Zelikow, Philip

See also 9/11 Commission and Outline

Philip Zelikow played a huge role in the investigation, such as it was, by the 9/11 Commission. Unfortunately, Zelikow was a Bush Administration insider. He had been on the transition team when Bush came into office in 2001. He and Condoleezza Rice had written a book together. Having him in charge of the investigation assured that the investigation would be controlled by the White House and would not publish anything that implicated the White House or anybody in the Executive Branch except for the official 9/11 scapegoat agency, the Federal Aviation Administration.

Zelikow’s role is described in David Ray Griffin’s book The 9/11 Commission: Omissions and Distortions and in Philip Shenon’s book The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.  Zelikow controlled the flow of information from the staff to the Commissioners. Zelikow dictated that all information from the staff had to go directly to him. He would decide what information to pass on to the Commissioners. Shenon describes that Zelikow rewrote almost everything that he passed on. We also know that he did not pass on everything; far from it. Testimony from people including Barry Jennings, Sibel Edmonds, and 9/11 hero and “last man out” William Rodriguez was all omitted from the Commission’s final report. Zelikow was not much better than Henry Kissinger, the original Chair of the 9/11 Commission who resigned, would have been. A whitewash.