Who Is Anthony Zinni?
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Who Is Anthony Zinni? He's the guy who knows the guy we need to be talking to. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES SHORTLY BEFORE HE RETIRED in July 2000, General Anthony Zinni speculated about life after the...
...I don't think the military adventures that they're seeking for us to fund are reasonable," Zinni said at the time...
...They are pie in the sky...
...What's the latest on General Zinni and his role at the State Department...
...Last week's reports of anthrax cases—first in Florida, then in New York—have renewed concerns about bio-terrorism, and bio-terrorism suggests state sponsors...
...But given his background, it's a safe bet that he will play a significant role...
...He's on the books now as an unpaid, part-time consultant to Assistant Secretary Burns in the Near East Bureau, and we'll offer more on definition of duty and announcement when we can...
...Whether that's good news or bad depends on what you think U.S...
...Central Command— the position General Norman Schwarzkopf held during the Gulf War—he enjoyed a unique vantage point on the politics, culture, and military affairs of the region, which included, notably, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen...
...Before Zinni retired, he says, "they used to talk by the phone very frequently—if not daily, then almost daily...
...But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Zinni is a decorated Vietnam veteran who spent nearly four decades in the military...
...As far as we know, he hasn't even shown up for work yet...
...Come help us...
...I don't know if there is any latest," she replied...
...Go after the base, not just the guys running around," Hamza told the Washington Post's Marc Fisher last week...
...But that shock hasn't come...
...Even if no one knows—or will say—what Zinni's role will be, he is surely qualified to do it...
...In our part of the world," he said, referring to the 25 countries in his area of responsibility, "everything is done by personal relationship...
...Zinni's relationships could well be helpful in the effort to build and maintain the anti-terrorism coalition...
...They're going to lead us to a Bay of Goats, or something like that...
...He said of course, and he immediately apprehended them all...
...But what if the United States expands its military efforts beyond Afghanistan to, say, Iraq...
...More than a year later, the Iraqi opposition groups came to Washington to beg, once again, for help...
...As he recounted to a congressional committee shortly after the September 11 attacks, "I was asked because of my relationship with General Musharraf to call him and ask him to apprehend the leaders in this effort who were identified as being in Pakistan along the Afghan border...
...This prompted speculation that Zinni, for years one of the most outspoken opponents of removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, would help Powell make the case against including Iraq at first—or perhaps ever—in the U.S...
...Zinni's views on Iraq were certainly well known to those who brought him into the State Department...
...In fact, last January, after authorities foiled a terrorist plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in anticipation of the millennium, Zinni got in touch with Musharraf...
...Zinni spent the last three years of his career as commander in chief of the U.S...
...According to Khidhir Hamza, a scientist who was forced to run Saddam Hussein's weapons program through 1994, state sponsorship suggests Iraq...
...Confused, I called Susan Pittman in the State Department's Public Affairs shop...
...Zinni still opposed it...
...BY STEPHEN F. HAYES SHORTLY BEFORE HE RETIRED in July 2000, General Anthony Zinni speculated about life after the Marine Corps...
...Asked about Zinni's role, Boucher said, "I can't tell you very much at this point...
...The message...
...Central Command, which encompasses Afghanistan and Central Asia—and since September 11 his phone has been ringing off the hook...
...strategy in the war on terrorism should be...
...By last Thursday, a secretary in the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau was willing to say even less: "We don't have any knowledge of him here...
...Throughout his three-year tenure, he constantly worked the phones to keep abreast of political and military developments...
...Their appeals came in the heat of the 2000 presidential campaign, and both Bush and Al Gore strongly backed the funding...
...He visited with the leaders of "the stans"—the former Soviet republics to the north of Afghanistan—in their own countries, and hosted some of them at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida...
...They have a pretty ; good relationship,"says a ' South Asian diplomat familiar with their dealings...
...And Iraq has the willingness to use these weapons...
...seemed to place some distance between Powell and Zinni at his October 2 briefing...
...During his time at Central Command, Zinni established relationships, which he has maintained, with many of the military and political leaders of those countries...
...To make a long story short, I was asked to make five calls, and he delivered on every one of them...
...military response to the 9/11 attacks...
...Zinni has long been reluctant to go after Saddam...
...This cannot be organized solely from Afghanistan...
...The main source of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East is Iraq...
...The question is whether they also reflect the views of his ultimate boss—the president...
...The money was delayed...
...I was then asked to call him again to ask if he would allow our law enforcement and other agencies to have access to them and he said of course, send them right away...
...In 1998, when President Clinton and the Republican Congress agreed to send $97 million to support insurgent groups in Iraq, Zinni opposed the policy, suggesting that Saddam's ouster would result in a power vacuum in the region...
...As head of the U.S...
...Early media reports suggested that Zinni would serve as a "special adviser" to Secretary of State Colin Powell...
...Zinni is particularly close to Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf, who took control of i that country in a coup two ! years ago...
...I asked...
...The biggest shock," he mused, "will be to turn on the TV and something's happening somewhere in the world and your phone's not ringing...
...They would seem to mirror his boss's, the secretary of state's...
...Precisely what Zinni will be doing in the war on terrorism is something of a mystery...
...I was then asked to call him again and see if he would give up computer disks and other things that were confiscated and he said of course...
...After a couple of weeks of shuffling from media interview to congressional hearing and back, Zinni took a call from the State Department...
Vol. 7 • October 2001 • No. 6
