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Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) may have committed an intelligence failure of his own. The prominent member of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks walked out on a high-profile interview with President Bush to meet Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). He wanted to persuade the powerful chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee to fund the New School University — the New York institution Kerrey runs. But the school may not get anything from Congress this year; Domenici, who met Kerrey briefly April 30, told The Hill he wasn’t even aware that his former colleague abandoned the president...

<p>May 3, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - In testifying to the 9/11 commission, President Bush contradicted former President Bill Clinton's claim that he'd warned Bush that Osama bin Laden would be his No. 1 problem when he took office, a new report says. Bush told the panel that Clinton seemed a lot more passionate about the dangers of North Korea's nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Time magazine reports.</p>

How much of a warning did Bill Clinton give incoming President George W. Bush that Osama bin Laden posed a grave danger? It depends on which President you ask. In his interview with the 9/11 commission last week, sources tell Time, Bush testified that Clinton appeared far more passionate about the dangers of North Korea's nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to sources, Bush said Clinton "probably mentioned" terrorism as a national-security threat "but did not make it a point of emphasis." Clinton earlier told the panel that he had ranked bin Laden as the No. 1 problem the...

Bush's 9/11 panel meeting was useful 2004-05-01 Oklahoman Editorial For all the buildup to President Bush's and Vice President Cheney's interview by the 9/11 commission, Thursday's Oval Office session evidently was mostly anticlimactic. Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said the 31/2-hour meeting produced information the panel didn't have previously, but no surprises. Other members characterized the session as cordial and productive. "The president was very forthcoming and answered all of our questions," said Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste. "I don't think we have the need to ask any further questions of the president." Two even left before it was over. Former Sen. Bob...

Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and one-time Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton have destroyed what little credibility the 9/11 commission had left. Thanks to their premature departure from Thursday's White House evidentiary hearing with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, which the commission whined for months was absolutely vital to its work, Americans learned beyond any doubt that this investigation is merely bureaucratic wheel-spinning and political grandstanding. In the middle of receiving the testimony, Mr. Kerrey took a powder because he was due at Capitol Hill to twist arms for more dough for his New School University in Manhattan. Mr. Hamilton...

<p>Republican lawmakers said yesterday that by walking out of their meeting Thursday with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney early, some members of the September 11 commission did more damage to the panel's credibility.</p> <p>"It's amazing to me that after the focus that the commission has put on that meeting, the insistence that every commissioner be allowed to attend, and that the president give whatever time the commission thought was necessary, that commissioners wouldn't stay," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican.</p>

Sept. 11 commissioners thought they were limited to 2 hours with Bush 2 hours, 19 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) - The Sept. 11 commission said Friday it went into its private interview with President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Vice-President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) with the understanding it would be restricted to about two hours. The disclosure, which came amid questions as to why two Democratic commissioners left the three-hour meeting early, appears to contradict the suggestion by the Bush administration in March that it wouldn't be setting time limits amounting to one hour each...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The vice chairman of the 9/11 commission has described a session with the U.S. president and his vice president as "marvelous," according to administration and commission sources. President Bush's comments were "very candid and forthcoming," Lee Hamilton said, according to the sources. "It was wide-ranging, it was important, it was just a good discussion," Bush told reporters in the White House Rose Garden, shortly after the closed-door session ended. [...]

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney answered every question on Thursday from the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, a meeting that both the White House and the 9/11 commission had billed as historic. The Oval Office session began at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 12:40 p.m., but two Democrat commission members -- Lee Hamilton, the vice chairman, and Bob Kerrey -- walked out before it was over! The stunning walk out -- after Democrats had complained that Bush was not alloting enough time for questions -- has ignited talk throughout official Washington. In a written statement, Kerrey said...

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...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush said he and Vice President Dick Cheney had answered every question from the panel investigating the September 11 attacks in an historic session of more than three hours. AFP Photo AP Photo "If we had something to hide, we wouldn't have met with them in the first place. We answered all their questions," said Bush, who had only grudgingly agreed to talk with the 10-member commission under strict conditions. The White House insisted Cheney join the president, that they not be sworn to tell the truth, and that there be no transcript or...

Hoping to shape history's judgment, President Bush told the Sept. 11 commission Thursday his administration tried to protect America from terrorists as warnings grew before the devastating attack of 2001. Members pressed him on his response to a controversial memo that raised the threat of plane hijackings and attacks with explosives. "I answered every question they asked," Bush said after he and Vice President Dick Cheney met with the 10-member commission for three hours in the Oval Office. Presidential scholars called the session unprecedented. Some of Bush's answers were "surprising" and "new," said former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democratic member,...

<p>WASHINGTON — President Bush (search) said he was glad he and Vice President Dick Cheney (search) met Thursday behind closed doors with the panel investigating what went wrong with U.S. intelligence before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden after the meeting, Bush described it as "a good conversation. ... It was wide-ranging. It was important. It was just a good discussion. "They had a lot of good questions. I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I took the time. It's important that they asked the questions they asked ... I answered every question that they asked," Bush said, declining to describe the details of the meeting but acknowledging that Al Qaeda is still a threat to the United States.</p>

<p>President Bush told the September 11 commission yesterday in a closed-door meeting that a memo saying Osama bin Laden wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the United States did not provide enough intelligence for his administration to stop the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.</p>

<p>April 30, 2004 -- We never thought former Sen. Bob Kerrey was taking seriously his responsibilities to the national 9/11 commission. But his insulting mid-meeting abandonment of President Bush's sitdown with the body yesterday was beyond the beyond. Kerrey and fellow Democrat Lee Hamilton bugged out early from the three-hour sitdown - each pleading "a prior engagement" - while Bush and Vice President Cheney sat calmly and answered the commission's questions.</p>

<p>April 30, 2004 -- In a stunning snub, two Democrats on the 9/11 commission yesterday abruptly walked out in the middle of the Oval Office interview with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Both early-departing panelists, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and ex-Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, insisted they had prior commitments - but their sudden slip out the side door of the White House left Washington and some fellow commission members in shock.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - In his meeting Thursday with the Sept. 11 commission, President Bush expressed strong disapproval of his Justice Department for releasing documents that Republicans are using to criticize a Democrat on the commission. On Wednesday, some congressional Republicans declared that newly released material posted on the Justice Department Web site shows that panel member Jamie Gorelick was involved in action that may have weakened the nation's defenses against terrorism. Gorelick was the No. 2 official at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration.``The president was disappointed'' over the release of the documents on the department Web site and...

When President Bush and Vice President Cheney appear before the 9/11 Commission today, they can justifiably claim they took prudent measures — given the flimsy intelligence they'd received on terrorist threats against our homeland. Most importantly, once the attacks occurred, they radically changed their whole way of operating. They — to use the cliché of the day — "connected the dots," as best they could. Their critics did not. The very phrase "connecting the dots" highlights actions based on less-than-certain information — on history, hunches, instincts. After all, these are "dots," not fully filled-in scenes. Take Iraq, the second big...

CITING PRIOR COMMITMENTS ... Developing

The members of Parliament probably sought to know why George Bush had not undertaken a decisive action after having received a note of the services of information August 6, 2001 and entitled "Ben Laden determined to strike the United States". The American president, George W Bush was heard, Thursday April 29 during three hours at the White House, with his vice-president, Dick Cheney, by the board of inquiry independent into the attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Bush then declared that they had both answered all the questions which had been asked to them. "It was significant" and "I am...