So Robert Kaplan and Fareed Zakaria participated in a 2001 secret meeting convened at the request of then deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz that produced a policy memo for the President and Vice President recommending the US overthrow Saddam Hussein. And apparently the writers signed non disclosure agreements about the meeting. Kaplan says he had the approval of his Atlantic Monthly editor, the deceased Michael Kelley. Zakaria says he didn't realize a report was being produced from the meeting. Still. That doesn't seem to answer the real issue, that someone identified as an independent journalist would agree to help a Pentagon official brainstorm on how to sell a war, and would agree to not disclose their involvement. More here and here.

Update: Woodward's account is actually more troubling. At Wolfowitz's request, American Enterprise Institute president Christopher Demuth "recruited a dozen people. [Bernard Lewis, Mark Palmer, Fareed Zakaria, Fouad Ajami, James Q. Wilson, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Steve Herbits among them]. He later said they agreed to serve only 'if I promised it would all be kept secret.' ... On Thursday night, November 29, 2001, Demuth assembled the group at a secure conference center in Virginia for a weekend of discussions ... DeMuth was surprised at the consensus among his group. He stayed up late Sunday night distilling their thoughts into a seven page, single-spaced document, called 'Delta of Terrorism.' ... 'The general analysis was that Egypt and Saudi Arabia ... were the key, but the problems there are intractable. Iran is more important...' But Iran was similarly difficult to envision dealing with... But Saddam Hussein was different, weaker, more vulnerable... 'We concluded that a confrontation with Saddam was inevitable. ... We agreed that Saddam would have to leave the scene before the problem would be addressed.' ... Copies of the memo, straight from the neoconservative playbook, were hand-delivered to the war cabinet members. In at least some cases, it was given a SECRET classification. Cheney was pleased with the memo, and it had a strong impact on President Bush ..."

Posted by Laura at October 11, 2006 10:16 AM