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Bush and Cheney Tell 9/11 Panel of '01 Warnings
The New York Times ^ | 4/30/2004 | PHILIP SHENON and DAVID E. SANGER

Posted on 04/29/2004 9:25:52 PM PDT by Utah Girl

WASHINGTON, April 29 — President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were questioned in the Oval Office for more than three hours on Thursday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. They said intelligence warnings they received throughout 2001 suggested that Al Qaeda was poised to strike overseas, not on American soil, according to accounts of commission and administration officials.

After a meeting that both the White House and the commission had billed as historic, Mr. Bush appeared before reporters in the Rose Garden and described the question-and-answer session with the 10 members of the bipartisan commission as "very cordial." He said he "answered every question that they asked."

In its own press statement after a closed-door meeting that began at 9:30 a.m. and ended three hours and 10 minutes later, the commission, which is in the final weeks of its investigation of the 2001 terror attacks, described the Oval Office session as "extraordinary" and said the panel "found the president and the vice president forthcoming and candid."

The setting for the panel's long-awaited interview of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who insisted on talking with the commission together, was orchestrated to take advantage of all of the symbolic power of the Oval Office while making clear that the White House did not consider the meeting to be adversarial.

Administration officials said the president and vice president were seated in wing-back chairs in front of the Oval Office fireplace, with the commission members seated on a pair of couches and several wooden chairs in an informal semicircle around them, the day's strong sunlight streaming in from the windows behind them.

Commission members and the White House agreed to reveal only one substantive matter that came up during the interview: the president's annoyance that the Justice Department had recently provided the Senate with declassified copies of a series of internal department memorandums drafted in the Clinton administration by Jamie S. Gorelick, who was then deputy attorney general. Ms. Gorelick is a Democratic member of the commission. [Page A24.]

The president and vice president were not sworn in, which is consistent with the past practice of the commission, which has generally required sworn testimony only when witnesses testify in public. The meeting was not recorded electronically, as a result of a decision made by the White House. The commission was allowed to bring along its staff director as a note taker.

Commission and administration officials said the answers provided by Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had been consistent with their previous accounts and with recent testimony to the commission, which is investigating intelligence and law enforcement failures before the Sept. 11 attacks.

In response to disclosures from the panel in recent weeks suggesting that the administration had been lax in dealing with the dire terrorist threats that reached the White House in 2001, Mr. Bush and his senior deputies have said they were aware of intelligence warnings but believed them to refer to threats overseas.

Commission and administration officials said that during the session with the panel Mr. Bush repeated his assertion that the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing about domestic terrorist threats was mostly historical and did not recommend that the White House step up security in the United States.

Commission members said after the Oval Office meeting that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had offered no startling new information about the Sept. 11 attacks. "There were no surprises," said the panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, who was named to the position by Mr. Bush. "There was information that we did not have. But it was not information that was a surprise."

He said in an interview that the questioning was "very sharp but very fair — by sharp, I mean in the sense of intellectually sharp." He continued: "We learned things we did not know about the events of the day of 9/11 and, very importantly, the president gave us real insights into his thinking."

Mr. Kean said that despite speculation among Congressional Democrats and other critics that Mr. Cheney might try to dominate the session, "the opposite was true" and the president had handled nearly three-quarters of the questions raised by the commissioners. If the public had been allowed to witness the meeting, he said, "I think they would have had a lot more confidence in our government."

Another of the panel's Republicans, John F. Lehman, Navy secretary in the Reagan administration, said Mr. Bush had answered the panel's questions with little hesitation or need for assistance from Mr. Cheney or Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, who attended the session along with two other White House lawyers.

He said Mr. Gonzales had said little. "He chimed in on some questions where he was able to clarify some dates and facts," Mr. Lehman said. "The questioning of the president did not pull any punches. It was very direct. And the president was equally sharp but polite in responding."

