‘Warrior Princess’ answers  back

Libby Leist State Department Producer • E-mail

BRUSSELS, Belgium —Answering questions at Kiev University in the Ukraine this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice couldn’t help but laugh when a student said he had once heard her described as the “Warrior Princess” and asked her if she thought it was an accurate description. 

“It’s not how I think of myself,” Rice quickly replied. She then explained why she thought other people might see her that way. “It’s kind of a sense of, are you somebody who takes on challenges,” she said, “and answers in a kind of challenging way… I think that’s probably why.”

Although the origin of the nickname “Warrior Princess” is still in dispute — Rice recalled it was members of the press who came up with the name, while others said it was her staff — the description seemed to fit perfectly this week when she was forced to defend the Bush administration’s policies in the war on terror to skeptical European leaders and their citizens.

The question-and-answer session with the students was the only part of the week when Rice, former Stanford provost, looked to be truly enjoying herself.

In every other forum she was battered with questions about alleged secret CIA prisons in Europe, on the use of “renditions” and on U.S. policy on torture. In Berlin, Bucharest, Kiev and Brussels  she could not manage to escape the glare.            

Calm before the storm
For the traveling press corps, it was a “good story” to follow.

At 5:30 a.m. Monday morning, while boarding the vans that would take us to Andrews Air Force Base for departure, one of Rice’s aides handed out the five-page statement she would make prior to departure responding to the European Union inquiries on alleged CIA practices.

Eleven journalists — the first to lay eyes on the statement — were left in the predawn darkness trying to sort through the careful language, many of us wishing we had our own lawyers there to help us sort through the precise wording.

Rice entered the small media room at Andrews shortly after 7 a.m. In front of only one U.S. network “pool camera,” Rice said, “The United States does not authorize or condone torture of detainees,” that the U.S. “cannot discuss information that would compromise the success of intelligence, law enforcement, and military operations.”

She added that European countries have just as much at stake as the United States in the war on terror. “We share intelligence that has helped protect European countries from attack, helping save European lives.”

The room was subdued as she read the 12-minute statement and her voice was soft, even as she talked about terror, torture, and intelligence. Perhaps it was the early morning hour, or Rice’s desire to not animate the issue, but it was, as the cliché goes, truly the calm before the storm.

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