1 Boring Old Man

Yet More Communications Dirty Business: Karl Rove and Philip Zelikow

…a Philip Shenon book coming out in February will reveal that Rove carried on back-channel discussions with Philip Zelikow, the Commission’s Executive Director (h/t SA), for some time after the Commission told him to stop speaking with Senior Administration Officials.

In a revelation bound to cast a pall over the 9/11 Commission, Philip Shenon will report in a forthcoming book that the panel’s executive director, Philip Zelikow, engaged in “surreptitious” communications with presidential adviser Karl Rove and other Bush administration officials during the commission’s 20-month investigation into the 9/11 attacks.

[snip]

Karen Heitkotter, the commission’s executive secretary, was taken aback on June 23, 2003 when she answered the telephone for Zelikow at 4:40 PM and heard a voice intone, “This is Karl Rove. I’m looking for Philip.” Heitkotter knew that Zelikow had promised the commissioners he would cut off all contact with senior officials in the Bush administration. Nonetheless, she gave Zelikow’s cell phone number to Rove. The next day there was another call from Rove at 11:35 AM.

[snip]

In late 2003, around the time his involuntary recusal was imposed, Zelikow called executive secretary Karen Heitkotter into his office and ordered her to stop creating records of his incoming telephone calls. Concerned that the order was improper, a nervous Heitkotter soon told general counsel Marcus. He advised her to ignore Zelikow’s order and continue to keep a log of his telephone calls, insofar as she knew about them…

Although Shenon could not obtain from the GAO an unredacted record of Zelikow’s cell phone use—and Zelikow used his cell phone for most of his outgoing calls—the Times reporter was able to establish that Zelikow made numerous calls to “456” numbers in the 202 area code, which is the exclusive prefix of the White House. [my empahsis]…

… did they learn they would have to turn over emails through formal–or back-channel–means? And then Zelikow was trying to cover up the evidence of his ongoing communications with the 9/11 Commission at the same time that a bunch of emails started not showing up in the CIA Leak investigation….

emptywheel has been particularly dilligent in keeping us appraised of the pieces of the puzzle as they become available. In this piece, Karl Rove is obviously manipulating the 911 Commission through its Executive Director, Phillip Zelikow. It was a time before we really knew the extent of the Administration’s back channel dealings and dirty tricks. The 911 Commission was tasked to look into a number of things, but one of those things was how we got into a war with Iraq. Over the subsequent years, we’ve learned how they failed at that task. Even the clear exposure of one of the Administration’s crimes [outing Valerie Plame] didn’t bring them to justice. The censure of architect of many of the prewar lies, Douglas Feith, came to no real resolution.

And we’re still in this ridiculous war. Our Presidential hopefuls are chattering on about each other’s records, but they’re giving the worst Administration in history a pass.  I personally think that the most important issue on the table is full disclosure of the duplicity and deceit of the Bush Administration. I don’t see how we can move on as if it didn’t happen. If what this article implies actually occured, these two need to be indicted – Karl Rove and Philip Zelikow. It’s not to get revenge. It’s to re-establish the rule of law in America…