Injusto?

O leitor Marcus Pessoa acha que fui injusto para com Condoleeza Rice ao acusá-la, no meu post de ontem, de ter mentido à Comissão de Inquérito do 11 de Setembro. Pode ser que sim, mas não me parece.

Vejam o que escreveu ontem Brad de Long no seu blogue (link permanente aqui ao lado):

THE SENATE SHOULD NOT ADVISE AND CONSENT TO THE NOMINATION OF CONDI RICE TO BE SECRETARY OF STATE

Bob Somerby quotes from the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing on intelligence:

Bush had been warned about possible hijacks: "We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [REDACTED] service in 1998 saying that bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S. - held extremists. (10) Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York..."

What Condi Rice told the 911 Commission about this PDB:

RICE: The fact is that this August 6th PDB was in response to the president’s questions about whether or not something might happen or something might be planned by al Qaeda inside the United States. He asked because all of the threat reporting, or the threat reporting that was actionable, was about the threats abroad, not about the United States.

This particular PDB had a long section on what bin Laden had wanted to do - speculative, much of it - in ’97, ’98, that he had in fact liked the results of the 1993 bombing. It had a number of discussions of - it had a discussion of whether or not they might use hijacking to try and free a prisoner who was being held in the United States, Ressam. It reported that the FBI had full field investigations underway. And we checked on the issue of whether or not there was something going on with surveillance of buildings, and we were told, I believe, that the issue was the courthouse in which this might take place.

Commissioner, this was not a warning. This was a historic memo - historical memo prepared by the agency because the president was asking questions about what we knew about the inside.

Is there anybody who believes that the Senate should advice and consent to the nomination of Condi Rice to be Secretary of State?

Em resumo, Condi cita incorrectamente o Briefing Presidencial. Diz que ele apenas se refere a um possível ataque à prisão onde se encontrava preso Abdel Rahman, quando, pelo contrário, ele diz que essa hipótese é fantasista, e que o que está em causa é a eventualidade de ataques contra edifícios federais em Nova Iorque.

Além disso, as conclusões do Relatório do 11 de Detembro contradizem directamente o depoimento de Condoleeza Rice, ou seja, estabelecem claramente que havia informação suficiente para fazer crer que algo semelhante aos ataques terroristas daquele dia estava de facto em preparação.

Logo, Condi é incompetente e mentirosa.