Richard Ben-Veniste is aptly named
From Condoleezza Rice’s public testimony:
BEN-VENISTE: Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.
Now, the …
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste …
BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the …
RICE: I would like to finish my point here.
BEN-VENISTE: I didn’t know there was a point.
RICE: Given that you asked me whether or not it warned of attacks.
BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.
RICE: You said, did it not warn of attacks. It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States.
I swear I was this close to taking a chair to my TV, Jerry Springer style. Richard Ben-Veniste was being horribly aggressive and disrespectful. He asked Dr. Rice two questions:
BEN-VENISTE: Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
And then she answered the second one first:
RICE: I believe the title was, Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.
Now, the …
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
And then he wouldn’t let her answer the first question! What makes this particularly odious is what he hoped to force her to imply. The name of the report was “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States,” even though the report contained no evidence of specific future threats. By having her recall the title of this report (which was obviously poorly named) and then cutting her off, he hoped to force her into implying that the administration had credible evidence of an upcoming attack, even though the report contained no such information.
Real mature, Dick.
