Summer 2001.   The administration appears to be in a holding pattern, with little direct action taken against Iraq during the first two months but the rhetorical foundation for a campaign against Iraq is prepared. Little action also is taken on domestic security, a negative that contributes to 9/11. The media are consumed by the pitiful case of Chandra Levy, a young woman intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons who disappeared on May 1 and who turned out to have had a relationship with Congressman Gary Condit (D-CA). The scandal will end only on September 11; one by-product is to discredit Condit, another Democratic member, along with Alcee Hastings among others, of the House Select Intelligence Committee. Any potential for independent judgment from the Intelligence Committee, already slight, is further reduced. Also during summer 2001, troubles increasingly gather at Enron, surfacing gradually and resulting in a major stock drop by August and in a September announcement by Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) that he will not seek reelection. During a month-long vacation at his ranch, Bush signals periodically that Iraq is a major foreign policy concern.

June, 2001:

June 1, 2001 – The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1352, hailed by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as “a substantial achievement for the Council . . . It means the international community once again is united in its view of Iraq and what we need to do.” The resolution maintains the Oil for Food program, but with tighter controls.

June 4, 2001 - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on a first tour abroad as secretary, visits Turkey. He meets with senior government officials and visits U.S. servicemen stationed at air bases in southern Turkey, from which the U.S. flies regular missions in Iraqi air space, patrolling the "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq.

 
Same day -- Iraq halts its oil exports in a dispute with the United Nations, arousing fears of a spike in oil prices with gas prices in the U.S. already high.

 
June 5, 2001 – OPEC meets in Vienna, decides to maintain oil production at its current level. No change in response to Iraq’s suspending its exports.

 
June 5, 2001 – The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Directorate for Analysis and Production issues DI policy No. 005, a policy memo which recognizes the value of ideas and concepts that run counter to the prevailing wisdom, by establishing a process within the Intelligence Community for using alternative judgments.

          Under the heading “SUBJECT: Alternative Judgments Policy,” the memo “establishes a process for promulgating alternative judgments, consonant with the rights and responsibilities of all analysts to provide the best possible analysis. . .

The first and preferred method for incorporating an analytic alternative is through the standard process of coordination. Analysts are expected to coordinate their facts, build coherent arguments, and defend those arguments while coordinating with other experts across the Intelligence Community . . . In those rare instances where analysts build a strong case, but cannot achieve consensus support for their analysis, an alternative judgment is justified.”

‘Alternative judgments,’ of course, will come into bad smell later, when it transpires that alternative intelligence products are basically justifications or arguments for war with Iraq, artificially promoted by administration policy makers.

 
June 14, 2001 – The State Department notifies Congress that it intends to allocate $6 million in additional funds to the Iraqi National Congress, the exile group supported by administration allies. This interim funding comes on top of  $4.3 million in previous grants, used according to a State Department spokesman for “organizational capacity building, media and public diplomacy activities, gathering of information on war crimes, et cetera.”

According to State’s press briefing, the money is to be allocated during an audit is on the allocations:

“Q: Will this money be disbursed before the audit is complete?

MR. REEKER: We anticipate that the new money will be used to continue the programs already ongoing . . .

I guess what you are referring to is the Office of Inspector General's audit of grants and contracts. And as Ambassador Boucher said a couple of days ago, this is very much a routine audit. This is the kind of thing that goes on. It is therefore routine that a grantee, like the Iraqi National Congress, would continue to receive funding and support while the audit is being performed because, as we said, the goal of the audit and the expectation of the audit is to provide us then with recommendations on how to improve the Iraqi National Congress's management of its programs and accounts, and anticipate that that will actually enhance more their ability to

Q: You haven't answered the question, though. The question was will this money be disbursed to the INC before the audit is complete. You seem to be saying want to say yes, but you didn't

MR. REEKER: Well, I can't tell you when the audit is going to be complete, first of all. That is up to the Inspector General, and the Inspector General

Q: I mean, is the audit in any way an obstacle to the disbursement of the [gap in transcript]

MR. REEKER: No. There we go. We answered your question. No. I thought that was pretty clear, Jonathan.

Q: So this is simply the money that when that was explained to us to help them keep going while the audit is being done and while the other money, or other additional money, is suspended?

MR. REEKER: Right. As you know, there is a pot of money and it gets drawn upon, and we notify Congress when we intend to obligate the money, thereby drawing upon that money.

Q: Where does this pot of money come from?
Q: Under the rainbow. [laughter]”
 

June 25, 2001 – Elliott Abrams becomes Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations at the National Security Council (NSC). Abrams had been a Reagan appointee who pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts in the Iran-Contra scandal but later received a pardon from the first President Bush. Abrams also signed the 1998 PNAC letter calling for regime change in Iraq.

June 28, 2001 – A press briefing conducted by White House press secretary Ari Fleischer indicates the range of domestic problems faced by the administration, including energy problems and high fuel prices; apparent difficulty finding an FBI director; and low poll numbers for the president:

          “Q    Why do you think the President is sagging in the polls? And is there any concern over here about that? And in particular, the indications that many average Americans don't think he shares their concerns.

MR. FLEISCHER:  Ron, let me say this as clearly as I can. I just dismiss the premise of the question. On the same day that a Reuters-AP poll came out, for example, came out that showed the President has a 60-percent job approval. The fact of the matter is that the President's numbers have been solid and stable. And the President, having emerged from a very close, one of the closest elections ever in the history of the United States, his presidency has been very well-received by the American people.  

Depending on what poll you want to look at, his job approval is anywhere between 50 percentage points and 60 percentage points. The fluctuation is minuscule. Some days it goes up, some days it goes down. But the President has emerged from one of the closest elections in American history to have received solid support from the American people.”