A Democrat on the panel, Bob Kerrey, a former senator from Nebraska who is now president of the New School in New York, said he had also been impressed by the president. "He answered directly and completely and in a very cordial and respectful way," Mr. Kerrey said, adding that the session would "improve the quality of our report."

Despite what both sides agreed was the polite, even friendly tone of the meeting, the commissioners were treated as outsiders by the White House. They were seen being searched by hand for weapons before they stepped into the Oval Office, a requirement for all visitors to the White House apart from many foreign leaders.

Their notebooks were taken from them before they left the session, with the White House saying they would be returned after being reviewed for classified information.

In an appearance before reporters after the session, the president offered his first public explanation for why the White House had wanted him and Mr. Cheney to be interviewed together. Mr. Bush said he had wanted the commission to understand how he and Mr. Cheney operated as a team — both on Sept. 11 and in its aftermath.

"I wanted them to know how I set strategy, how we run the White House, how we deal with threats," Mr. Bush said. "The vice president answered a lot of their questions — answered all their questions. And I think it was important for them to see our body language as well, how we work together."

Asked if the commission had questioned Mr. Bush about the possibility that Qaeda terrorists were still in the United States, Mr. Bush said, "No, they didn't, but I'm not going to get into any more details about what they asked me." He added that "we are still vulnerable to attack." The length and cordiality of the meeting — commission members said the session ended only when the panel signaled that it had run out of questions and after two commissioners had left because of other appointments — was in stark contrast to the earlier relationship between the panel and the White House.

Mr. Bush had initially opposed creation of the panel, and his lawyers struggled for months last year to prevent the commission from getting access to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports.

The Democratic panel members who have been mostly sharply critical of the White House in the past praised the meeting on Thursday.

"The president was very forthcoming and answered all of our questions," said Richard Ben-Veniste, the former Watergate prosecutor. "I don't think we have the need to ask any further questions of the president."

Despite the grave nature of much of the questioning about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, members of the commission said there was frequent laughter during the questioning of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney.

James R. Thompson, the former Republican governor of Illinois, said the president could be a "bit of a tease" in his dealing with commissioners and over all praised Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney for "five-star performances."

Mr. Lehman said Mr. Bush would sometimes get a "twinkle in his eye" to make clear that he was acquainted with some of the more heated moments of past public hearings by the commission, in which Democrats on the panel had harshly interrogated administration witnesses.

"He let us know that he had read some of the more, shall we say, impassioned statements of some of the commissioners, that he was aware of some of the public utterances," Mr. Lehman said. "The president got off a couple of good shots. Some of the commissioners got off a couple in return."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 911commission; bushtestimony; cheneytestimony
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Despite what both sides agreed was the polite, even friendly tone of the meeting, the commissioners were treated as outsiders by the White House. They were seen being searched by hand for weapons before they stepped into the Oval Office, a requirement for all visitors to the White House apart from many foreign leaders.

This struck me as funny/ironic...

1 posted on 04/29/2004 9:25:52 PM PDT by Utah Girl
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To: Utah Girl
Strikes me as weird and frightening.
2 posted on 04/29/2004 9:27:38 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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To: Utah Girl
I thought that what went on in that meeting was not to be made public. Did I mis-hear?
3 posted on 04/29/2004 9:28:04 PM PDT by madison10
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One other comment about this article. It was quite fair, considering, but also a tad condescending. "Lookie there, Cheney didn't run the meeting and answer the questions. And the President was even involved intellectually."
4 posted on 04/29/2004 9:29:03 PM PDT by Utah Girl
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To: madison10
No cameras, no recordings- maybe notes were taken. But then again since both sides say it was so cordial what was so "secret" that we couldn't know about? Well, maybe we will know in a hundred years or so. This being a "Free" country and all.
5 posted on 04/29/2004 9:34:55 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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To: Utah Girl
"The president got off a couple of good shots. Some of the commissioners got off a couple in return."

