Republican congressman citicizes Kissinger appointment

Fifth District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, is asking President Bush to consider naming someone other than Henry A. Kissinger to head a national commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Goode, a conservative Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee, wrote Bush a letter this week suggesting that he name another chairman.

"I do not believe that Henry Kissinger is a good choice to head the September 11th Commission," Goode wrote. "If the opportunity presents itself, I hope you would consider another person to head the commission."

Bush named Kissinger, former secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, the day before Thanksgiving to lead a bipartisan 10-member commission established by Congress to investigate why the United States was not prepared for last year's terrorist attacks on New York and Arlington.

Goode joined a growing list of critics of the appointment from both the conservative and liberal ends of the political spectrum. He cited Kissinger's age at 79 as one reason for suggesting a change.

He likened the appointment of Kissinger to the naming of Earl Warren, the chief justice who died in 1974 after heading a national commission that spent 10 months probing the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.

Many critics attacked the commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and not as a part of any conspiracy, in killing Kennedy.

"They didn't look into every angle," Goode said of the Warren Commission in an interview.

To chair the current commission, "I just think they should get a fresher face and someone with vim and enthusiasm for that position," Goode said.

He said several constituents "have called me with their concerns" about Kissinger.

"We need somebody who's fresh and ready to go down any avenue for exploration," Goode said. "I think you need somebody that's interested and fresh and enthusiastic about it," such as retiring Rep. Tim Roemer, a moderate Democrat from South Bend, Ind.

Roemer, chief sponsor in the House of legislation to establish the commission, "is definitely being considered" for membership on it but nothing has been offered yet, said Mark Brown, his chief of staff.

Roemer, who is popular with the families of the Sept. 11 victims, could be named by the Dec. 15 deadline to join former senator George Mitchell, a 69-year-old Maine Democrat named vice chairman of the commission.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., sponsored the Senate's legislation to create the commission, which initially was opposed by Bush. The commission, to consist of five Democrats and five Republicans, was granted broad subpoena powers if at least six of its members can agree on such an action.

Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, a Democrat and former Charlottesville mayor, joined Goode in criticizing the appointment of Kissinger.

"The hope I have is that Mitchell can hold him down and make him honest," Van Yahres said.

Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said criticism of Kissinger from all sides of the political spectrum is widespread and warranted.

"The objections are more intense among people who were of the Vietnam generation," Sabato said. "We all learned to distrust Kissinger. He simply didn't tell the truth. Secrecy was Kissinger's byword during his government service. There was an arrogance to his secrecy, that people didn't deserve to know and that he knew better."

Sabato said the right and left distrust Kissinger "because he lied to everybody indiscriminately. He was dishonest with the president. He was consistently misleading Nixon."

Kissinger and Mitchell both have pursued careers as consultants and lobbyists since leaving government service.

Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for having helped negotiate a cease-fire in Vietnam, but has many critics who accuse him of backing corrupt regimes in Latin America and elsewhere.

Kissinger – cover-up artist

-----------------------------------------------------

Posted: December 5, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern

The fix is in, folks.

The government doesn't ever want you to learn the truth of its own culpability in the Sept. 11 disaster.

So, President Bush is calling up one of its reliable old cover-up artists, Henry Kissinger, to whitewash the whole thing.

Last week, he named Kissinger to lead an "independent" investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks and said the probe "must uncover every detail and learn every lesson" of the terrorist strikes.

Kissinger pledged to "go where the facts lead us."

Don't count on it.

Kissinger is 79 years old – and it's a little late for this self-aggrandizing politician to change his ways.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho for cease-fire negotiations during the Vietnam war.

He no more deserved a prize for his efforts than did terrorist Yasser Arafat, who won it a few years later.

In his negotiations with the Vietnamese, it is revealed in horrifying detail in a new book, "Reagan's War," by Peter Schweizer, that Kissinger sold out U.S. fighting men, sold out our allies and sold out our national interests.

And, speaking of Arafat, Kissinger is responsible for masterminding one of the biggest cover-ups in American history – the cold-blooded assassination of two U.S. diplomats by Arafat in 1973.

WorldNetDaily blew the lid off that cover-up two years ago with the help of former National Security Agency operative-turned-whistleblower James Welsh.

Welsh was the NSA's Palestinian analyst on duty when Arafat gave the order to his Black September terrorists to machine-gun Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charges d'Affaires George Curtis Moore in Khartoum, Sudan. The U.S. government continues to deny its knowledge of these murders to this day.

