hezbollah? Afghanistan? Taliban? Terrorists? Terrorism?

Not on the menu. Terrorism is mentioned precisely 3 times, once in a passing reference to Chechnya when she talks about Russia, and twice generically and tangentially when she talks about the threat rogue states like Iraq, a sworn enemy of Al Qaeda.

It's all there in black and white, and not hard to see why she was asleep at the switch. These guys had one thing in mind when they took office, and refused to listen to anybody who said otherwise...because THEY were in office, they had power, therefore they were right. Even after Sept 11, this mindset of only listening to what you want to hear did not change and in fact worsened...and the results have been costly.

Deckard · Sep 26, 2006

Sam said:

....seriously, you can NOT make this stuff up.
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Wow... just wow. I've heard some of this before, but as you say, the irony is just off the charts.

Keep D&D Civil.

No Worries · Sep 26, 2006

Amateurs.

pgabriel · Sep 26, 2006

Has anyone seen the movie, "The Siege". It came out in 1998 and it is about terrorism in NY and in it they blow up a building. Denzell Washington plays a police detective and bruce willis plays a general and going back watching its shocking in the parallels to 9-11 are shocking

but the point I wanted to get at is that it seems like hollywood was ahead of the curve on the threat of terrorism in front of our government. Terrorism wasn't a debate at all in 2000. how could everyone have been so out of touch. who cares about china anymore. it makes it seem like the cold war was one of the biggest wastes of resources in the history of the world, and the irony is that these terrorists and insurgents in iraq get their weapons from old cold war regimes.

aussie rocket · Sep 26, 2006

"Condi" just annoys me.

She's the worst Rice since Glen.

jo mama · Sep 26, 2006

pgabriel said:

Has anyone seen the movie, "The Siege". It came out in 1998 and it is about terrorism in NY and in it they blow up a building. Denzell Washington plays a police detective and bruce willis plays a general and going back watching its shocking in the parallels to 9-11 are shocking
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arlington road with tim robbins is another that comes to mind. the twist at the end of that movie was kind of freaky. it came out about the same time too (98-99). havent seen the siege, but ill check it out.

FranchiseBlade · Sep 26, 2006

Add that to her comments about thinking it was best to not respond at all to the Cole bombing, and it is plain to see why Condi didn't provide any details or information about how the Bush administration worked as hard at preventing terrorism.

She's a joke without a shred of credibility left.

FranchiseBlade · Sep 27, 2006

I wonder if Basso will comment in this thread. He has expressed his fondness for her, and his desire that she run for the office of president.

Yet he also favors a hardline stance against terrorism, especially after 9/11.

Yet it was post 9/11 that Condi was still claiming that she believed that the U.S. shouldn't have retaliated against the Cole bombing.

Her dishonesty has been shown time and time again.

I would be interested to know how Basso can reconcile his professed concern for striking at terrorism, and favorable opinion of Rice as Pres. candidate with her weak stances on terrorism.

rimrocker · Sep 27, 2006

First, a little history...

9.11.01: Two years later
Ground zero air quality was 'brutal' for months
UC Davis scientist concurs that EPA reports misled the public
- Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Wednesday, September 10, 2003

A UC Davis scientist who led the air monitoring of the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center said dangerous levels of pollutants were swirling about the site at the same time the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assured the public that the air was safe to breathe.

Thomas Cahill, a professor emeritus of physics and atmospheric science, headed the scientific team that studied the aerosols from the fuming site in lower Manhattan during the weeks right after Sept. 11, 2001.

In an interview Tuesday, Cahill called the conditions for people working at ground zero without respirators "brutal" and said conditions were only slightly better for those working or living in adjacent buildings.

"The site was hot for months. The metals burned into fine particles. They rose in a plume and moved over people's heads on most days. There were at least eight days when the plume was pushed down into the city. Then people tasted it, smelled it and saw it. But people who worked in the pile were getting it every day. The workers are the ones that I worry about most," Cahill told The Chronicle.

