Designed to fail

A most effective obstruction to justice turned out to be the placement of Philip Zelikow as the 9/11 Commission’s Executive Director. Zelikow, a former member of the National Security Council for the first President Bush and co-author of the 1995 book that discussed a reformation of world power, entitled Germany United, Europe Transformed. [2] His coauthor was a fellow staffer in his days working for Bush 41, the National Security Advisor** on 9/11, Condoleezza Rice. No conflicts of interest here. Zelikow was a member of the Bush transition team and, incredibly, the author of the policy paper that the White House used to justify a preemptive American invasion of Iraq—authorship that Zelikow and the White House obscured from Kean and Hamilton. The 9/11 Commission staff would describe Zelikow as a “White House mole.” In keeping with that role, and despite the fact that he had promised not to communicate with the people he was investigating, Zelikow maintained daily contact with Karl Rove** (as confirmed by phone records) as he controlled the final edit of the report. [3] In short, the White House was successful in planting a loyal member of the neoconservative, pro-war group at the very top of the 9/11 Commission where he could and would change the entire face of the evidence. The phone records documented nearly daily calls from Zelikow to Rove and to Rice during the time when evidence was beginning to reveal a solid relationship between the Advisor** on 9/11, Condoleezza Rice. No conflicts of interest here. Zelikow was a member of the Bush transition team and, incredibly, the author of the policy paper that the White House used to justify a preemptive American invasion of Iraq—authorship that Zelikow and the White House obscured from Kean and Hamilton. The 9/11 Commission staff would describe Zelikow as a “White House mole.” In keeping with that role, and despite the fact that he had promised not to communicate with the people he was investigating, Zelikow maintained daily contact with Karl Rove** (as confirmed by phone records) as he controlled the final edit of the report. [3] In short, the White House was successful in planting a loyal member of the neoconservative, pro-war group at the very top of the 9/11 Commission where he could and would change the entire face of the evidence. The phone records documented nearly daily calls from Zelikow to Rove and to Rice during the time when evidence was beginning to reveal a solid relationship between the ijackers and high levels of the Saudi government. [3] This and other Saudi evidence was abundant and damning, but it never saw the light of day under Zelikow. Gone was the evidence of a direct line between the 9/11 terrorists and the government of Saudi Arabia that congressional investigators had uncovered. In hindsight, the congressional investigation was obstructed by the forming of the 9/11 Commission.