Vote for your favorite cover-up of the day.

As I reported here, there is some sort of faux controversy about who did more to defend the nation against al Qaida: President Bill Clinton, or the current pretender to the throne.

No one could have imagined that Secretary of State Dr. Rice would weigh in. Of course, I mean that in the same way that no one could have imagined that Bin Laden was determined to strike within the US. In fact, Dr. Rice did assert that the Bush team had been active, and though it was in apparent contradiction to all of the known facts, and she even went on to claim that the 9/11 commission validated her efforts.

A funny thing came out today, with the advances from the Woodward book, State of Denial. It turns out that George Tenet and his counterterrorism chief Cofer Black made a special visit to Condi Rice, on July 10, 2001. That was the day of the Phoenix memo, that an FBI agent in Phoenix sent to FBI headquarters, which advised of the “possibility of a coordinated effort” by bin Laden to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation schools.

Tenet and Black hoped that their surprise visit would underline the importance of their concerns. They went over top-secret intelligence pointing to an impending attack and “sounded the loudest warning” to the White House of a likely attack on the U.S. by Bin Laden.

Woodward writes that Rice was polite, but, “They felt the brushoff.”

It’s rather a shame, isn’t it, that our former National Security Advisor can’t be charged with gross negligence resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans two months later. However, there is a possibility that criminal charges can be brought against her.

Writing on Think Progress, former counsel to the 9/11 commission, Peter Rundlet, writes:

Many, many questions need to be asked and answered about this revelation — questions that the 9/11 Commission would have asked, had the Commission been told about this significant meeting. Suspiciously, the Commissioners and the staff investigating the administration’s actions prior to 9/11 were never informed of the meeting.As Commissioner Jamie Gorelick pointed out, “We didn’t know about the meeting itself. I can assure you it would have been in our report if we had known to ask about it.”

Emphasis in the original.

Rundlet continues: “Was it covered up? It is hard to come to a different conclusion. … At a minimum, the withholding of information about this meeting is an outrage. Very possibly, someone committed a crime. And worst of all, they failed to stop the plot.” Emphasis in the original.

So, is this your favorite coverup of the day? Or is this?

“… and tell ’em Big Mitch sent ya!”