Ben-Veniste spilled some beans on bush's 9/11 testimony on CNN today

[tuvor]

Surprised almost no one's talking about it on DU, especially since this was the secret testimony where bush and cheney demanded to be interviewed...

...together.

In the Oval Office.

With no transcribers.

Without being under oath.

And it wouldn't end up in the 9/11 report.

If anyone knows of a transcript, or video capture from the CNN interview with Blitzer on the Situation Room today, would they kindly post a link?

In the meantime here's all I can find about it on DU.

Ben-Veniste is clearing up Clinton and Bush's stand on. going after OBL
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2846293

[babylonsister]

1. I knew about not being under oath, but not the rest. Rec'd for info. nt

[Dems Will Win]

29. I posted the transcript on another thread and have a link to video

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2229741

Bush made a joke about why he didn't attack the Cole, where 17 soldiers died!

[madokie]

2. Recommend for link

kick for truth

[LeighAnn]

3. Wasn't supposed to be released until 2019 or something

I can't remember what year they planned to make that testimony public, but I was really surprised to be hearing him say it, and wondered while watching if he would get in trouble for divulging it.

[BrotherBuzz]

12. S-O-M-E five years

BEN-VENISTE: I think the question was that there was a degree of confidentiality associated with that and that we would take from that the output that is reflected in the report, but go no further. And that until some five years' time after our work, we would keep that confidential. I thought we would be better to make all of the information that we had available to the public and make our report as transparent as possible so that the American public could have that.

The operative word is some and it sound like he thinks the time has come to release it. Hunting season has begun!

[tuvor]

13. You can't make the testimony public without a transcription.

Q Scott, did the White House request there not be any transcribers -- any recording or stenographers in the meeting, in the 9/11 Commission hearing?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that was a request -- I checked on that -- that we discussed with the commission, and they were fine with it.

Q And what is the advantage that you see in that? This is a very historic meeting.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this is a private meeting, first of all, Elisabeth. And let's keep in mind that it is extraordinary for a sitting President of the United States to sit down with the legislatively created commission. But these are unique circumstances and the President is pleased to do so. The President appreciates the job of the September 11th Commission. We strongly support their work. And we have been pleased to provide the commission unprecedented cooperation and unprecedented access to information, so they can do their work and help us better fight and win the war on terrorism.

Q Right, if I can just follow up. So if this session is an extraordinary event and such an extraordinary meeting, why do you not want an official record of it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Elisabeth, I don't think that this is unusual at all, if you look back at other meetings that have taken place, private meetings with the commission and other members of the administration.

Q But this is the President, why don't we want an official record for history, of this meeting?

MR. McCLELLAN: There will be detailed notes taken of this meeting. This is about helping the commission complete its work, and helping provide the commission with all the information they need so that they can draw as complete a picture as possible for the American people, and make recommendations based on all that information that they piece together.

Q But wouldn't there be better detailed records if you had it recorded, if you had a stenographer?

MR. McCLELLAN: Elisabeth, we have provided the commission with volumes of information... :boring:


http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040427-3.html

[never cry wolf]

21. Ahhh, the good old days of catching scotty in a lie

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this is a private meeting, first of all, Elisabeth. And let's keep in mind that it is extraordinary for a sitting President of the United States to sit down with the legislatively created commission.

I DO believe the commission was created by the executive, not legislative branch.

[ClassWarrior]

4. K&R for link...

:kick:

NGU.

[DemonFighterLives]

5. I don't know anything, but I'm interested now

dubby and GFY cheney had to hold hands or some may ask if cheney could drink water while dubby was talking.
Maybe between Clinton and Veniste, the truth will be known.
:dem:

[zbird]

6. Here's the link to the transcript.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/25/sitroom.02.html

[tuvor]

9. Excellent! Thanks, zbird!

Starts about 2/5 of the way down.

[maddezmom]

17. thank you for posting

looks like a few folks are ready to spill the beans.

[mom cat]

27. Thanks for the transcript. Quite a bomb shell.

[H2O Man]

7. I only saw the last

little bit of it on CNN. I'm looking forward to reading a transcript.

[oasis]

8. Olbermann needs to get Ben Veniste on MSNBC for a proper follow up.

[partylessinOhio]

10. Part of the transcript:

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Good seeing you.

BLITZER: All right. You, in your questioning in your investigation, when you were a member of this commission, specifically asked President Bush about efforts after he was inaugurated on January 20, 2001, until 9/11, eight months later, what he and his administration were doing to kill bin Laden, because by then it was certified, it was authorized. It was, in fact, confirmed that al Qaeda was responsible for the attack on the USS Cole in December of 2000.

