Saturday, March 20, 2004
Bush was warned, Clinton aides claim
By PHILIP SHENON
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the
independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they
repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that al-Qaida posed the worst
security threat facing the nation -- and how the new administration was slow to act.
They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December
2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became President Bush's national security
adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Rice's deputy; and Philip Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition
team, among others.
One of the officials scheduled to testify, Richard Clarke, who was President Clinton's
counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the warning about the al-Qaida threat could
not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led.
At the time of the briefings, there was extensive evidence tying al-Qaida to the bombing in Yemen
two months earlier of a U.S. warship, the Cole, in which 17 sailors were killed.
"It was very explicit," Clarke said of the warning given to the Bush officials. "Rice was briefed, and
Hadley was briefed, and Zelikow sat in." Clarke served as Bush's counterterrorism chief early in the
administration, but after Sept. 11 was given a more limited portfolio as the president's cyberterrorism
adviser.
The sworn testimony from the high-ranking Clinton administration officials -- including former
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Defense Secretary William Cohen and Sandy Berger,
Clinton's national security adviser -- is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
While Clinton officials have offered similar accounts in the past, a new public review of how they
warned Bush's aides about the need to deal quickly with the al-Qaida threat could prove awkward to
the White House, especially in the midst of a presidential campaign. But given the witnesses'
prominence in the Clinton administration, supporters of Bush could see political motives in the
testimony of some of them.
What is at issue, Clinton administration officials say, is whether their Bush administration
counterparts acted on the warnings, and how quickly. The Clinton administration witnesses say they
will offer details of the policy recommendations they made to the incoming Bush aides, but they
would not discuss those details before the hearing.
"Until 9/11, counterterrorism was a very secondary issue at the Bush White House," said a senior
Clinton official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Remember those first months? The White
House was focused on tax cuts, not terrorism. We saw the budgets for counterterrorism programs
being cut."
In his testimony, Clarke is also expected to discuss what he believed to be the Bush administration's
determination to punish Saddam Hussein for the Sept. 11 attacks even though there was no evidence
to tie the Iraqi leader to the al-Qaida network. |
