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Democratic party attack dog-turned 9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste adopted a harsh prosecutorial style Thursday morning during his questioning of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, repeatedly cutting her off as she attempted to give detailed answers to his questions. The fireworks began when the abrasive Washington lawyer, a one-time attorney to DNC chief Terry McAuliffe, grilled Rice on whether she told President Bush about Richard Clarke's warnings that al Qeada cells had penetrated the U.S. BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president at any time prior to Aug. 6, [2001] of the existence of al Qaeda cells inside the United...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) clashed sharply with Democratic members of the commission on Sept. 11 on Thursday over how seriously the Bush administration treated the al Qaeda threat in the weeks before the attacks. In highly charged testimony that has taken on enormous political importance, Rice began by saying that the administration of President Bush (news - web sites) as well as several previous presidents failed to respond adequately to threats from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda organization and other "terrorist" networks. But she insisted there was no...

The leftwing Marian Wilkinson, Washington correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald (aka The Saddam Times), has dropped any pretence at objectivity to become a media mouthpiece for the Democrats. She began her veiled attack on Condi Rice by stressing that "the White House National Security ? is standing by her refusal to testify under oath to the September 11 commission of inquiry ? despite a public plea from the head of the commission to do so". Wilkinson omitted three very relevant facts. The first one being that NSA directors are not supposed to testify in public. Of course the Democrats...

Rice: No Warning of Al Qaeda Using Planes As Bombs By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 8, 2004 – Although the U.S. government was aware of the al Qaeda threat, senior policy makers had received no warning that the terrorists would use planes as bombs to attack the homeland, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told the 9-11 panel here today. Rice acknowledged to Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, that she and other senior government officials were "quite cognizant" of al Qaeda prior to the Sept. 11,...

WASHINGTON - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) testified Thursday "there was no silver bullet that could have prevented" the Sept. 11, 2001 terror strikes, conceding the United States was ill-prepared despite a threat two decades in the making. President Bush (news - web sites) "understood the threat, and he understood its importance," in advance, she told a national commission in implicit rejection of claims made last month by former terrorism aide Richard Clarke. Rice said the president came into office determined to develop a "more robust" policy to combat al-Qaida. "He made clear to me that...

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told the 9/11 Commission Thursday morning that it was an alert Customs agent - and not the Clinton adminsitration "shaking the trees" for intelligence on al Qaeda - who deserves credit for foiling the December 1999 al Qaeda plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. "It's questionable to me . . . that somehow shaking the trees was what broke up the Millennium [Plot]," Rice told the 9/11 probers, referring to claims by Clinton terrorism czar Richard Clarke that White House alerts had the nation's security apparatus on the lookout for trouble. In fact, said...

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice responds to a question during testimony before the 9-11 commission in the Hart Senate office building on Capitol Hill in Washington April 8, 2004. REUTERS/Larry Downing

(CNSNews.com) - 9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey began his questioning of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice by telling that he's very worried about the fallout from the war in Iraq. "I can't pass this up." Kerrey said. "I know it will take into my ten-minute time, but as somebody who supported the war in Iraq, I'm not going to get the national security adviser 30 feet away from me very often over the next 90 days. "But I've got to tell you -- I believe a number of things," Kerrey said. He said he thinks the U.S. underestimates that the war...

A text of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony as delivered before the Sept. 11 commission on Thursday, as transcribed by eMediaMillWorks Inc.: KEAN: I've got a question now I'd like to ask you. It was given to me by a number of members of the families. Did you ever see or hear from the FBI, from the CIA, from any other intelligence agency, any memos or discussions or anything else between the time you got into office and 9-11 that talked about using planes as bombs? RICE: Let me address this question because it has been on the table....

Sept. 11 Commissioner, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, launched his questioning of Dr. Condoleezza Rice Thursday morning with an anti-war diatribe against U.S. involvement in Iraq, drawing applause from a largely anti-Bush gallery watching the proceedings. "I'm not going to get the national security adviser 30 feet away from me very often in the next 90 days," Kerrey began before blurting out, "I'm terribly worried that the military tactics in Iraq are going to do a number of things and they're all bad." At that point the proceedings turned into a full-blown circus, with the gallery erupting in applause. "Please do...

