Daniel Marcus, General Counsel of the Commission, was for many years a partner in the Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, serving on the firm's Management Committee from 1995 to 1998.
During the Carter Administration Mr. Marcus was Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture. He returned to Government service in 1998 as Senior Counsel in the White House Counsel's office. From 1999 to 2001 he held several senior positions at the Department of Justice, including Associate Attorney General. Last year he was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Marcus is a graduate of Brandeis University and Yale Law School, and was a law clerk for Judge Harold Leventhal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
SEE MORE MARCUS CLIENT CONNECTIONS BELOW.
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Commission Chairman Thomas Kean
Conflicts of interest abound within the Commission. Yet what perhaps is most disturbing are the links of both the Commission Chairman Thomas Kean as well as the Legal Counsel Daniel Marcus to individuals closely linked to the bin Laden family.
In a cruel irony, the $1 trillion lawsuit filed in August 2002 by the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks, lists two of Thomas Kean's ("former") business partners among the accused: Khalid Bin Mahfouz (Osama's brother in law, according to CIA sources), and Mohammed Hussein al Amoudi. Both individuals have been tagged in the lawsuit as the alleged "financiers" of Al Qaeda.
"According to a 1998 Senate testimony of former CIA director James Woolsey, powerful financier Khalid bin Mahfouz’ younger sister is married to Osama bin Laden,. (US Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee, Federal News Service, 3 Sept. 1998, See also Wayne Madsen, Questionable Ties, In These Times,12 Nov. 2001 )
Bin Mahfouz is suspected to have funneled millions of dollars to the Al Qaeda network.(See Tom Flocco, Scoop.co.nz 28 Aug. 2002)
Now, "by sheer coincidence", former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, the man chosen by President Bush to lead the 9/11 commission also has business ties with bin Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi.
Thomas Kean is a director (and shareholder) of Amerada Hess Corporation , which is involved in the Hess-Delta joint venture with Delta Oil of Saudi Arabia (owned by the bin Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi clans)...
Now you would think that being a business partner of the brother in law and alleged financier of "Enemy No. 1" would also be considered a bona fide "conflict of interest", particularly when your mandate --as part of the 9/11 Commission's work-- is to investigate "Enemy No. 1".
"(Michel Chossudovsky, New Chairman of 9/11 Commission had business ties with Osama's Brother in Law , Centre for Research on Globalization, December 2002 )
Commission Counsel David Marcus
Daniel Marcus, the Legal Counsel of the Commission, was partner in Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, which counts among its clients Prince Mohammed al Faisal, also identified as one of the top three alleged "financiers" of the 9/11 attacks listed in the 1 trillion dollar lawsuit:
An internal list of other law firms retained in the case, reviewed by NEWSWEEK , reads like a veritable “who’s who” of the U.S. legal community. Among those firms and their Saudi clients are: Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (Prince Mohammed al Faisal); Kellog, Huber, Hansen, Todd & Evans (Prince Turki al Faisal); Jones, Day (the Binladin Group); Ropes & Grey (Khaled bin Mahfouz); White & Case,(the Al-Rajhi Banking Group); King & Spalding (the Arab Bank and Youssef Nada); Akin Gump (Mohammed Hussein Al-Almoudi); and Fulbright & Jaworski (Nimir Petroleum.) ( See MSNBC at http://www.msnbc.com/news/901320.asp?0cv=CB30&cp1=1#BODY
Kissinger and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
We recall that Henry Kissinger resigned from the Chair of the 9/11 Commission, precisely because he was in "conflict of interest". His firm Kissinger Associates had dubious links to Saudi financiers. Former Senator George Mitchell also resigned, for the same reasons, amid controversy. Ironically, they were replaced by "similar individuals."
However, instead of demanding that Thomas Kean and David (sic)Marcus be removed from the Commission due to "conflict of interest", the organizations representing the 9/11 victims' families pledged their support to the Commission's actitivities. (See also http://www.voicesofsept11.org/)
Needless to say, Kissinger has his own personal Rep. on the Commission: John F. Lehman, a former Secretary of the Navy, who also happens to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. During the Nixon Administration, he served as special counsel and senior staff member to Kissinger on the National Security Council.
The Council on Foreign Relations is well represented on the Commission: four of its members (out of 8 Commissioners plus the Chair and the Vice Chair) are members of the CFR including Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton, John F. Lehman and Jamie Gorelick.
It is worth mentioning, in this regard, the behind the scenes role of the CFR in the formulation of US foreign policy. And a central feature of US foreign policy was a program of covert support to the various "Islamic terrorist organisations."
In this regard, one of the CFR's most prominent figures Zbigniew Brzezinski played a key role in creating the Islamic militant network as part of a covert CIA operation , launched during the Carter administration. With four CFR members on the Commission (out of a total of 8 Commissioners, plus the Chair and Vice Chair), it is unlikely that the Commission will shed light on these issues.