Cahill's data found that the pollution included very fine metals, which interfere with lung chemistry; sulfuric acid, which attacks lung cells; carcinogenic organic matter; and very fine insoluble particles such as glass, which travel through the lungs and into the bloodstream and heart.

He is expected to present his latest findings at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society in New York today.

Cahill's comments echo a report issued in August by the EPA inspector general, an internal watchdog on the agency. The inspector general concluded that under White House influence, the EPA issued misleading assurances that there was no health risk from air pollution after the attack.

A week after the attack, the EPA announced that the air near ground zero was safe to breathe, but the agency did not have enough information to make such a guarantee, the inspector general's report said.

"Christie Whitman was too premature to say it was safe," Cahill said Tuesday. "I think the EPA should have known. The EPA had its own reports saying it could be dangerous. Why didn't the EPA bring in their own people from all over the country? They could have. Never thought of it. They did later. But not in the time that mattered."

WHITE HOUSE PRESSURE

The White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having the National Security Council control EPA communications, the inspector general's report found.

Marianne Horinko, EPA acting administrator, has defended her agency's post-Sept. 11 statements about air quality, saying the agency put out "the best information we had, based on just the best data that we had available at the time."

The EPA's public messages stand at the center of the confirmation of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to replace former EPA administrator Whitman, who resigned in May.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., pledged last week to block his appointment unless the White House takes responsibility for telling the EPA to disseminate misleading reassurances.

Cahill heads the DELTA Group, which stands for Detection and Evaluation of Long-range Transport of Aerosols, an association of scientists at several universities and national laboratories. The U.S. Energy Department asked the group to monitor air quality in New York. The group has studied global transport of aerosols from the Gulf War oil fires in Kuwait in 1991, volcanoes,
dust storms and worldwide factory emissions in China.

HEALTH CONCERNS

In the two years since the attack, thousands of New Yorkers have contacted the World Trade Center health registry, reporting cases of persistent coughs, wheezing, shortness of breath and sinus inflammation.

A year ago, the New York Fire Department reported that up to 500 employees may have to retire early as a result of respiratory disability or chronic breathing problems caused by their exposure to dense clouds of dust, smoke and fumes at the site.

Cahill's first report in 2002, based on 8,000 air samples collected a mile from the complex, found high levels of very fine airborne particles that could increase risk of lung damage and heart attacks.

The new data confirm four classes of pollutants at levels higher than what Cahill's group found in Kuwait or China, Cahill said. Tons of concrete, glass, furniture, carpets, insulation, computers and paper were reduced to debris piles that burned for three months.

In that hot pile, some of the elements combined with organic matter and abundant chlorine from papers and plastics and then escaped to the surface as metal-rich gases. They burned or chemically decomposed into very fine particles capable of penetrating deeply into human lungs, Cahill said.

E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/09/10/MN266317.DTL
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And now, we learn the press release went through Rice's office...

RICE OK'D CLAIM OF 'SAFE AIR' AFTER 9/11

By SUSAN EDELMAN, HEATHER GILMORE and BRAD HAMILTON

September 24, 2006 -- Condoleezza Rice's office gave final approval to the infamous Environmental Protection Agency press releases days after 9/11 claiming the air around Ground Zero was "safe to breathe," internal documents show.

Now Secretary of State, Rice was then head of the National Security Council - "the final decision maker" on EPA statements about lower Manhattan air quality, the documents say.

Scientists and lawmakers have since deemed the air rife with toxins.

Early tests known to the EPA at the time had already found high asbestos levels, the notes say. But those results were omitted from the press releases because of "competing priorities" such as national security and "opening Wall Street," according to a report by the EPA's inspector general.

The chief of staff for then-EPA head Christie Todd Whitman, Eileen McGinnis, told the inspector general of heated discussions, including "screaming telephone calls," about what to put in the press releases.