WASHINGTON - Under contentious questioning, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice testified Thursday "there was no silver bullet that could have prevented" the deadly terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and disputed suggestions that President Bush failed to focus on the threat of strikes in advance. Bush "understood the threat, and he understood its importance," she told a national commission investigating the worst terror attacks in the nation's history. In nearly three hours in the witness chair, Rice stoutly defended Bush when Democrats on the commission raised questions about the administration's attentiveness to terrorism, and implicitly and explicitly rebutted a series...

As Prepared for Delivery NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR DR. CONDOLEEZZA RICE OPENING REMARKS THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC April 8, 2004 I thank the Commission for arranging this special session. Thank you for helping to find a way to meet the Nation's need to learn all we can about the September 11th attacks, while preserving important Constitutional principles. This Commission, and those who appear before it, have a vital charge. We owe it to those we lost, and to their loved ones, and to our country, to learn all...

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice says the Bush administration made the elimination of the al-Qaida terrorist network a goal before the September 11 attacks. In sworn testimony to the independent commission investigating the attacks, Ms. Rice said the Bush administration understood the threat posed by al-Qaida and defeating it had been the very first major national security policy. She said in the early days of the administration, a new anti-terrorism strategy was developed in order to destroy al-Qaida, not simply neutralize it. Ms. Rice also said in the 20 years prior to the September 11 attacks, America's response to terrorism...

Rice Testifies Before 9/11 Cmsn. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Sept. 11 Commission.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) will present an unapologetic defense of President Bush (news - web sites) before the 9-11 commission on Thursday in the highest profile national security testimony since the Iran-Contra affair nearly two decades ago, officials and analysts said. All three major U.S. television networks planned the unusual step of preempting daytime programming to broadcast the national security adviser's sworn public testimony on how the Bush White House weighed the threat of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The moment could hardly...

WASHINGTON -- By the time she leaves the Sept. 11 commission hot seat today, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice may have given either President Bush or Democratic rival John Kerry an edge on the vital election issue of whether the White House has successfully fought terrorism. America will probably not learn much new about what was or wasn't done before or after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, officials and experts said. After all, Rice, 49, submitted to extensive off-camera questioning by the commission in February, and that questioning yielded no bombshells. Rice will describe...

Julian Borger in Washington Thursday April 8, 2004 The Guardian A senior terrorism expert said yesterday that he had delivered a final desperate warning of an inevitable terrorist attack to Condoleezza Rice five days before al-Qaida struck New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in Washington. On the eve of the national security adviser's public appearance today to defend the Bush administration's record before the commission studying the September 11 attacks, Gary Hart, a former Democratic presidential candidate who co-chaired an earlier three-year public study of the threats to US security in the 21st century, told the Guardian his...

WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice will provide a detailed accounting of the Bush administration's anti-terror actions before the 2001 attacks but won't attempt to offer a blow-by-blow rebuttal to former counterterror adviser Richard Clarke when she goes before the Sept. 11 commission. Sean McCormack, spokesman for the National Security Council, said Rice planned a 20-minute opening statement to the bipartisan commission Thursday that will seek to make clear the administration worked strenuously to protect America's interests. "She will present the facts to the commission and the American people," McCormack said Wednesday. Rice is not expected to offer an apology to...

ALT="Support our Advertisers! Click Here!" BORDER="0"> href="http://www.reason.com/subscribe.html"> src="http://www.reason.com/ads/rsubadx.gif" alt="Subscribe to Reason" border="0">     Reason DailyRecent stories One For the Team (4/7) Free to Not Choose (4/6) Outrage Kabuki (4/5) Reason Daily archive April 7, 2004 One For the Team Will Condoleezza Rice be the fall guy for 9/11? Nick Gillespie It's virtually impossible to imagine National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's imminent testimony before the 9/11 commission without thinking of the so-brilliant-it-wasn't-cancelled-but-in-fact-ran-for-five-seasons '80s TV series, The Fall Guy. The unacknowledged zenith of Lee Majors' positively Himalayan career, The Fall Guy was like something dreamed up by the brilliantly insane—or...

Sept. 11 Commissioner, former Navy Secretary John Lehman is predicting that tomorrow's testimony by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice will be "compelling," based on her previous testimony to the Commission behind closed doors. "We had four hours with her in private and she was so articulate and so credible and so compelling that all of us felt that the American people had to hear her discuss what the Bush policies were," Lehman told radio host Sean Hannity. The 9/11 Commissioner complained that the hearings so far had been "monopolized by a view that basically accused Condi Rice of being...