Friday, October 16, 2009

Who Is Susan Rice?


When I saw this Q&A show up in my newsreader this morning I was curious to see what the answer provided by the almost extinct news provider would be. Here is the answer as provided by the AJC.
Rice served from February 2007 to November 2008 as senior adviser for national security affairs on the Obama for America Campaign. She then served on the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition and as co-chair of its policy working group on national security. From 2002-2009, she was a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. Rice served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1997 to 2001. From 1995-1997, she served as special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council. She was director for international organizations and peacekeeping on the National Security Council staff from 1993 to 1995. She previously worked as management consultant with McKinsey and Co. Rice, 44, received her bachelor’s in history from Stanford University and her master’s degree and a doctorate in international relations from New College at Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
And now we have the rest of the story. Back when I decided to start my own blog, but before the demands of work, home and life made it apparent that I needed to just stick to contributing to this one, I did some research on Ms. Rice and I found some very interesting things.

So yes, she too is another Clintonite.

But what else do we know about her? According to this entry over at the Free Republic she played a pivotal role in convincing Bill Clinton to not take Bin Laden off the hands of Sudan when the opportunity presented itself.
If Ms. Rice is in line for such a promotion, be very afraid. Why? Because according to multiple sources, including former Clinton official Mansoor Ijaz and Richard Miniter, author of the bestseller Losing Bin Laden, it was she who was a major opponent of accepting Sudan's offer to turn over the world's most wanted mass murderer. At the time, Rice was the Clinton Administration's Secretary of State for African Affairs and a former assistant National Security Advisor under Sandy Berger.

According the both Ijaz and Miniter, Rice's personal beliefs on the Sudan's credibility led to her convincing Berger to reject their offer to turn over Bin Laden, overruling the advice of Tim Carney, then ambassador to Sudan.

She is also a contributor over at the Huffington Post, and for those that are familiar with the site you know it is a haven of the liberal/progressive mindset.

From a column she wrote for them in 2008 is this little nugget.
What we need from the next President when he or she answers the phone in a crisis is good judgment -- the kind that Barack Obama has consistently shown. Senators Clinton and McCain failed the judgment test when they voted for George Bush's Iraq war -- a war which has made America less safe and is the greatest strategic blunder of our generation -- without even bothering to read the full National Intelligence Estimate.
And finally, here she is defending Obama over the comments he made about sitting down with the leaders in Iran and having discussions.

Megyn Kelly, as always, is wonderful.


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