SEPTEMBER 11 PROBE

Kissinger Back Amidst Controversy

S K Pande

 “The USA must carry out some act somewhere in the world which shows its determination to continue to be a world power.”

An old quote of Kissinger

Is a cover up for the September 11 terror strike that shook the USA and the world at large being planned in the USA? The question is being asked as one time international  trouble shooter from the Nixon – Ford era, Henry Kissinger is back in the news in a special job as  chairman of a high powered Commission to look  into security and other lapses that led to  September11. The question of questions is will old Henry in his  new assignment use his old wheeler-dealer role and be part of a cover up. The question is important not only for the USA but the entire world.

And as in the past he is back in controversy, with charges that his  destablising past, for which he should  be tried for war crimes, he is yet again being rewarded. Some also speculate that he could be part of a cover up for the present regime with his known past links. Bear in mind too that US presidential elections come in 2004. In fact, even his present business connections are well known. Assisting him as vice chairman, will be former senator George Mitchell, also an associate with a law firm. The other ten representatives will be equally divided among Republicans and Democrats. And a tussle is reportedly on. This is what the New York Times report, which appeared in the International Herald Tribune of December 4 says. And none of these papers are by any standard anti-establishment:

“Henry Kissinger seems to have a rather quaint idea about the ethical standards he should follow in directing a comprehensive inquiry into the US government’s handling of terrorist threats in the years preceding September 11. If we correctly understand his comments, he believes that he need not detach himself from his consulting firm and can judge for himself when his work for a client might present a conflict of interest with the investigation. He even declines to identify his clients. That may be his and Dick Cheney’s idea of good government, but it won’t wash…..

America has learned over the years that it cannot entrust federal power and tax dollars to officials who can profit even indirectly from business ties. The White House contention that Kissinger will not be a full-time government official is technically correct, but it insults common sense to think that he will not be wielding considerable power in this role. The wounds from the terrorist attacks of September 11 are too raw, and the importance of this inquiry too great, to settle for ethical pettifoggery. Kissinger Associates does not disclose its clients, but they include major multinational corporations.  The profitability of such companies can depend on maintaining cordial ties with foreign governments and Washington officials...”

Leave aside the editorial, look into the past of this onetime showpiece of American diplomacy, known to be rabidly anti-Left, and associated with various attempts to destabilise a variety of governments not only in Latin American countries but across the world, once they refused to be USA drumbeaters. Consider for example his preferences for corrupt regimes such  in Indonesia and the fact of his links even now with Israel. Consider too the fact that in the Nixon period, to begin with, he started building his own network, and as his own transcripts show, he has had unprecedented control over defence, security, CIA and arms control. References have even been made to his adept use of secrecy and his penchant for deception, besides his use of back channel means to communicate with governments late in the seventies.

Postscript:

Kissinger once said to leading foreign leaders and diplomats that he was looking to be a chairman of an important committee. It was in the seventies and he was on the way out. Someone asked him why not the Presidency itself. He reminded the questioner that constitutionally he could not. Perhaps part of his desire is now fulfilled, controversy notwithstanding. The once globe trotting diplomat has touched 76 years as he chairs the probe supposed to look into the possible role of foreign countries and evaluate the actual Bush administration performance. In eighteen months, the job should be over but the controversy has begun in the USA along with the probe.