Rice Grilled By 9/11 Commission

Rice was sharply questioned — sometimes testily — by the 10-member bipartisan commission investigating the attacks that killed about 3,000 people, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Richard Ben-Veniste, a former member of the commission investigating the 1970s Watergate scandal, told Rice the intelligence service gave President George Bush on August 6, 2001, a memorandum titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

Playing down the memo, Bush trusted advisor said "this briefing item was not prompted by any specific threat information.

"And it did not raise the possibility that terrorists might use airplanes as missiles."

In he sworn testimony, Rice defended the administration’s counter-terrorism action before the 9/11 attacks and insisted "there was no silver bullet that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks."

She said the "threat reporting that we received in the spring and summer of 2001 was not specific as to time, nor place, nor manner of attack."

Rice recalled that intercepted messages spoke of "unbelievable news coming in weeks", "Big event, there will be a very, very, very big uproar" and "There will be attacks in the near future."

And continued: "Troubling, yes. But they don’t tell us when, they don’t tell us where, they don’t tell us who, and they don’t tell us how."

Bush’s trusted advisor said he understood the threat from Al-Qaeda as soon as he took office and he immediately order crushing the network.

"It was the very first major national security policy directive of the Bush administration — not Russia, not missile defense, not Iraq, but the elimination of Al-Qaeda.

She quoted the president as telling her he was "tired of swatting flies," a phrase that drew immediate fire from commissioner member Bob Kerrey who accused the administration of failing to act on the available intelligence.

Kerrey had earned himself an applaud from the people attending the hearing when he deducted some of his ten-minute period to state for the record that the U.S. military tactics in Iraq threaten to ignite a civil war.

He stressed that the administration should reconsider what "a Christian American army" was doing "in a Muslim country. "

Contradiction

Her statement contradicted earlier testimony by the White House’s former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who told the panel Bush had failed to consider that Al-Qaeda was an urgent threat until the attacks.

He also accused Bush of diverting to Iraq attention and resources that were needed in Afghanistan to hunt down Osama Bin Laden.

But Rice said none of Bush’s advisers called for an attack on Iraq in the days after September 11.

"I can tell you that when he went around the table and asked his advisors what he should do, not a single one of his principal advisors advised doing anything against Iraq. It was all to Afghanistan," she told the panel.

Unlike Clarke in his testimony, Rice did not offer an apology for failing to stop the attacks.

Blaming Others

Bush’s national security advisor blamed the problem on a longstanding U.S. failure to understand terrorism.

"The terrorists were at war with us, but we were not yet at war with them. For more than 20 years, the terrorist threat gathered, and America’s response across several administrations of both parties was insufficient.

"Tragically, for all the language of war spoken before September 11, this country simply was not on a war footing," said Rice, who had for weeks resisted giving open testimony to the commission.

She said the administration had decided before September 11 that defeating Al-Qaeda needed a wider change of policy in South Asia.

"America’s Al-Qaeda policy wasn’t working because our Afghanistan policy wasn’t working. And our Afghanistan policy wasn’t working because our Pakistan policy wasn’t working."

Rice said that one month after taking office Bush bluntly told Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to bring Bin Laden to justice, to abandon support for the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and close Al-Qaeda training camps in Pakistan.

Bush’s Future

Observers say Rice’s evidence could be vital for Bush’s re-election chances, according to the BBC News Online.

It is also being seen as a key moment in her own political career, with some tipping her as a future secretary of state or even president, added the broadcaster.

Bush must convince the electorate he had a strong counter-terrorism strategy to ensure his re-election on November 2, when he will face Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, said AFP.

Bush’s campaign has focused on creating an image of a leader who strongly retaliated against terrorists in Afghanistan and who can defend the U.S. against future attacks.

Rice’s testimony was the commission’s last chance to hear a senior Bush official publicly and under oath.

The panel will hear from Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney within the next few weeks, but the behind-closed-doors meeting will not be recorded.

After giving her testimony, Rice was due to spend the Easter weekend at Bush’s Texas ranch with the president and First Lady Laura Bush, their twin daughters and Bush’s parents, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.