Admit it - it's easy.
Yer goin' through the tortures of the damned to avoid the obvious - even though someone had tried to fly an airplane into the White House, Rice as National Security Advisor claimed it was a novel idea, 'who would have thought'.
From which a certain level of either incompetence and/or lack of honesty can be inferred. If her job had anything to do with being an advisor on national security.
If she were a history professor at Stanford, she could be believed, but even those probably knew.
I think you've boxed yerself in. Can't admit it, and can't deny it.
Arf