Rice's celebrity image may be threatened by book

WASHINGTON, Oct 5: Although she is afforded celebrity status by many Americans, some analysts say U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's image may be tarnished by reports that she brushed off warnings of the September 11 attacks.

Despite her central role in the problem-plagued Iraq war, Rice has so far managed to avoid the public criticism heaped on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and has repeatedly had the highest approval ratings of anyone in the Bush administration.

Much of her celebrity-status is media driven -- she was on Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List. An accomplished pianist, she allowed the New York Times to critique Sunday afternoon recitals with friends at her Watergate apartment.

An exercise addict, Ms Rice shared workout tips on television and her status as a single woman has speculation over suitors. There is a Web site devoted to a potential run by Rice for the 2008 presidency, a race she says she will not join.

But award-winning journalist Bob Woodward's new book ''State of Denial'' threatens to dent her image of cool and competent efficiency by raising doubts about Rice's performance, both as national security adviser during President George W. Bush's first term and as Secretary of State.

''I think she has lost some of her Teflon quality,'' said Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal thinktank in Washington.

Ms Rice has been criticized recently for her handling of nuclear crises with Iran and North Korea as well as the turbulent West Asia.

During the Lebanon-Israeli war she came under fire for the U.S.

decision not to call for an immediate cease-fire, which gave Israel a green light to continue air attacks.

Mr Woodward is a Washington Post editor who helped cover the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

In his book he says Rice was told by then CIA chief George Tenet in a July ten, 2001 meeting about evidence an imminent that attack was being planned on the United States.

Initially, Ms Rice, who was Bush's national security adviser at the time, told reporters she did not recall the meeting. But her spokesman Sean McCormack later confirmed it took place and said Rice asked the CIA chief to give the same briefing to Rumsfeld and then Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Bennis said Ms Rice was ''wriggling around too much'' and her response was more damaging than her actions. ''It's not so much what she did or didn't do but how she is reacting to it,'' she added.

Politics professor Stephen Zunes from San Francisco University said a cynical view was that Rice would be the next ''fall guy or gal'' in the administration. ''She may be the next victim,'' he said.

DEFENDING RICE

Mr McCormack defended Rice's turnabout on the meeting and said she had not wanted to discuss it before checking her facts. ''We are not going to have the secretary of state make statements based on suppositions. She was not denying a meeting but at that point, she could not confirm it,'' Mr McCormack said, adding that people were playing politics with his boss.

Sensing a growing political storm over Rice's handling of the issue, the White House issued a news release on Tuesday aimed at debunking criticism, with the headline: ''The Rest of the Story: The Rice-Tenet meeting.'' With five weeks until elections that will decide control of the U.S. Congress, Democrats pounced on it, saying the White House was clearly concerned about the appearance of Rice's ''faulty memory.'' Mr McCormack defended Rice, saying she had found nothing new in the Tenet briefing in terms of threat levels, which were high throughout the summer of 2001. ''Condi Rice got it, she understood (the threat),'' he said.

Anthony Cordesman, a West Asia military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicted negative publicity about Rice would be ''a flash in the pan.'' ''All of this is essentially third-party and hearsay,'' he said of Woodward's book. He said Rice, who coached Bush in foreign affairs before his election, appeared to have more influence with the president than her predecessor Colin Powell.

Reuters