Clintons may have tried to kill Olson's book

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 12, 2001

Bill and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) "put their PR spin machine into high gear" following the death of author Barbara Olson in an effort to halt publication of her forthcoming Final Days book, according to a report on NewsMax.com. Olson, the wife of U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, was among those killed when a hijacked commercial airliner crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. She was a famed Republican lawyer-activist and had served as a congressional investigator in several capacities, including that of chief investigative counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. Final Days, which chronicles the doings of the Clintons as they prepared to depart the White House, follows her earlier book on Hillary, Hell to Pay.

In her latest book, due to be released by Regnery, Olson describes the departing president as "incoherent" and his wife as obsessed with carting off national treasures. News Max.com quotes Tom Winter of the Washington-based Human Events newspaper as saying that "within a week of the dreadful attack on Sept. 11, powerful friends of Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to stop the publication of this book." Apparently the nature of the threat was that attacks would be made on Olson's reputation, a tactic linked to the Clintons in the past when they hoped to silence negative comment or opposition.

Meanwhile, the Federalist Society has established an annual lecture series in Olson's name. "The Federalist Society believes that it is most fitting to dedicate an annual lecture on limited government and the spirit of freedom to the memory of Barbara Olson," according to an announcement. "She had a deep commitment to the rule of law and understood well the relationship between respecting limits on government power and the preservation of freedom. ... We envision that the lecture will bring together leaders of the legal and policy worlds in a lively discussion of the ideas that Barbara held most dear."

In a tribute to her held by friends following her death, it was said that she "died as she lived: on the front lines, courageous." Her final moments were spent in a phone call to her husband as she attempted to help the pilots and other passengers find a way to halt the hijacking.