The notes come from a 2003 probe into public assurances made on Sept. 16, five days after the 9/11 attacks. They tell how a White House staffer "worked with Dr. Condoleezza Rice's press secretary" on reviewing the press releases for weeks.

Whitman said through a spokeswoman Friday that she never discussed her press releases directly with Rice. She also defended her collaboration with the White House.

Now-retired Inspector General Nikki Tinsley told The Post her auditors tried to question the head of President Bush's Environmental Quality Council, but "he would not talk to us."

Calls and e-mails to Rice were not returned.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly...____heather_gilmore_____and_brad_hamilton.htm
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Since 9-11 I've met, trained with, and worked with several FDNY folks. I've heard tales. This is personal and given all the outrages that this administration has committed, this is the one for which I have the most visceral, emotional reaction. They lied to the people crawling through the wreckage. Bush stood with a bullhorn and made those people a prop while his administration lied to them about the dangers they were working in. And they lied for political purposes. I do hope God has mercy because I know I have none where these people are concerned. If I was the Almighty, every one of them from Bush on down would burn for eternity in a mix of concrete, glass, furniture, carpets, insulation, computers, paper, metals, sulfuric acid, and "organic matter."

FranchiseBlade · Sep 27, 2006

Thanks for the article from the Post.

the NY Post said:

RICE OK'D CLAIM OF 'SAFE AIR' AFTER 9/11

By SUSAN EDELMAN, HEATHER GILMORE and BRAD HAMILTON

September 24, 2006 -- Condoleezza Rice's office gave final approval to the infamous Environmental Protection Agency press releases days after 9/11 claiming the air around Ground Zero was "safe to breathe," internal documents show.

Now Secretary of State, Rice was then head of the National Security Council - "the final decision maker" on EPA statements about lower Manhattan air quality, the documents say.

Scientists and lawmakers have since deemed the air rife with toxins.
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She is a really horrible person who has done so many awful things it is hard to imagine how she has a job in the whitehouse and has even been promoted when she should have been shamed at every opportunity.

No Worries · Sep 27, 2006

Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should

RocketMan Tex · Sep 27, 2006

No Worries said:

Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should

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Condi ain't brown sugar.

She's brown castor oil.

rhadamanthus · Sep 27, 2006

FranchiseBlade said:

Thanks for the article from the Post.

She is a really horrible person who has done so many awful things it is hard to imagine how she has a job in the whitehouse and has even been promoted when she should have been shamed at every opportunity.
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I actually did some research about the air quality post 9/11 in NY for an environmental class. It was about as healthy as drano. No exaggeration.

No Worries · Sep 27, 2006

RocketMan Tex said:

Condi ain't brown sugar.

She's brown castor oil.
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W disagrees

NewYorker · Sep 27, 2006

FranchiseBlade said:

Thanks for the article from the Post.

She is a really horrible person who has done so many awful things it is hard to imagine how she has a job in the whitehouse and has even been promoted when she should have been shamed at every opportunity.
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The funny thing is that when she said the air was safe to breathe I was shocked myself. I was about 20 blocks north and when the wind blew north the entire city stunk and you just had to go inside because it was that bad. How anyone in their right mind thought that breathing in that air was somehow safe clearly had to be smoking something. If the air was so safe to breathe, she should have overseen the clean-up of the WTC site.

NewYorker · Sep 27, 2006

rhadamanthus said:

I actually did some research about the air quality post 9/11 in NY for an environmental class. It was about as healthy as drano. No exaggeration.
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Did your science teacher give you an A and a smily sticker?

real_egal · Sep 27, 2006

NewYorker said:

The funny thing is that when she said the air was safe to breathe I was shocked myself. I was about 20 blocks north and when the wind blew north the entire city stunk and you just had to go inside because it was that bad. How anyone in their right mind thought that breathing in that air was somehow safe clearly had to be smoking something. If the air was so safe to breathe, she should have overseen the clean-up of the WTC site.
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Well, at Saks Fifth Avenue where she shopped for shoes, Condi didn't smell that. It must be clean.

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