White House Throws Condi Under The Bus

by Steve

This morning, Condi told the media traveling with her to the Middle East that she had no recollection of a meeting with George Tenet and Cofer Black on July 10th, 2001, as reported by Bob Woodward:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al-Qaida attack in the United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible,” Rice said.

[snip]

“I don’t know that this meeting took place, but what I really don’t know, what I’m quite certain of, is that it was not a meeting in which I was told there was an impending attack and I refused to respond,” Rice said.

[snip]

Rice referred to the session as “the supposed meeting” and noted that it is not part of the independent Sept. 11 Commission’s report.

This afternoon, while she was overseas, someone in the White House threw Condi under the bus:

A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did indeed brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001 about looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said on Monday evening.

The account by the spokesman, Sean McCormack, came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall such a meeting and said it was “incomprehensible” she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. McCormack also said the Bush administration had determined that the Sept. 11 commission had been briefed about the meeting, even though no mention of it appears in the commission’s report.

Except, the commissioners don’t remember being told anything about a special meeting on July 10th, 2001.

Ms. Rice told reporters aboard her plane on Sunday evening, as she began a trip to the Middle East, that she regarded that account as “simply ludicrous.” Mr. McCormack, in confirming later that the meeting had taken place, said that the White House review had found that Ms. Rice had asked Mr. Tenet to provide the same briefing to Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, and John Ashcroft, the attorney general. Among those who attended the meting, Mr. McCormack said, was Stephen Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser.

So she doesn’t remember a meeting in which her Number Two was in attendance and where she in fact asked Tenet to say the same things again to Rummy and Ashcroft?

Who in the White House pulled the records to prove Condi a liar today? And how much fun did Cheney and Rumsfeld have in doing it?