Executive Director Philipp D. Zelikow
The media conveys the impression that this "Independent" Commission is at war with the Bush administration. What it fails to mention is that its executive director Philipp Zelikow is part of the president's intelligence team. Two days before the beginning of the war on Afghanistan, Zellikow was appointed (October 5, 2001) to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, chaired by General (ret) Brent Scowcroft.
In other words the man responsible for the day to day operations of the 9/11 Commission, including the recruitment of staff and the coordination of research, is closely linked to Bush's inner cabinet. He has a close professional relationship with Condoleezza Rice, with whom he has collaborated for the last 10 years. He is co-author of a book written with Condoleezza Rice. .
In all likelihood, Zellikow reports back periodically through informal personal channels (e.g.. to Condoleezza Rice and his colleagues on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board).
The CIA also has its "Seat" on the Commission
Another prominent member of this "Independent" Commission is Jamie S. Gorelick, who has a close working relationship with CIA Director George Tenet. She serves on the CIA's National Security Advisory Panel as well as on the President's Review of Intelligence. CIA Director George Tenet is one of the architects of the "war on terrorism". With Gorelick on the Commission, it is highly unlikely that the agency's undercover operations in support of international terrorism will be revealed (see Michel Chossudovsky, Who is Osama bin Laden, 12 September 2001).Cover-up and Damage Control In other words, while there may be areas of dispute between the White House and the Commission (as well as within the Commission itself), the nature and composition of the Commission foreclose from the outset, the possibility of a meaningful investigation of 9/11. In all likelihood the Commission will be involved in cover-up and damage control. It will mobilize its staff into reviewing piles of classified intelligence documents. It will focus on technical aspects of intelligence including "foreknowledge" and "intelligence failures", while ignoring the historical ties between successive administrations and "Islamic terrorism", including the role of the CIA in creating and sustaining Al Qaeda, from the onset of the Soviet-Afghan war. In all likelihood it will focus the investigation on lower level officials. Key political actors including those with dubious links to 9/11 , will not be the object of a systematic investigation. The Commission may (as occurred in the Iran Contra investigation) identify one or more "fall guys", who will be blamed for these "intelligence failures". These procedures, in the present context, tend to protect the political, intelligence and military actors, not to mention the intellectual architects of the "war on terrorism" in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). The PNAC "even foresaw the need for what they called a "Pearl Harbor-type event" to galvanize the American public into supporting their ambitious program" (Chris Floyd, The Moscow Times, 25 April 2003) Moreover, the alleged links of the Saudi financiers to Al Qaeda are likely to serve the Bush clique. They uphold the idea that there is an "outside enemy", supported by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. This in turn serves to obscure the fact that the financial aid (from their Saudi business associates) to the Islamic militant network was from the very outset in 1979, part and parcel of the CIA's covert operation. In other words, the fact that the Saudi financiers are now being targeted in the law suit serves to protect the foreign policy architects of the "war on terrorism". "Preparing for Future Terrorist Attacks" The Commission was given the mandate: "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks." The thrust of this exercise is crystal clear: distort the history of 9/11, churn out phony intelligence which justifies Bush's preemptive "war on terrorism", expose the whistleblowers in the police and intelligence apparatus. Careful Omission Mountains of intelligence material have already been collected (by the Joint Senate House Committee set up in May 2002 as well as by the Commission). Through careful omission, the numerous press and intelligence reports in the public domain (mainstream media, alternative media, etc), which confirm that key members of the Bush Administration were involved in acts of political complicity and camouflage, are more likely to be dismissed by the Commission's research team. - - - - - - - - NOTE: I DO NOT BUY the inferences here alleging that current admin. officials are or were involved in camoflauging the facts .. - - - - - - - - The fact that Al Qaeda is a creation of the CIA, a so-called "intelligence asset" (confirmed by official reports and congressional transcripts), is not part of the Commission's terms of reference. While "the elephant is sitting right on top of the stack of hay", the Commission has been instructed "to look for pins rather than elephants". In other words, the Commission is to churn out red herrings: a data bank of unconnected occurrences on "intelligence failures", FBI lapses, etc. Daniel Marcus Daniel Marcus belonged to a law firm which counts among its clients Prince Mohammed al Faisal, identified as one of the top three alleged "financiers" of the 9/11 attacks listed in the 1 trillion dollar lawsuit. Confirmed by CBS "Those listed include Prince Mohammed al-Faisal, former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan, Khalid bin Salim bin Mahfouz of the National Commercial Bank and the Faisal Islamic Bank. " Bear in mind that at the time Daniel Marcus belonged to the firm, Prince Prince Mohammed al-Faisal was among its most wealthiest clients. --- - - - - - Much more on the other Commission members at this link UQ Wire: Who's Who on the 9/11 Commission- Friday, 18 July 2003 - - - - - - -
I'm speechless, I just bookmarked this post. OUtstanding.