Posted on 03/24/2004 6:11:22 AM PST by TomGuy
Live thread for Day 2 of the September 11 Commission Hearings.
CSPAN 3 seems to be the only CSPAN covering this in various formats. http://www.c-span.org/watch/index.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3&ShowVidDays=30&ShowVidDesc=
Also CBS webfeed opens Real Player. http://cgi.cbs.com/video/video.pl?url=/broadcast/*/livenews.rm&plugin=1&proto=rtsp
CBS news website may have other feed formats.
That's a great wrap-up of the leftists, Prairie.
It's already started:
Aide: Clinton Approved Killing Bin Laden 22 minutes ago
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton (news - web sites) gave the CIA (news - web sites) "every inch of authorization that it asked for" to carry out plans to kill Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the former president's national security adviser testified Wednesday, bluntly disputing claims that the spy agency lacked the authority it needed.
"If there was any confusion down the ranks, it was never communicated to me nor to the president and if any additional authority had been requested I am convinced it would have been given immediately," Sandy Berger said in nationally televised testimony before a bipartisan panel probing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the worst in the nation's history.
Berger testified a few hours after the panel released a report that said CIA officials, Director George Tenet among them, did not believe they had the authority to assassinate the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network. A subsequent decision to rely on local Afghan forces sharply reduced the chances of his bin Laden's capture, the commission said.
Tenet, who preceded Berger in the witness chair, was not pressed on the issue.
The CIA director, whose tenure has spanned both the Clinton and Bush administrations, praised aides to both presidents for their attentiveness to terrorism.
At the same time, he said unambiguously the nation should be prepared for another attack.
"It's coming. They are still going to try and do it, and we need to sort of -- men and women here who have lost their families have to know that we've got to do a hell of a lot better," he said, in remarks that elicited applause from members of the victims' families seated in the audience.
The hearings were remarkable by any account.
Secretaries of state and defense from the two administrations testified on Tuesday, followed on a second day of hearings by senior officials who served alongside them in a budding era of terrorism that finally struck home two and a half years ago.
Less than eight months before a presidential election, political jockeying was evident during the day.
Two Democrats on the panel, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, and Richard Ben Veniste, publicly lamented the refusal of the Bush administration to allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) to testify in public.
For their part, some Republicans sought to pre-empt testimony expected later in the day from Richard Clarke, a former top counter-terrorism adviser and author of a new book sharply critical of President Bush (news - web sites).
It's already started:
Aide: Clinton Approved Killing Bin Laden 22 minutes ago
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton (news - web sites) gave the CIA (news - web sites) "every inch of authorization that it asked for" to carry out plans to kill Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the former president's national security adviser testified Wednesday, bluntly disputing claims that the spy agency lacked the authority it needed.
"If there was any confusion down the ranks, it was never communicated to me nor to the president and if any additional authority had been requested I am convinced it would have been given immediately," Sandy Berger said in nationally televised testimony before a bipartisan panel probing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the worst in the nation's history.
Berger testified a few hours after the panel released a report that said CIA officials, Director George Tenet among them, did not believe they had the authority to assassinate the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network. A subsequent decision to rely on local Afghan forces sharply reduced the chances of his bin Laden's capture, the commission said.
Tenet, who preceded Berger in the witness chair, was not pressed on the issue.
The CIA director, whose tenure has spanned both the Clinton and Bush administrations, praised aides to both presidents for their attentiveness to terrorism.
At the same time, he said unambiguously the nation should be prepared for another attack.
"It's coming. They are still going to try and do it, and we need to sort of -- men and women here who have lost their families have to know that we've got to do a hell of a lot better," he said, in remarks that elicited applause from members of the victims' families seated in the audience.
The hearings were remarkable by any account.
Secretaries of state and defense from the two administrations testified on Tuesday, followed on a second day of hearings by senior officials who served alongside them in a budding era of terrorism that finally struck home two and a half years ago.
Less than eight months before a presidential election, political jockeying was evident during the day.
Two Democrats on the panel, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, and Richard Ben Veniste, publicly lamented the refusal of the Bush administration to allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) to testify in public.
For their part, some Republicans sought to pre-empt testimony expected later in the day from Richard Clarke, a former top counter-terrorism adviser and author of a new book sharply critical of President Bush (news - web sites).
It's just unbeleivable. If you look at the latest headlines for various news sources they are all leading with "Clinton ordered Bin Laden Killed". That is the big story they are coming away with out of all this.
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