Document:Ford-Zelikow email
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----- Original Message -----
From: TROWBRIDGE FORD
To:xxxxx
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 9:56 PM
Subject: Re: staff director of 9/11 commission
Dear Professor Philip Zelikow,
I am writing to express my shock that you, a respected academic, would agree to serve as the Staff Director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
It is the worst in composition in modern American history, certainly since the Pearl Harbor tragedy, made up of hacks who should have helped prevent it, special interest spokesmen who hope to make a killing out of it, discredited politicians who are trying to make up for past mistakes and/or crimes, and spin doctors who have covered up previous scandals to protect America's national security state. Why anyone with any kind of reputation to lose, especially you, would want to preside over its predictable disinformation, deceptions, and excuses is beyond me.
For example of the commission's totally flawed composition, I would remind you that Jamie Gorelick, the former Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton Administration, spent her time making sure that her boss, Janet Reno, did not go after the most flawed President rather than the terrorist threat, obliging her to tell one and all falsely after the 9/11 tragedy that "...we didn't move as fast as the terrorists." Actually, the beleaguered Central Intelligence Agency was deeply involved in trying to teach the FBI a lesson or two about how to conduct counterterrorist operations, but they blew up in its face.
Other Democrats on the Commission have different flawed histories with previous investigations. Former Congressman Lee Hamilton, as I remember, denied successfully that there was ever a Ronald Reagan "October Surprise", that Iran-Contra was ever more than a few misconceived operations by well-meaning zealots, starting with the President, and that America was largely responsible for the first Gulf War. Richard Ben Veniste, despite the claim that he is a Democratic Party zealot, covered up the Watergate scandal to the benefit of Nixon's White House, and the national security state.
With such Democratic Party liabilities, it is hardly surprising that the Republican nominees are less flawed, though they seem well placed to make a killing in the Middle East, and at home over the war on terror's extension to Iraq. The one exception is former Reagan Navy Secretary John Lehman, the least talked about member of the Commission, whose crazy direction of the fleet led Atlantic Fleet Commander Carlisle Trost to risk twice charges of mutiny, and ultimately led to the Secretary being sidelined as if he were another Al Haig - who Reagan counsel Fred Fielding had let run wild after the President had nearly been assassinated by the Bushes' friend, John Hinckley, Jr.
If this isn't enough to persuade you to resign the position, I shall be willing to testify about the government's vast failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks, what I discussed at great length in Issue Eight of Eye Spy! magazine and subsequent issues, especially Issue Thirteen. I shall be willing to do so either here in Sweden, or in Washington, but I shall not communicate the most important information I have, what has not yet been revealed, by letter, telephone or e-mail.
I have learned by long experience that if you put serious complaints about government conspiracies and official malfeasance into writing, that is the end of it, as it is apparently then disposed of via the burn bag. I learned this by dealing with former Congressman Henry Gonzalez, his chief investigator Gaeton Fonzi, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, his boss Janet Reno, Justice Department investigating counsel Barry Kowalski, etc., ad nauseam.
If I were you, I would just call its quits.
Sincerely yours,
Trowbridge Ford
