Posted on 03/28/2004 5:36:21 PM PST by tomball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the commission investigating the September 11 attacks has urged Condoleezza Rice to testify before it in public but the White House national security adviser has repeated her refusal to do so. Rice has refused to appear before the independent panel in public and under oath to answer charges from former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke that the Bush administration neglected the threat from al Qaeda. The White House has asked for a second private session for Rice. The commission's Republican chairman, former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, told "Fox News Sunday" his panel would continue to press for Rice to appear publicly but would not try to force her to do so under a court order. "To get into a court battle over a subpoena we don't think is really appropriate right now, nor will it help us," Kean said. "We are still going to press and still believe unanimously as a commission that we should hear from her in public." But Rice, in an interview on the CBS program "60 Minutes", said there was "an important principle ... that sitting national security advisers do not testify before the Congress". "Nothing would be better, from my point of view, than to be able to testify," she said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by the network ahead of broadcast. "I would really like to do that. But ...This is a matter of policy." Clarke, who served under Rice at the White House, has accused President George W. Bush of being determined to go to war against Iraq and of undermining the war on terror by doing so. Clarke said the invasion a year ago had fuelled anger at the United States and helped the cause of al Qaeda, blamed for carrying out the September 11, 2001 attacks on America in which 3,000 people were killed. The Bush administration has launched a fierce counter offensive against Clarke, whose comments are seen as damaging Bush's attempts to portray himself as a tough anti-terror leader going into presidential elections in November. Rice told CBS it was "perfectly logical" for Bush to ask his aides on the day after September 11, as Clarke said he did, if Iraq could have been responsible. But she added: "The president focused our energies and our attention on winning in Afghanistan, and expelling the Taliban and thereby, expelling al Qaeda." Rice rejected the suggestion that before September 11 the administration failed to regard terrorism as an urgent problem. "I would like very much to know what more could have been done ... We were looking for a more comprehensive plan to eliminate al Qaeda. But we weren't sitting still while that plan was developing," she said. Asked about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- Saddam's alleged possession of which Bush gave as his main justification for the invasion -- Rice said the war on terrorism was "well served by the victory in Iraq". "Iraq ... I think the most dangerous regime in the world's most dangerous region, in the Middle East ... was under Saddam Hussein a big reason for instability in the region, for threats to the United States." Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has challenged Rice to appear publicly, accusing the White House of stonewalling the commission and of attempting "character assassination" against Clarke, who has served four U.S. presidents. Kean, referring to the White House's arguments against Rice testifying, said: "We think in a tragedy of this magnitude that those kind of legal arguments are probably overridden." On CBS' "Face the Nation," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he believed Rice had been being unfairly criticised by Clarke. "I think Dr. Rice is getting a bit of a bum rap. It's being set up as 'Condi, I told you everything that you needed to do,' and she ignored it all. That's not accurate," he said. Both Powell and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said none of Clarke's recommendations for combating al Qaeda in Afghanistan could have prevented the domestic attacks. "The terrorists were in the United States. They used a U.S. airplane, and they attacked a U.S. target," Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday."
The behaviour of those in the audience has gone unchecked, turning the hearings into a partisan display of disrespect for the seriousness of the original intention of the hearings.
Where were you Richard??
EXACTLY!
She looked terrible, which no doubt they knew beforehand, but they had to stop the hemmoraging. She appeared furtive, even in giving the canned answers.
Again, this they knew going in.
Okay big guy. How, exactly??
That's because they're RINOs who have been browbeaten and intimidated by the Rats on the panel and by the media to meekly say "Yes, dear" to whatever outrageous demand is made of the Administration.
And I think that more people than just us Freepers are seeing this, are seeing that this panel has become a farce. The Rats have turned the whole thing into a fishing expedition for dirt to fling at the Bush White House, and for a big bucket of whitewash for Clinton's diddling with the interns while our warships and embassies burned. Dr. Rice has every right to tell these people to go pound sand.
Until then, we will be treated to a constant bombardment of lies from the leftist DemocRATS & their lap dog liberal press.
Spineless rats!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.