"He was definitely involved in the destruction and concealment of the White House and State Department files pertaining to Khartoum," says Welsh. "Some GS-9 didn't initiate the cover-up. Yep, he's the guy. No doubt in my mind."

The families of Sept. 11 victims should know this history. Kissinger has initiated massive cover-ups for political reasons in the past and he will do it in the future. He is not the "independent" investigator needed for such an important and serious task.

In addition to serving as secretary of state, Kissinger also was national security adviser for Nixon and Ford from 1969-75. He made history in July 1971 when he made a secret trip to China, ending a Sino-American estrangement that had lasted for more than two decades.

After making a one-sided, phony cold peace with China, Kissinger benefited personally with millions of dollars in consulting contracts with Beijing businesses and U.S. corporations eager to invest in the burgeoning new market.

He should be registered as a foreign lobbyist – an agent of a foreign government. That's not the kind of person who can be entrusted to get to the bottom of the Sept. 11 fiasco.

Kissinger also is well known for his efforts to achieve detente with the Soviet Union. Kissinger's approach ran contrary to the successful approach of "peace through strength" orchestrated by President Reagan.

Kissinger extended the Cold War, weakened America unilaterally and did untold damage to our national interests during this period.

In short, Kissinger should be a candidate for political exile. He ought to be investigated himself for crimes against this country.

At the very least, he ought to be forced into a long-overdue retirement – one he endures in shame and disgrace.

Instead, he is being tapped on the shoulder once again by yet another U.S. president. The same old faces and the same old motives are not going to find the truth about Sept. 11.

Kissinger has too much at stake. He cares only about his own reputation and pocketbook. He is not the kind of personality who will find government culpability and failures and expose them accordingly.

To say this is a bad choice is an understatement. It's a disastrous choice. It's a choice that speaks volumes about the government's unwillingness to open itself to real criticism.

It's sad to see President Bush make this tragic mistake. If Kissinger remains at the helm of this investigation, we will never learn the truth, we as a nation will not make the right decisions about our future security and the families of the victims will never have closure.

----------------------------------------------

Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. If you would like to see the column in your local newspaper, contact your local editor. Tell your paper the column is available through Creators Syndicate.

Exciting special offer! Get three fascinating new interviews on audio tape of Joseph Farah talking with Israeli leader Benny Elon, terror expert Yossef Bodansky, and new congresswoman Katherine Harris. You don't want to miss these! Available now in ShopNetDaily.

-----------------------------------------

E-mail to a Friend Printer-friendly version

-----------------

Lynchburg, Va. News & Advance editorial

Can Kissinger avoid probe partisanship?

Dec 5, 2002

--------------

President Bush and his administration ought to do everything they can to make sure that the commission set up to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks is not influenced by politics.

But the appointment of Henry Kissinger to head the panel is not a good omen that a non-partisan approach will be forthcoming.

Granted, Kissinger is a man of international standing, a professor, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and a former secretary of state.

But his roots run deep into partisan politics, back to the days of Richard Nixon and earlier. He was apparently suggested for the job by Vice President Richard Cheney, who worked with Kissinger in the Nixon administration.

Since leaving the government, Kissinger has been a high-powered international consultant, which in itself could bring up some conflicts of interest.

He says it won't, and the country will have to take his word and the word of President Bush on that. At least he says he doesn't have any clients among the Saudi leaders.

Kissinger is a Republican, although over the years he has managed to anger members of his own party as well as Democrats. Democrats remember his reprehensible behavior during the Vietnam War, and he turned off a number of Republicans when he helped soften relations with the former Soviet Union and China.

President Bush was reluctant to agree to an independent commission, eventually bowing to pressure from the families of the Sept. 11 victims.

Did he select Kissinger in hopes that the professor would be able to mitigate any information that would be potentially damaging to powerful people and lead-footed agencies in Washington, D.C.?

The country won't know the answer to that question until the panel releases its findings 18 months from now.

That too will present a challenge for the president and both political parties, because the results are due in the middle of the next presidential election year.

"His investigation should carefully examine all the evidence and follow all the facts, wherever they lead," Bush said. "We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson from September the 11th."

He's right about that, and Kissinger says he agrees, for now anyway.

"I have been given every assurance by the president that we should go where the facts lead us and that we're not restricted by any foreign policy considerations," Kissinger said. "We are under no restrictions and we should accept no restrictions."

