Bush, Cheney to meet in private with full commission
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 Posted: 2:27 PM EST (1927 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After days of intense pressure, the White House on Tuesday agreed to allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly and under oath before the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks.
But Bush administration officials insisted on assurances that her appearance would not create a precedent for White House staff to testify before a commission created by Congress.
The White House also reversed its opposition to letting President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney face questions from the full commission, rather than just the panel's chairman and vice chairman.
In a letter to the 9/11 commission, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales said the panel must agree in writing that Rice's appearance would not set a precedent for testimony by White House staff and that no additional public testimony will be requested from any White House official, including Rice.
Commissioners said they accepted those terms and would work to schedule a session promptly.
Bush was expected to discuss the issue later Tuesday.
The White House had resisted letting Rice testify in public, arguing that it would be a violation of executive privilege.
Calls to waive that privilege have mounted since last week's testimony by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, who said the Bush administration did not put enough focus on the threat of terrorism before the 2001 terrorist attacks. (Clarke book a best seller)
Rice has blasted Clarke in numerous interviews, but she said her refusal to appear under oath and in public -- as her former aide did -- was a matter of principle. (Interactive: Bush and terrorism)
She already has spoken to commissioners for several hours privately without being under oath. The White House had offered to have Rice give a private, unsworn rebuttal to Clarke's testimony, but Democrats and Republicans on the independent commission said Rice's response should be public and under oath.
"A major part of our duty is to see to it that everything possible is released to the general public, and no compromise on a private visit by Condoleezza Rice is going to satisfy that need," former Sen. Slade Gorton, one of the commissioners, said.
A senior administration official said Bush decided Monday that the controversy over Rice was beginning to overshadow the commission's efforts to investigate the attacks. Bush discussed the matter with advisers over the weekend at his Texas ranch, the official said.
"Everyone is so focused on the process, not the substance, and it's never been a question of substance," the official said.
The panel -- formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States -- is scheduled to issue a report on its findings by July 26.
Rice's reluctance to testify drew criticism from families of victims killed in the attacks and from Bush's presumptive Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
"The question is why this White House only does the right thing under public political pressure," Kerry spokesman David Wade said Tuesday. "Their first instinct should be to answer questions about our security rather than launch a public relations offensive and when that fails, do what they should've done from Day One."
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, called on the White House to end what he called a campaign of "character assassination and retribution" by its supporters against Clarke, whose allegations also are detailed in a new book, "Against All Enemies: America's War on Terror."
"The commission should declassify Mr. Clarke's earlier testimony -- all of it, not just the parts the White House wants -- and Dr. Rice should testify before the 9/11 commission, and she should be under oath and in public," Daschle said.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, who suggested last week that Clarke may have perjured himself, applauded Bush's decision.
In a joint statement, Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, said that Congress recognizes Rice's testimony would be "a unique event."
"We do not believe Dr. Rice's testimony, before an independent commission, should be seen as setting any precedent, and it should not be cited as setting precedent for future requests for a national security adviser or any other White House official to testify before a legislative body," the statement said.
CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this
report.
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