Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (8015)	3/30/2004 8:45:07 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

TILT! This, among others, is a reason Rice is refusing to testify publicly before the September 11 commission.<<< Rice to Testify Under Oath Before Panel Investigating 9/11 Attacks By PHILIP SHENON and DAVID STOUT Published: March 30, 2004 ASHINGTON, March 30 — The White House said today that it will allow President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public and under oath before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, reversing its position that she was prevented from doing so by executive privilege. In addition, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will testify in one joint private session before all 10 commission members, with one commission staff member present to take notes. The White House had previously said that the President and Vice President would appear only before the chairman and co-chairman. Advertisement President Bush, speaking at the White House late this afternoon, said he had decided to make Ms. Rice available because "the exceptional nature of the inquiry" and the horror of the Sept. 11 attacks justified it. "Our nation must not forget the loss and lessons of Sept. 11," he said. Nor, he said, should Americans forget that the danger is not over. Mr. Bush appeared in the White House after days of heavy political pressure and criticism over his previous refusal to make his national security adviser available. The President addressed reporters in the White House shortly after his return from a campaign trip to Wisconsin, a battleground state that he narrowly lost in 2000. The White House's change in stance was first conveyed in a letter earlier today from Alberto R. Gonzales, the counsel to President Bush, to Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, the chairman and vice chairman respectively of the 9/11 commission. Mr. Gonzales said in his letter that the White House was allowing Dr. Rice to testify in recognition that "the events of Sept. 11, 2001, present the most extraordinary circumstances." He said the White House's accommodations were on condition that they would not set precedent over the separation of executive and legislative powers and that the commission not seek additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice. Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton said this afternoon that they welcomed the White House decision. "We got some very good testimony from Dr. Rice in private session," Mr. Kean said at a news briefing. "It was candid. It was factual. It was to the point of the questions that were asked." "My hope is that she will replicate that testimony in public," Mr. Kean added. "The question is where there are differences, and we've got to explore those differences." Neither Mr. Kean nor Mr. Hamilton gave any hint that they expected to find any intentional discrepancies in Ms. Rice's varied accounts. "When you put a witness under oath," Mr. Hamilton said, "it doesn't mean you think the witness is going to lie to you." President Bush said this afternoon he was satisfied that making Ms. Rice available to the commission would not undermine the principle that a president and his advisers "must be able to communicate freely and privately." Mr. Bush left the podium without taking questions. The reversal by the White House represents a major shift, probably in acknowledgement of the continuing enormous public interest in the Sept. 11 attacks, an interest fanned in recent days by the accounts of Richard A. Clarke, a former counterterrorism official. Mr. Clarke has said that President Bush and his top advisers underestimated the threat from Al Qaeda, then seemed preoccupied with linking the Sept. 11 attacks to Iraq. The decision was announced a day after the chairman and vice chairman of the commission said that they would ask Ms. Rice to testify under oath in any future questioning because of discrepancies between her statements and those made in sworn testimony by President Bush's former counterterrorism chief. continues....... nytimes.com