Those scumbags Ben-Veniste and Kerrey were rude to the President.
Surprise, surprise.

6 posted on 04/29/2004 9:38:06 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Burkeman1
Why, sir, maybe President Bush will let you sit in on his security briefings every morning, if you just ask nicely. LOL
7 posted on 04/29/2004 9:38:18 PM PDT by Conservababe
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To: Lancey Howard
I also thought Kerrey and Hamilton were extremely rude in leaving early. Rude actually isn't the word I want, but they were interviewing the two most powerful men in the world about terrorism and preventing it and some solutions, and Kerrey has to leave for a stupid budget meeting??? Please.
8 posted on 04/29/2004 9:39:48 PM PDT by Utah Girl
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To: Conservababe
3000 Americans were killed on 9/11- and yet he doesn't want to go before the American people in public? But even behind "closed doors" no recording devices are allowed? Why? Has to sit with Cheney? Why? And he didn't have to even travel to the Hill but it was done in the Oval office? Why?

Pathetic. Disgraceful.


9 posted on 04/29/2004 9:45:54 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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To: Burkeman1
Why didn't Clinton do it in public? Why did he have to have Sandy Berger holding his hand?

Pathetic. Disgraceful.

10 posted on 04/29/2004 9:47:58 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Ðíé F£éðérmáú§ ^;;^ says, "Why are Republicans such wimps?")
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To: Fledermaus
Agree 100%
11 posted on 04/29/2004 9:49:39 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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To: Burkeman1
My goodness, you never fail to surprise me with your ignorance. Classified information on issues of National Security being kept from you will not endanger your freedom. Get a grip!
12 posted on 04/29/2004 9:51:15 PM PDT by MJY1288 (John Kerry Was a Blue Ribbon Finalist in the 1st. Annual V.V.A.W. Medals Toss in Wash. D.C. 1971)
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To: MJY1288
Classified? How much of that is not self serving fog for the current hack who is President?
13 posted on 04/29/2004 9:53:46 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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To: Burkeman1
Either you're a contrarian, or you've got a burr under your saddle about Bush.

In either case, it's hard to take you seriously anymore.

14 posted on 04/29/2004 9:54:10 PM PDT by sinkspur (Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)
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To: Burkeman1
How much of that is not self serving fog for the current hack who is President?

You are wearing out your welcome.

15 posted on 04/29/2004 9:55:02 PM PDT by sinkspur (Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)
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To: Burkeman1
Why?

To piss you off...???

16 posted on 04/29/2004 9:56:48 PM PDT by okie01 (www.ArmorforCongress.com...because Congress isn't for the morally halt and the mentally lame.)
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To: Burkeman1
Just keep spouting the DNC talking points, your agenda has been quite clear to me for a long time now, in other words, I'm on to you and your tactics.
17 posted on 04/29/2004 9:57:58 PM PDT by MJY1288 (John Kerry Was a Blue Ribbon Finalist in the 1st. Annual V.V.A.W. Medals Toss in Wash. D.C. 1971)
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To: sinkspur
I very well maybe. Then you can have heated debates on what cities in Iraq that "we" want to MOAB or tacticul NUKE all you want.
18 posted on 04/29/2004 9:59:40 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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To: sinkspur
No, he's not a contrarian, he is an anti-war leftist from Massachusetts who claims he is a conservative. He's either a fraud or severely handicapped, YOU PICK :-)
19 posted on 04/29/2004 10:01:50 PM PDT by MJY1288 (John Kerry Was a Blue Ribbon Finalist in the 1st. Annual V.V.A.W. Medals Toss in Wash. D.C. 1971)
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To: Burkeman1
I very well maybe. Then you can have heated debates on what cities in Iraq that "we" want to MOAB or tacticul NUKE all you want.

If you're so bitter, why stay?

You are not going to convert anyone to your Bush-hating.

20 posted on 04/29/2004 10:02:05 PM PDT by sinkspur (Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)
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