BEN-VENISTE: It's true, Wolf, we had the opportunity to interview President Bush, along with the vice president, and we spent a few hours doing that in the Oval Office. And one of the questions we had and I specifically had was why President Bush did not respond to the Cole attack. And what he told me was that he did not want to launch a cruise missile attack against bin Laden for fear of missing him and bombing the rubble (ph).

And then I asked him, "Well, what about the Taliban?" The United States had warned the Taliban, indeed threatened the Taliban on at least three occasions, all of which is set out in our 9/11 Commission final report, that if bin Laden, who had refuge in Afghanistan, were to strike against U.S. interests then we would respond against the Taliban.

BLITZER: Now, that was warnings during the Clinton administration...

BEN-VENISTE: That's correct.

BLITZER: ... the final years of the Clinton administration.

BEN-VENISTE: That's correct.

BLITZER: So you the asked the president in the Oval Office -- and the vice president -- why didn't you go after the Taliban in those eight months before 9/11 after he was president. What did he say?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, now that it was established that al Qaeda was responsible for the Cole bombing and the president was briefed in January of 2001, soon after he took office, by George Tenet, head of the CIA, telling him of the finding that al Qaeda was responsible, and I said, "Well, why wouldn't you go after the Taliban in order to get them to kick bin Laden out of Afghanistan?"

Maybe, just maybe, who knows -- we don't know the answer to that question -- but maybe that could have affected the 9/11 plot.

BLITZER: What did he say?

BEN-VENISTE: He said that no one had told him that we had made that threat. And I found that very discouraging and surprising.

BLITZER: Now, I read this report, the 9/11 Commission report. This is a big, thick book. I don't see anything and I don't remember seeing anything about this exchange that you had with the president in this report.

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I had hoped that we had -- we would have made both the Clinton interview and the Bush interview a part of our report, but that was not to be. I was outvoted on that question. ...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/25/sitroom.02.html

[Sparkly]

11. OMG!!!

He didn't KNOW about the US threat to the Taliban???!??

I wonder what ELSE was said in that interview that was voted out of the report?!?

I wonder if we'll ever know?!?

[cui bono]

14. I thought ignorance was no excuse

but these thugs use it every chance they get.

Didn't know...

didn't read it...

never got that report...

It just goes on and on and on. They sound like 8 year olds and yet they seem to be getting away with it.


Oh, and I love the part where he says he didn't want to miss and hit the rubble. Wouldn't want to go killing innocent rubble. Innocent civilians, bah, that's okay, but rubble, oh no!

[Poiuyt]

15. Bullshit he hadn't been told

I find that VERY hard to believe. During the transition, Sandy Berger gave Condi Rice a large file on the threat that Al Queda posed to the US. She admitted that she had not read it before 9/11.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. He's a LIAR and so what else is new?

[krispifried]

28. Amazin' how that favors the Enron logo (n/t)

n/t

[maine_raptor]

18. This is THE question, folks.

If there can be a House or Senate hearing (subpoena power, etc,), then some congress-critter can make a name for him/her self. Call under oath, in public, the following individuals:

Condi Rice, Richard Clarke, Sandy Burger, Bill Clinton, and their aides, along with anybody from the 911 commission, and members of the Secret Service that were in the room at the time the interviews were conducted.

and ask them the following question:


"What did the President know and when did he know it?"

Game, set, match.

[underpants]

23. This is a big, thick book

:eyes:

[GeorgeGist]

16. How patriotic of the 9/11 Commission to ignore...

Bush's lack of intelligence as a contributing factor to national insecurity before, on, and after 9/11.

[annabanana]

19. A telling part of the transcript:

(empahsis mine)

"BLITZER: So what's your -- did the president say to you -- did the president say, you know, "I made a mistake, I wish we would have done something"? What did he say when you continually -- when you pressed him? And I know you're a former prosecutor, you know how to drill, try to press a point.

BEN-VENISTE: Well, the president made a humorous remark about the fact that -- asking me whether I had ever lost an argument, and I reminded him that -- or I informed him that I, too, had two daughters. And so we passed that."

Does this mean that Bush wanted to go into Afganistan then, but was overridden by Cheney et.al.?? (The handlers wanted more time to work on Iraq plans?.. . to solidify oil pipeline contracts?. . . what?)

[warrior1]

20. From Paul Thompson 9/11 timeline

May 2001: US Gives Taliban Millions

Secretary of State Powell announces that the US is granting $43 million in aid to the Taliban government, purportedly to assist hungry farmers who are starving since the destruction of their opium crop occurred in January on orders of the Taliban. This follows $113 million given by the US in 2000 for humanitarian aid. A Newsday editorial notes that the Taliban “are a decidedly odd choice for an outright gift ... Why are we sending these people money—so much that Washington is, in effect, the biggest donor of aid to the Taliban regime?”

