Kissenger: Probing The Client Controversy
White House aides were taken aback last week when Henry Kissinger, seeking to avoid further controversy about his consulting business, abruptly stepped down as chair of the independent commission to investigate the 9-11 terrorist attacks. But some administration sources say they may have only themselves to blame. Unlike other high-profile presidential appointments, NEWSWEEK has learned, Kissinger was never "vetted" for conflicts of interest by White House lawyers.
Only a few weeks ago, White House staffers were crowing about Kissinger. But their view of the ex-secretary of State blinded them to the firestorm that quickly developed over his secretive consulting firm, Kissinger Associates. Normally, White House lawyers review such matters as part of a thorough check of the personal and financial lives of all appointments. But sources said Kissinger had only cursory talks about his business affairs with top aides. "It's amazing how tone deaf they can be," said Steve Push, a leader of the 9-11 victims' families.
Nobody was angrier than Kissinger. At a meeting with 9-11 family members before he resigned, the 79-year-old Kissinger told them he was "personally humiliated" to have his integrity questioned in newspaper editorials demanding that he disclose his clients. Kissinger reassured the group he did no current work for any oil companies or Mideast clients. But sources familiar with Kissinger's business tell NEWSWEEK that some of his clients could have been problematic. Among firms that pay a minimum of $250,000 a year to Kissinger are several with heavy investments in Saudi Arabia, such as ABB Group, a Swiss-Swedish engineering firm, and Boeing Corp.
Boeing's sale of $7.2 billion worth of aircraft to Saudi Arabia in 1995 was the largest single overseas deal in the airline giant's history. After the 9-11 attacks, Boeing helped pay for a newspaper advertising supplement that touted close U.S.- Saudi ties and included such articles as "Crown Prince Abdullah: A Leader With a Global Vision." (A Boeing spokesman acknowledged the firm had a "longstanding" relationship with Kissinger's firm, but said it involved advice on deals in East Asia, not Saudi Arabia.) Similar issues confronted former Sen. George Mitchell, who resigned last week as vice chair. Mitchell cited time constraints as his reason. But his move came just a few days after congressional lawyers said he, too, would be required to disclose all the clients of his lawyer lobbying firm, Piper Rudnick. Among recent clients were two Mideast governments--Yemen and the United Arab Emirates--and a firm owned by Mohammed Hussain Al-Amoudi, a Saudi magnate under scrutiny from U.S. anti-terror investigators. (Mitchell didn't return calls for comment. Through his lawyers, Al-Amoudi denies any connection to terrorism.)
The upshot has been a major setback for the commission. White House lawyers were scrambling to find a replacement for Kissinger. But congressional staffers worried that the commission only has an 18-month time limit and, as one said, "The clock is ticking."
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Mark Hosenball joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in November 1993, covering a range of issues for the National Affairs department. Most recently, he has written and reported numerous stories on terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks on America. He has also covered campaign finance, the Monica Lewinsky controversy, the death of Princess Diana, Whitewater, the crashes of EgyptAir flight 990 and TWA flight 800, as well as related air safety issues.
Hosenball came to Newsweek from "Dateline NBC," where he worked as an investigative producer. He also worked extensively as a print journalist, writing for a number of British and American publications, including the London Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard, Time Out, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic. In addition, he has done commentaries for American Public Radio.
Hosenball has been honored with a number of prestigious awards. Most recently, along with a team of Newsweek correspondents, he was awarded the Overseas Press Club's most prestigious honor, the 2002 Ed Cunningham Memorial Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's coverage of the war on terror. His reporting and that of his colleagues earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002 for its coverage of September 11 and its aftermath. And a story he co-authored was highlighted in a citation Newsweek received by the White House Correspondents' Association when it awarded the magazine the 2002 Edgar A. Poe Award for "excellence on a story of national or regional importance. "Newsweek's September 11 coverage started long before the attacks. An article in the magazine's February 19, 2001 issue warned with chilling accuracy: 'The threat posed by (Osama) bin Laden is growing -- and coming ever closer to home."
Hosenball was a contributor to the CANAL + TV documentary, "L'Argent de la Drogue" (Drug Money), which was awarded the "Sept D'Or," the French equivalent of an Emmy. He also contributed to NBC News' coverage of the BCCI scandal, which earned a 1991 Peabody Award.
He attended the University of Pennsylvania and Trinity College in Dublin. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife and son.
Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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