Homeland Security

DATE=4/8/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=RICE / 9-11 COMMISSION (L)

NUMBER=2-314886

BYLINE=PAULA WOLFSON

DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE`

INTRO: White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says the Bush administration understood the seriousness of the terrorist threat prior to the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. But in sworn testimony before the commission investigating the 9-11 attacks, she said no one thing could have prevented the tragedy. As V-O-A's Paula Wolfson reports, Ms. Rice strongly defended the administration's actions.

TEXT: Condoleezza Rice says the terrorist threat did not suddenly emerge on September 11th, 2001.

She told the commission there were warning signs over the course of two decades, starting with the attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983.

/// RICE ACT ///

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.

/// END ACT ///

She says the United States was just not ready, and did not have the intelligence infrastructure in place to deal with the terrorist threat. She says it is wrong to assign blame for September 11th, and acknowledges no one thing could have kept the attacks from occurring.

/// 2nd RICE ACT///

As your hearings have shown, there was no silver bullet that could have prevented the 9-11 attacks.

/// END ACT ///

Speaking in a packed hearing room and before a national television audience, Ms. Rice stressed President Bush always took the terrorist threat seriously. She pointed to a series of briefings in the early months of the administration, and her decision to keep on terrorism experts from the outgoing Clinton administration to help with the formulation of policy.

/// 3rd RICE ACT ///

We also moved to develop a new and comprehensive strategy to try and eliminate the al-Qaida terrorist network. President Bush understood the threat, and he understood its importance. He made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al-Qaida one attack at a time. He told me he was "tired of swatting flies."

/// END ACT ///

That comment resulted in a testy exchange with commission member Bob Kerry. He said the Bush White House should have taken action much sooner, particularly in response to the 2000 attack on an American navy destroyer, the U-S-S Cole.

/// KERRY ACT ///

Especially after the attack on the Cole of the 12th of October, it would not have been a swatting of flies. We did not need to wait to get a strategic plan.

/// END ACT ///

On numerous occasions during the hearing, Ms. Rice found herself on the defensive. Democrats on the commission, like Mr. Kerry, were aggressive in their questioning and clashed repeatedly with the president's national security adviser. The Republicans were far more subdued, and their exchanges with Ms. Rice could best be described as business-like.

All were aware of the high stakes involved, as the independent commission seeks answers during a presidential election year, when the handling of the war on terror is a big issue.

Ms. Rice, originally, was barred from testifying publicly by the White House in large part because of the confidential nature of the advice she gives the president. All that changed when Richard Clarke, the administration's former counter-terrorism coordinator, went before the panel and alleged President Bush did not give enough attention to the al-Qaida threat prior to the September 11th attacks and was fixated on Iraq.

Condoleezza Rice never criticized him directly, though she disputed his allegations. She forcefully rejected the notion that when the attacks occurred, the president was only interested in Iraq.

/// 4th RICE ACT ///

I can tell you that when he went around the table and asked his advisers what he should do, not a single one of his principal advisers advised doing anything against Iraq.

/// END ACT ///

In all, Ms. Rice appeared before the commission for three hours, most of it spent answering questions from the ten commissioners. A date has been set for the panel to hold a private joint session with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, but it has not been formally announced. (SIGNED)

NEB/PW/KL/KBK