Entity Tags: Taliban, Colin Powell

[krispifried]

22. Ben Veniste

"Uzbekistan has difficulties finding venues for its gas,"
Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections, 22 Oct 1998
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntc85031.htm

"Enron/Uzbek Oil and Gas: Represented a multinational energy company in connection with its joint venture to develop an oil and gas deposit in Uzbekistan."

"Mayer, Brown, Rowe, & Maw / Project Finance Practice Group
http://www.mbpprojectfinance.com/transactions/s_oilgas.html

Timeline of Competition between Unocal and Bridas for the Afghanistan Pipeline
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/119.html

In Bridas v. Unocal, we defended UNOCAL in a $15 billion tortious interference claim filed by Bridas, an Argentine exploration company, in Texas state court. The suit arose out of the development of gas fields in Turkmenistan and the construction of a pipeline from the Turkmen fields to Pakistan. We won the case on summary judgment, convincing the Court that under foreign law (the laws of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan) there was no cause of action. The trial court's ruling was upheld on appeal and, as a result, UNOCAL paid nothing on this $15 billion claim.
http://www.susmangodfrey.com/firmresume.html
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/orders/2003/032204pzor.html
03-1018 STATE CONCERN TURKMENNEFT V. BRIDAS S.A.P.I.C., ET AL.
CERTIORARI DENIED
http://www.susmangodfrey.com/practice/practice_foreign.html
Bridas Corp. v. Unocal Corp., 16 S.W.3d (Tex. App.--Houston <14th Dist.> 2000
In Bridas v. Unocal, we defended UNOCAL in a $15 billion tortious interference claim filed by Bridas, an Argentine exploration company, in Texas state court. The suit arose out of the development of gas fields in Turkmenistan and the construction of a pipeline from the Turkmen fields to Pakistan. We won the case on summary judgment, convincing the Court that under foreign law (the laws of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan) there was no cause of action. The trial court's ruling was upheld on appeal, and, as a result, UNOCAL paid nothing on this $15 billion claim.
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pipeline_timeline.htm
Timeline of Competition between Unocal and Bridas for the Afghanistan Pipeline
http://www.bridascorp.com/

http://www.9-11commission.gov/about/bio_ben-veniste.htm
Mr. Ben-Veniste has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1975, The Best Lawyers in America since 1983, and Washingtonian Magazine's Top Lawyers in Washington, DC, since 1992, when the list first appeared.
http://www.mayerbrown.com/lawyers/profile.asp?hubbardid=B946682155
Employment
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, Washington, D.C., 2002 to date • Weil, Gotshal and Manges, 1990-2002
http://www.americanlawyer.com/focuseurope/bigarbitrations.html

Nothing to worry about here. A lawyer on the 911 commission representing the Turkmenistan Government against Bridas.


In 1996, Unocal -- one of the world's leading energy resource and project development companies -- won a contract to build a 1,005-mile oil pipeline in order to exploit the vast Turkmenistan natural gas fields in Duletabad. The pipeline would extend through Afghanistan and Pakistan, terminating in Multan, near the India border.

Multan was also the end point for another proposed pipeline, this one from Iran. This project never left the drawing boards, however; the pipeline would be much longer (over 1,600 miles) and more expensive. Still, this route was being seriously considered as of early 2001, and it increased the odds that gas would be flowing into Multan from somewhere.

Unocal wasn't the only energy company laying pipe. In 1997, Enron announced that it was going to spend over $1 billion building and improving the lines between the Dabhol plant and India's network of gas pipelines.

Follow the map: Once a proposed 400-mile extension from Multan, Pakistan to New Delhi, India was built, Caspian Sea gas could flow into India's network to New Delhi, follow the route to Bombay -- and bingo! A plentiful source of ultra-cheap LNG that could supply Enron's plant in India for three decades or more.
http://www.alternet.org/story/12525/

Just call me DU's newest coincidence theorist...
:hippie:

[KansDem]

25. Didn't this result in the "carpet of gold/carpet of bombs" business plan?

"At one moment during the negotiations, the U.S. representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs,'" Brisard said in an interview in Paris.

http://www.serendipity.li/wot/bl_tft.htm

One wonders if this threat prompted the 9/11 attack...

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[krispifried]

26. I don't think so

In my reading I have never seen any evidence from credible sources that the Taliban was ever an enemy to us until after the 9/11 event. Indeed UNOCAL was tickled when they took over, saying it would ease the construction of the pipeline.

They damn sure weren't an enemy a few years earlier, being whined and dined in Sugarland, TX.