Friday, March 07, 2008

Tanks for Everything, Condi!


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefs the media during a NATO foreign ministers meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels March 6, 2008. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)


I love the above picture from yesterday's NATO thingy, because it looks like Condi's in the middle of a real war. Fun! And in a way, she is! But fear not, Pony Pals, because it's just a backdrop. This one kinda gives away the whole conceit:



But speaking of war zones, another excerpt from Philip Shenon's anti-Condi "The Commission" was published by the Sydney Morning Herald today, and if the title, "They knew, but did nothing" doesn't give the whole game away, I don't know what could. Alas, this is not good PR for Dr. Ferragamo:

The team's investigators began to match up the information in the senior briefings and they pulled together a timeline of the headlines just from the senior briefings in the northern spring and summer:

"Bin Ladin Planning Multiple Operations" (April 20)and "Bin Ladin Threats Are Real" (June 30)It was especially troubling for Hurley's team to realise how many of the warnings were directed to the desk of one person: Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser. Emails from the National Security Council's counter-terrorism director, Richard Clarke, showed that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats. He was trying to get her to focus on the intelligence she should have been reading each morning in the presidential and senior briefings

"Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack" (May 3)

"Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot" (May 23)

"Bin Ladin's Networks' Plans Advancing" (May 26)

"Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent"

(June 23)

"Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats" (June 25)

"Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile

Attacks" (June 30),

"Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays" (July 2)



Gosh, how totally vague! No wonder Condi ignored all those boring reports. I mean, get to the point already!

5 comments:

usablogger said...

Webster Dictionary:
Word: Victorian
Main Entry:Vic-to-ri-an
Pronunciation:vik-tor-e-en
Function:adjective
Date:1839

Definition: Dr. Condoleezza Rice 1954-, typical of the moral standards, attitudes, or conduct of the age of Victoria especially when considered stuffy, prudish, or hypocritical

Anonymous said...

I love Richard Clarke.
He should have had Condi's job, but they fired him instead.

Anonymous said...

Hey this all began on my birthday! I wonder what I was doing on May 3, 2001. I can't remember. Obviously, I should have been more worried about terrorists attacks!

Anonymous said...

Sister Rice looks so Victorian in these photos. Wasn't she released from the convent when she met Dubya.

dguzman said...

I guess she just took all those vague emails "under advisement."