As If We Needed Another Story About The Crooked Bush Administration

According to a story first reported on the Washington DeCoded blog, a new book claims that Philip Zelikow (Executive director of the 9/11 commission) had closer ties with the White House than publicly disclosed and tried to influence the final report in ways that the staff often perceived as limiting the Bush administration's responsibility.

Blogger Max Holland disclosed that Zelikow failed to disclose several egregious conflicts-of-interest, among them, the fact that he had been a member of Condoleeza Rice’s NSC transition team in 2000-01. In that capacity, Zelikow had been the “architect” responsible for demoting Richard Clarke and his counter-terrorism team within the NSC. As Shenon puts it, Zelikow “had laid the groundwork for much of went wrong at the White House in the weeks and months before September 11.

Philip Shenon, in his upcoming book "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation", says that Zelikow once tried to push through wording in a draft report that suggested a greater tie between al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Iraq, in line with White House claims but not with the commission staff's viewpoint.

In addition, Zelikow sought to intimidate staff to avoid damaging findings for President Bush (who at the time was running for re-election) and Rice. Zelikow and Rice had written a book together in 1995 and he would later work for her after the commission finished its job and she became secretary of state in 2005.