Kissinger Quits As Chairman of 9/11 Panel
Henry Kissinger cites the controversy surrounding (unnamed) potential conflicts accruing from his appointment of a panel investigating the Sept. 11th attacks (seems to be a lot of panels investigating this; Sept. 11 will most likely be over-investigated, not under-). Kissinger gets off the hook from revealing his client list. From Chistopher Hitchens' field day on the appointment:
Kissinger's "consulting" firm, Kissinger Associates, is a privately held concern that does not publish a client list and that compels its clients to sign confidentiality agreements. Nonetheless, it has been established that Kissinger's business dealings with, say, the Chinese Communist leadership have closely matched his public pronouncements on such things as the massacre of Chinese students. Given the strong ties between himself, his partners Lawrence Eagleburger and Brent Scowcroft, and the oil oligarchies of the Gulf, it must be time for at least a full disclosure of his interests in the region. This thought does not seem to have occurred to the president or to the other friends of Prince Bandar and Prince Bandar's wife, who helped in the evacuation of the Bin Laden family from American soil, without an interrogation, in the week after Sept. 11.
Yet by resigning because of the controversy that could (in his view) surround his consulting practice, doesn't that shine a light on said consulting practice? Has Kissinger tried to avoid the controversy while at the same time courting it?
