by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 16, 2004
All Rights Reserved.

onsolidating power inside the White House, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell announced his resignation, passing the baton to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. While Powell's resignation was rumored for months, Rice signaled she would return to California, if not offered the top slots at either the State or Defense Departments. Powell's departure, together with his longtime deputy Richard L. Armitage, begins the neoconservative takeover at the State Department, known for its friction with Donald M. Rumsfeld's hawkish Defense Department, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby, National Security Council deputy Elliot Abrams, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and newly minted CIA Director Porter J. Goss—all share Bush's opposition to “global tests.”

      Powell's State Department, like that of his predecessor Madeleine K. Albright, still believed in a multilateral paradigm, coordinating U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations and international law. Powell's last multilateral gesture occurred on Feb 5, 2003, when he pitched the administration's case for war before the U.N. Security Council, documenting Saddam's arsenal of dangerous weapons. Powell's presentation failed to convince skeptics at the U.N., including chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who told the Security Council that his team of weapons inspectors couldn't verify the presence of WMD. When smart bombs and cruise missiles hit Baghdad March 20, 2003, the U.N. regarded the war against Saddam as a violation of international law. Powell staked his reputation on Iraq's threat to U.S. national security, only to find out he had bad intelligence.

      Rice packs impressive credentials, getting her legs working for late President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George P. Schultz at Stanford's Hoover Institution. She left Stanford to work on former President George H.W. Bush's National Security Council. When President Clinton took over, she returned to Stanford as Provost, only to leave again to become “W's” foreign policy coach during the 2000 campaign. She was rewarded with National Security Advisor, taking considerable heat after 9/11, especially under scrutiny by the 9/11 Commission. Rice was well-remembered for her insistence that “nothing” could have been done to prevent Sep.11. Condi is considered—along with Cheney and neocons at the DOD—the primary architect of Bush's Iraq policy. She insists that, with or without WMD, the White House couldn't take a chance on Saddam Hussein.

      Considered one of Bush's prayer buddies and most trusted advisors, Rice promises to rubber stamp the White House's hawkish anti-terror policies. Unlike Powell, she has little experience with international diplomacy, viewed overseas as a Bush loyalist. Together with Bush's pick for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rice offers obedience to authority, not independent thinking. With Rice heading the State Department, Bush will not get diversity of opinion or opposing perspectives. “Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror,” said Rice, accepting Bush's nomination in the White House's Roosevelt Room and mirroring the role she plans to play. Under Bush's chief strategist Karl Rove, loyalty means more than debate and intellectual dissent. When Bush said he intends to spend his political capital, picking Rice was a good example.

      Rice's role at the State Department will involve changing the lingering multinational culture that views diplomacy and international law as worthy goals. Together with hardliners like Undersecretary of State for arms control Josh Bolton, Rice promises to advance the neocon mission of merging the State Department, Defense Department, and, yes, the CIA into one seamless operation—the exact problem responsible for the intelligence “breakdown” leading up to the Iraq war. Powell sacrificed his reputation presenting bogus intelligence supplied by neocons to the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. It was Douglas J. Feith's office that canonized Ahmed Chalabi, the corrupt Iraqi exile that supplied the Pentagon, CIA, German Intelligence and British M16 with fraudulent intelligence about Saddam's alleged arsenal of WMD.

      Wedding the White House, National Security Agency, Pentagon and CIA into one seamless operation sets a dangerous precedent, allowing elected officials to manipulate intelligence for political purposes. While the goal of homeland security is to share information among intelligence agencies to prevent another Sept. 11, it's not to give politicians the opportunity to advance political agendas. Unwanted incest at the White House, NSA, Pentagon and CIA already caused a colossal intelligence collapse, leading the country into a costly war. With nearly 1,200 casualties, 9,000 injuries and $200 billion spent, the country can't afford another miscalculation. Bringing Rice to the State Department gives Bush unqualified loyalty but doesn't protect the country from more costly mistakes. Intelligence agencies must be kept free from manipulation and ambitious political agendas.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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