While President Bush should be congratulated on two dazzling performances in his prime time speech on Sunday night and his news conference on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues to be the most eloquent, expressive, and verbally agile spokesperson for President Bush. She has been on the frontline of the current administrative offensive to reframe the debate regarding the Iraq war, to assert the role of the National Security Agency involvement in the surveillance of known terrorists, and to articulate the need for the renewal of all provisions of the Patriot Act. Regardless of whether she is sitting down with Brit Hume or Tim Russert, Secretary Rice is cool, calm, collected, and makes the indisputable case for the administration on all of these critical national security issues.
As President Bush makes an unwavering case for the renewal of the Patriot Act and calls upon the Senators from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York to explain to their constituents how the failure to renew the Patriot Act makes their cities safer, and while Vice President Cheney travels in Iraq and Afghanistan, Secretary Rice compellingly expresses the truest objectives of the administration in articulate and animated interviews that are instructive and infallible in advancing the President’s agenda. Brava to Secretary Rice for a series of impressive performances in her on-going effort to clarify current circumstances for our lethargic mainstream media “journalists” who wait on indicators from the New York Times and Washington Post on the prevailing paradigm to follow. Appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Secretary Rice provided the following succinct rationale for the selective surveillance authorized by President Bush.
Secretary Rice is particularly articulate when addressing the President’s bold political calculation that the American people will support him his endeavor to protect them even if it involves highly selective domestic observations. Dr. Rice was boldly and aggressively addressed this issue when immediately pressed by Tim Russert on the Sunday, December 18 edition of Meet The Press. Although Dr. Rice is obviously well prepared at all times for these media appearances, her opening salvo for Tim Russert is amazing in its’ breadth and scope especially when the verbal sparring began immediately, and her answer completely extemporaneous.
As President Bush makes an unwavering case for the renewal of the Patriot Act and calls upon the Senators from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York to explain to their constituents how the failure to renew the Patriot Act makes their cities safer, and while Vice President Cheney travels in Iraq and Afghanistan, Secretary Rice compellingly expresses the truest objectives of the administration in articulate and animated interviews that are instructive and infallible in advancing the President’s agenda. Brava to Secretary Rice for a series of impressive performances in her on-going effort to clarify current circumstances for our lethargic mainstream media “journalists” who wait on indicators from the New York Times and Washington Post on the prevailing paradigm to follow. Appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Secretary Rice provided the following succinct rationale for the selective surveillance authorized by President Bush.
Dr. Rice: There is a certain urgency to the kind of information that is attached to detecting terrorist threats within the United States, a certain urgency that is attached to understanding communications between people who are communicating inside the United States with terrorist organizations or activities outside of the United States. And I think we don't ever want to be caught again in a situation in which we were before 9/11, where we know, for instance, the terrorists in San Diego were communicating inside the United States and we didn't know about it. We simply can't be in a situation in which the president is not responding to this different kind of war on terrorism. We exist now in a world in which terrorist attacks are taken from within the United States. And that's what the president addressed.
Dr. Rice continued in her verbal essay on the topic forced to the top of everyone’s agenda by the leak in the New York Times. Dr. Rice: Well, that is something that is going to be left up to people to discuss. But let me just say it is really a serious matter when we get the disclosure of a program like this because, after all, what we must do is protect from those who are trying to hurt us. Knowledge of how we follow them, how we follow their activities — and, Chris, we once knew about Usama bin Laden's communications because we knew about his telephone. We were able to track it. And then a story appeared in the newspapers and he stopped using it. I don't know whether that would have prevented an attack, but you can imagine that being able to follow Usama bin Laden's communications was critical. The more we get the exposure of these very sensitive programs, the more it undermines our ability to follow terrorists, to know about their activities. We have to remember that in this war on terrorism, we're not talking about criminal activity where you can allow somebody to commit the crime and then you go back and you arrest them and you question them.
