John Cole has his knickers in a twist because I'm paying insufficient attention to the ridiculous conflict posed by having Jamie Gorelick on the 9/11 commission. It is a horrible travesty, but the entire 9/11 commission is a horrible travesty, and I've frankly just written the whole thing off as a farce.
Let's begin with the head of the commission, Thomas Kean. Kean is one of the directors of Amerada Hess corporation, which has partnered up with Saudi businessman and BCCI figure Khalid bin Mahfouz for the Delta-Hess venture. Mahfouz, who happens to be Osama Bin Laden's brother in law, was funnelling millions to Bin Laden as late as 1999.
Mahfouz was also an investor, through James Bath, in Arbusto energy. Small world.
So, yes, the whole law firm conflict of interest is disturbing, but everything about that commission is disturbing.
