Condi and the 9/11 Commission

Time Magazine ^ | 12.23.03 | Timothy J. Burger

[Cathryn Crawford]

Poised to convene its first hard-hitting hearings in January, the federal commission investigating the 9/11 attacks continues to be at odds with the White House over access to key information and witnesses. Two government sources tell TIME that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is arguing over ground rules for her appearance in part because she does not want to testify under oath or, according to one source, in public. While national security advisers are presidential staff and generally don’t have to appear before Congress, the commission argues that its jurisdiction is broader—and it's been requiring fact witnesses in its massive investigation to testify under oath. The exception: it may not seek to swear in President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Bill Clinton or Al Gore in the increasingly likely event they will be asked to speak to the commission. "I think that it is in their interest to meet with us," says GOP commission member John Lehman, saying that they should be invited, not subpoenaed, and be allowed to appear behind closed doors.

With such high-profile testimony in the offing, it’s no wonder the commission chairman, Republican Tom Kean, was telling reporters last week to expect major revelations from the investigative hearings expected to begin in late January.

He also suggested that the 9/11 attacks might have been prevented if mid-level government officials at various government agencies had done their jobs. As for senior officials like Rice or her predecessor, Clinton NSA Sandy Berger, and their bosses, Kean said the commission was still studying whether they share the blame. Rice could face tough questioning. One Republican commissioner says a comment by Rice last year—that no one “could have predicted that they would try to use a…hijacked airplane as a missile”—was "an unfortunate comment . . . that was, of course, a wrong-footed statement on its face," given that there was years of intelligence about Al Qaeda's interest in airplane attacks.

Whether she signs up willingly to testify now is still an open question. But the commission wants to hear from her. Said Democratic commissioner Tim Roemer: "The Presidents and Vice Presidents and national security advisers in both administrations should appear." Spokesmen for Rice and the commission had no comment on the talks but a senior Rice aide insisted that "Dr. Rice and the White House continue to work amiably with the commission, consistent with the President's desire to make staff available in accordance with his ability to fight the war on terrorism."

[Cathryn Crawford]

This is a rather ridiculously worded article. It's as though they set out to write an article that had very little point but somehow made Condoleeza Rice seem menacing or shifty. Burger (the author) didn't even do a very good job of doing that, however.

[Ophiucus]

This is a rather ridiculously worded article

How apt for a completely ridiculous committee witchhunt... er...investigation.

[Felis_irritable]

Typical Time crap. The unnamed Republican commissioner's comment is goofy too. I want to know who could have predicted the implement, location, date, and time of the 9/11 attacks prior to their occurrence. The fact that the Gov has researched every possible kind of terrorist attack doesn't mean they can all be predicted. Clintoon's wrongheaded foreign policy did more damage than Bush could do gagged and blindfolded.

[Mike Darancette]

. Rice could face tough questioning.

And Burger wouldn't?

[OldFriend]

Tom Kean is a political hack who hopes to pander to the 9/11 New Jersey families as a way to enhance his son's political ambitions.

[BenLurkin]

Obligatory Condi Picures:

[GraniteStateConservative]

Condi should go there and tell them the truth-- bureaucracies don't reward imagination. The people who rise to the top aren't the outside-the-box folks. The lower-level free thinkers are jammed by the mechanics of the bureaucracy and its rewarding of convention over creativity. What creative thing has a bureaucrat ever done? Bureaucracies are responsive and reactive-- not proactive. When they act, it's not even usually very well. That's why government should be decentralized and given few responsibilities and powers. The Founders weren't idiots.

Condi and Berger and other NSAs serve as a single voice for the establishment security system. They are spokesmen. Sometimes they are given special projects, too (Condi was instrumental in the Libya WMD deal, the China EP-3E deal, the Roadmap to Peace deal and others), but their main function is to allow Bush to hear from one person instead of dozens. The CFO reports on financial and sales reports he had no hand in putting together. Give him crap data and he reports crap data. Garbage in, garbage out. If the chiefs of FBI and CIA don't tell Condi to tell Bush that Al Qaeda is about to ram planes into buildings, she won't tell Bush that Al Qaeda is about to ram planes into buildings. The chiefs of FBI and CIA get their information from a long chain of middle-men who filter out useful information and err on the side of convention and not caution.

[CasearianDaoist]

You just watch, this is going to be a majorasttempt at smearing Bush. It is all the Dems have left. They just might get away with it.

[rintense]

The left is out for Condi's head because they know she is considered a contender for an 08 run as VP or higher. And we all know that the left wants Hillary then. Condi would mop the floor with Hillary- alas, they want Condi gone now, and made the scapegoat for 9-11.

[tinacart]

"Obligatory Condi Picures:"

Umm, excuse me - did you get permission from my son to post these personal pics? After all, this is his future bride (he thinks!)...

[section9]

Precisely. However, I strongly suspect that Condi would do quite well in front of a committee of Fifteen Minute artists. The lefties have been trying to torpedo Rice for years now, and this thing won't work either.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[section9]

Well, part of the problem is that there is a pernicious feedback loop in government that rewards neither original thinking or initiative. If you point out to politicians that their whole security system is suspect, their first instinct is to blame you because you have presided over a suspect security system on your watch. So they ask for your head.

People don't exercise initiative in government because it pays to keep your head down. It also doesn't pay to share information in peacetime. The CIA knew about a meeting in Indonesia between top AQ planners who also moved in and out of the United States. They informed no one else. Perhaps they felt no need to at the time. It was in no one's interest to connect any dots. We were at peace. Information was power, and closely held.

Finally, there is the mythical horsecrap of "connecting the dots". Only people who gather around the water cooler and mumble twenty twenty hindsight talk this way. AQ was an organization that practiced two things: misdirection and internal compartmentalization. Nothing was left to chance. To this day, given the way the agencies in the field failed to communicate with each other, I don't see anyway that 9-11 could have been prevented. AQ had the advantage of means, time, and location. The 20/20 hindsight crowd conveniently forget the world as it was on September 10th.

When nations are at peace, they do things as things always have been done, especially democracies. That's what happened to us on 9-11.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[japaneseghost]

There are rules & regs why a NSA should not testify under oath. . Congress needs to read 50USC. The Pres, the NSA and the DCIA are exempt because of the natsec info they hold... and it's against federal law for them to tell the truth under oath, if giving such information would endanger the national security.

Gee, THERE ARE REASONS WHY SUCH LAWS EXIST - TO KEEP US ALL SAFE.

[BenLurkin]

Your son has good taste.

[JohnGalt]

How anyone with 'National Security' in their title keeps their job after 9/11 is beyond me. If only for appearance sake, she should have resigned.

[PISANO]

NEWS FLASH for the committee!!!! AL QEADA is RESPONSIBLE for 911 not the CIA, FBI, Condolezza Rice or President Bush. 911 TOOK YEARS to plan and the 'FAILURE' of our Intelligence agencies to STOP the attack is INDICATIVE of the FACT that TERRORIST attacks can NOT be stopped ONLY minimized.

Believe it our NOT the passengers of flight 93 MINIMIZED 911 casualties and effect, their lives saved the Capitol Building from total destruction and many more lives being lost.

These committees, IF THEY ARE LOOKING for a SCAPEGOAT, are useless. Beware of partisan political attacks after the REPORT is issued.