If they succeed in committing their crime, then hundreds or indeed thousands of people die. That's why you have to prevent, and intelligence is the long pole in the tent in preventing attacks.
In a striking argument of the need for the Patriot Act, Secretary Rice was once again hitting the high notes which distinguish her brilliant public speech. Well, the president feels very strongly that the Congress needs to renew this act, which has helped to save lives. We have to remember that immediately after September 11th, the administration and the Congress were united in the notion that additional tools were needed to close some of these gaps between what our intelligence agencies were doing outside and what our law enforcement agencies were doing inside. Chris, we set up this system of intelligence and law enforcement and walls between them at a time when the paradigm was threats come from the outside, attacks come from the outside. And then on September 11th, the very terrible surprise was that these attacks came from within the United States by people who had been sitting here for months, who knew our system, and who were communicating. Secretary Rice is particularly articulate when addressing the President’s bold political calculation that the American people will support him his endeavor to protect them even if it involves highly selective domestic observations. Dr. Rice was boldly and aggressively addressed this issue when immediately pressed by Tim Russert on the Sunday, December 18 edition of Meet The Press. Although Dr. Rice is obviously well prepared at all times for these media appearances, her opening salvo for Tim Russert is amazing in its’ breadth and scope especially when the verbal sparring began immediately, and her answer completely extemporaneous.
Secretary Rice: Tim, first much all, the president has authorized – and it's important to talk about what he's actually authorized. He's authorized the National Security Agency to collect information about the activities of a limited number of people with ties to Al-Qaeda so that there is not a seam between the territory of the United States and the territory abroad. One of the most compelling outcomes of the 9-11 Commission was that a seam had developed. Our intelligence agencies looked out, our law enforcement agencies looked in, and people--terrorists could exploit the seam between them. So the president is determined that he will have the ability to make certain that that seam is not there, that the communications between people, a limited number of people with Al-Qaeda links here and conversations with terrorist activities outside will be understood so that we can detect and thereby prevent terrorist attacks. The president is acting under his constitutional authority, under statutory authority. I'm not a lawyer, but the president has gone to great lengths to make certain that he is both living under his obligations to protect Americans from another attack but also to protect their civil liberties. And that's why this program is very carefully controlled. It has to be re-authorized every 45 days. People are specially trained to participate in it, and it has been briefed to leadership of the Congress and including the leadership of the Intelligence Committee. So in a time when the war on terrorism is not just one in which people carry on activities outside the country but also activities inside the country, the president is drawing on his constitutional authority to protect the country.
Secretary Condoleeza Rice is amazing. As time passes it seems that Dick Morris is a prophet in his book Condi vs. Hillary. Hopefully, Secretary Rice will consider a run for the White House in 2008. Her mastery of the English language, her communications ability, her ability to tackle the tough media, her toughness (does anyone remember her verbal exchanges with Barbara Boxer during her confirmation hearings?), and her vast knowledge base make her President Bush’s number one asset along with Vice-President Cheney. If Condi were a liberal, the liberal press would be touting her credentials as a superstar, and as a champion of the African American Community. Instead, it is left to bloggers and other alternative media sources to hail the political genius of Dr. Condoleeza Rice, and give her credit for her obvious knowledge of world and domestic affairs.
Secretary Condoleeza Rice is amazing. As time passes it seems that Dick Morris is a prophet in his book Condi vs. Hillary. Hopefully, Secretary Rice will consider a run for the White House in 2008. Her mastery of the English language, her communications ability, her ability to tackle the tough media, her toughness (does anyone remember her verbal exchanges with Barbara Boxer during her confirmation hearings?), and her vast knowledge base make her President Bush’s number one asset along with Vice-President Cheney. If Condi were a liberal, the liberal press would be touting her credentials as a superstar, and as a champion of the African American Community. Instead, it is left to bloggers and other alternative media sources to hail the political genius of Dr. Condoleeza Rice, and give her credit for her obvious knowledge of world and domestic affairs.
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