The panel itself will be made up of five Republicans and five Democrats, to be appointed by Dec. 15. The stature of the members of the panel will say a lot about the quality of work the country can expect from them. Former Senate Majority Leader and peace negotiator George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, has been named vice chairman of the commission.

They will be in the spotlight like no other independent commission since the Watergate panel that investigated Nixon's misdeeds.

Several obvious failures of the U.S. intelligence gathering system have been public for months, including the inability of the FBI and CIA to communicate with one another. The country deserves some answers about how this happened and what can be done to prevent it.

Kissinger no doubt has the ability to conduct a thorough investigation, although he doesn't have a great track record when it comes to keeping the American people informed about his activities - remember the secret war in Cambodia he helped engineer?

The real challenge will be for him, the president, and both political parties to swallow their pride and let the investigation proceed without partisan concerns.

Terms and conditions

More info on Kissinger in the following.

===============================

9/11 Relatives Accuse G.O.P. of Blocking Panel Member

Source: NY Times

Published: December 6, 2002

Author: RICHARD W. STEVENSON and PHILIP SHENON

For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.

Relatives of the Sept. 11 victims said today that their choice as a Republican appointee to the commission investigating the terrorist attacks was being blocked by Republican leaders and the White House, setting up an early showdown over the panel's membership.

The family members said they had settled on Warren B. Rudman, the former senator from New Hampshire, as their choice for one of the five Republican slots on the 10-member commission.

Last month, President Bush selected Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, as the commission's chairman.

Democrats have named George J. Mitchell, the former senator from Maine and peace envoy to Northern Ireland and the Middle East, as vice chairman. The other four Democrats and four Republicans must be appointed by the leaders of the two parties in Congress by Dec. 15.

The families were effectively given a voice in the panel's makeup under a deal that gives veto power over one Republican appointment to two Republican senators close to the families, John McCain of Arizona and Richard C. Shelby of Alabama.

Stephen Push, a spokesman for the families, said they believed that Mr. Rudman was the only Republican both highly qualified to participate in the investigation and sufficiently independent of his party's leadership to ensure a thorough and impartial inquiry.

"Warren Rudman is the only Republican candidate for this position that all the families trust," he said.

Mr. Push said the families had put Mr. Rudman's name forward to Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who will be majority leader in the new Congress, through Mr. McCain. But he said Mr. Lott had so far refused to agree to their request.

Republican aides on Capitol Hill confirmed his account, saying Mr. McCain was supportive of Mr. Rudman but that there was an impasse with Mr. Lott over his appointment.

Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for Mr. Lott, said the senator was "reviewing a list of candidates and will approve who those members will be in the near future."

Mr. Push also said the families were concerned that Mr. Rudman's selection was being blocked because of opposition from the White House.

Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said the administration, having chosen Mr. Kissinger as chairman, would not have any voice in the remaining selections.

The fight over the slot is especially important because it will take six votes on the panel to issue subpoenas, and the family members say they want to make sure one Republican is sufficiently independent of the White House to join the five Democrats in any close vote.

Family members said they intended to keep pressing Mr. Lott to appoint Mr. Rudman, who previously co-authored a report, with former Senator Gary Hart, Democrat of Colorado, on the nation's vulnerability to terrorism. They said they would not back down, even if it meant having the commission start its work with only nine members.

Mr. Kissinger and the other panel members also faced new pressure today to publicly identify their business clients for potential conflicts of interest, as many of the relatives of Sept. 11 victims have demanded.

The families have said that Mr. Kissinger in particular may face a conflict because of his consulting work for prominent corporate and business clients, including several large multinational companies with Arab interests.

Congressional officials said a new report by the Congressional Research Service found that Mr. Kissinger and other committee members would be required to publicly identify any client who had paid them more than $5,000 for consulting work over the last two years.

White House officials said they stood by their previous position that Mr. Kissinger was not required to disclose his client list because the position is part time and unpaid.

The report, which had been requested by the Democratic leadership of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, has not been made public. But Congressional officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, outlined its findings, which were first reported today by The Financial Times.

The officials said the report found that government regulations required Mr. Kissinger and the others to make full public financial disclosures, including identifying their clients.

Mr. Kissinger's office in New York did not return calls today.

In a television interview last weekend, he said that he would sever ties with any of his global clients if they presented conflicts. But he said he would not reveal his client list publicly.

(END)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.