Gee.

And I was wondering why she doesnt want to testify under oath?

Quote:

Rice revises statement in private session on 9/11

BY KENNETH R. BAZINET AND THOMAS M. DEFRANK

New York Daily News

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - A member of the 9/11 commission said Friday that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice indicated in a private session she was wrong to have once stated no one expected terrorists to use planes as missiles.

The White House reportedly also backpedaled Friday on whether President Bush pressed counterterror czar Richard Clarke the day after the attacks to find evidence that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was involved.

Clarke claimed the meeting occurred in the White House Situation Room and presidential aides said earlier this week the meeting never happened.

But CBS News reported last night that White House aides now concede the meeting "probably" occurred.

The conflicting versions of events before and after 9/11 will ensure that debate will continue through the weekend over Clarke's accusations that Bush downgraded the importance of counterterrorism.

Clarke, Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will all appear on talk shows Sunday to press their case.

Rice, who has refused to testify before the panel under oath and in public, met with the commission privately for four hours Feb. 7.

One issue was her May 16, 2002, statement at the White House when she said, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center . . . that they would try to use . . . a hijacked airplane as a missile."

Intelligence reports had detailed such plans as much as five years before 9/11.

Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the 9/11 panel, said that during a closed-door session Rice revised that statement.

"She corrected (herself) in our private interview by saying, `I could not anticipate that they would try to use an airplane as a missile,' but acknowledging that the intelligence community could anticipate it," Ben-Veniste said.

"No reports of the use of airplanes as weapons were briefed or presented to Dr. Rice prior to May 2002," said her spokesman Sean McCormack.

The White House is insisting that Rice get another shot before the panel to rebuff sensational charges by Clarke, but commissioners are still balking at Rice's position that she cannot testify under oath and in public because of executive privilege.

"This (latest discrepancy) is yet another reason why we need to have Dr. Rice come before us in public rather than at the highest classified level," said Democratic commissioner Tim Roemer, a former Indiana congressman.

Even some of Rice's associates as well as congressional Republicans think muzzling Rice is a political blunder. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Friday he supports the decision, but he added, "Personally, I think her voice is so good, so powerful that to have her come before the 9/11 commission publicly would be to the administration's benefit."








the Truth was lnown in Jan 2002 as this Wash. Post article plainly shows...

Quote:

By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 20, 2002; Page A01


The Bush administration now had in its hands what one participant called "the holy grail" of a ***three-year quest*** [for you Neocons that means designed and started by the Clinton administration] by the U.S. government, a tool that could kill bin Laden within minutes of finding him. The CIA planned and practiced the operation. But for the next three months, before the catastrophe of Sept. 11, President ***Bush and his advisers held back.***

Bush and his top aides had higher priorities, above all, ballistic missile defense.

The [Bush] administration did not resume its predecessor's covert deployment of cruise missile submarines and gunships, on six-hour alert near Afghanistan's borders. The standby force gave Clinton the option, never used, of an immediate strike against targets in al Qaeda's top leadership. The Bush administration put no such capability in place before Sept. 11.

Bush did not speak again publicly of the dangers of terrorism before Sept. 11, except to promote a missile shield that had been his top military priority from the start.

Clarke asked Rice to let him begin an interagency review. As it began, he recommended five immediate steps.

Not much came of Clarke's immediate requests. It would be months before the new team's appointees arrived in force.

Army Lt. Gen. Donald Kerrick, who had come from top posts on the Joint Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency to manage Clinton's National Security Council staff, remained at the NSC nearly four months after Bush took office.

He noticed a difference on terrorism. Clinton's Cabinet advisers had met "nearly weekly" to direct the fight, Kerrick said. Among Bush's first-line advisers, "candidly speaking,****I didn't detect" that kind of focus****, he said. "That's not being derogatory. It's just a fact. ****I didn't detect any activity**** but what Dick Clarke and the CSG were doing."



There it is in B&W, from a LT. Gen as well...

You can run, you can hide, you can dance but...you CAN'T CHANGE THE TRUTH!!!!


whomod- enjoying my front row seat at the Administration meltdown.

Last edited by whomod; 2004-03-28 9:07 PM.