Without taking oath, Bush & Cheney
testify together for 9/11 investigation
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by Steve Holland, Reuters News Agency
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April 29, 2004
President George W. Bush says he and Vice President Dick Cheney answered every question from the panel investigating the September 11 attacks and denied the joint appearance was aimed at keeping their story straight.
In comments afterward in the White House Rose Garden, Bush declared the extraordinary, more than three-hour session a success that he hoped would lead to recommendations about how to guard against future attacks, which he left open as a possibility.
He dismissed criticism from Democrats that he wanted to
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Commentary:They did not tape record the President or VP, when these two men were answering some of the most important questions ever asked of them.
And neither Cheney nor Bush had to swear on the Bible before answering any questions.
Read it and wonder, how they are still getting away with this crap?
=Kathy Fisher= |
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appear together with Cheney so they would not contradict each other and did not mention he had only met with the commission under pressure from victims' families.
"Look, if we had something to hide we wouldn't have met with them in the first place. We answered all their questions. As I say, I came away good about the session because I wanted them to know how I set strategy, how we run the White House, how we deal with threats," Bush said.
A key area of questioning for Bush was his response to an August 6, 2001, presidential intelligence memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike In US."
It said al Qaeda members were in the United States before the September 11, 2001, commercial airliner attacks and that the FBI had detected suspicious patterns of activity "consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks."
Bush has said the memo's usefulness was limited because it did not point to a specific target. He did not appear to give any ground on that position.
Former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke has said Bush did not heed his warnings that al Qaeda was an urgent threat.
The commission of five Republicans and five Democrats issued a statement saying Bush and Cheney had been "forthcoming and candid" and their input would be of great assistance as it looks to complete a final report by July 26.
Two Democrats on the panel, Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, left the session about an hour early.
Hamilton, a former congressman from Indiana, was said to have had a prior commitment to introduce visiting Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at a lunch.
Bush agreed under pressure to answer questions from all panel members for as long as necessary,
but only on condition he have Cheney at his side and they meet in private, with no recording of the session. They were not under oath.
The meeting, with potential election-year ramifications, took place in the very heart of presidential power, the Oval Office, rather than in a room that would have provided a traditional table-and-chair setting.
Bush and Cheney took up
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Commentary:"They were not under oath."
Isn't that a piece of information that makes you say, HOLY CRAP!
Isn't that a pretty astounding piece of information to bury at the end of this article's 12th paragraph?
=H&HH= |
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opposite seats in front of the fireplace, and commission members were clustered in the room on couches and chairs.
Bush was joined by White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales and two other, unidentified White House lawyers who were there to take notes. The commission was allowed to bring one staffer for note-taking.
Past testimony established that elements of the U.S. intelligence apparatus were aware of threats to American targets from the militant al Qaeda network, led by Osama bin Laden, before the September 11 attacks.
Bush was expected to have been asked why he did not launch the U.S. government into battle stations based on the August 6 memo, which he received while on vacation in Texas.
Bush's advisers were worried the commission's findings will be critical of the president, who is running for re-election in November on his record of fighting terrorism. The panel is working to complete its final report by July 26, well into the campaign season.
Asked al Qaeda operatives were in the United States today, Bush said he could not rule it out but would not get into any details. "We are still vulnerable to attack," he said.
On Capitol Hill, U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, criticized Bush and Cheney for demanding that they appear together.
"I think the only advantage to them doing it together is that their comments be consistent. But I really think that the whole process would have been better served if the president had gone in alone and the vice president had gone in alone."
Published by
Reuters News Agency
What do you think?
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Commentary by John Nichols,
The Capital Times [Madison, WI]
April 29, 2004
In another illustration of the current administration's commitment to keeping the American people in the loop, the White House demanded that there be no recording or formal transcription of today's joint interview of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney by the 9/11 commission.
The members of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have accepted this ridiculous pretense because they know it is the only way to get the president and the vice president to aid efforts to understand and combat the threat of terrorism.
The lack of a recording or an official transcript will, legal scholars suggest, afford Bush and Cheney an opportunity to deny statements, question interpretations and challenge conclusions. "It gives them more maneuverability in case someone slips up or says something he regrets," explains New York University law Professor Stephen Gillers.
In other words, in the unlikely event that Bush or Cheney might let a snippet of truth slip out, the elaborate White House spin machine will be able to take advantage of the deliberately vague record to "clarify" the statement. The absence of a taped record also allows the administration to avoid the embarrassment of having to explain why, when the commander-in-chief is asked questions, the vice president answers. The reason for the tandem testimony by Bush and Cheney is, of course, all too obvious. But it is still awfully embarrassing when the leader of the most powerful country on the planet must, when discussing issues of national security, be accompanied by a minder.
The absurdity of the president and vice president demanding that there be no official record of their meeting with the commission would be the subject of a congressional outcry and a constant media battering of the administration if Bush and Cheney were members of another political party. Just imagine if Bill Clinton had asked that there be no recording or official record of obviously troubling and politically damaging statements he made during the interviews and inquisitions of the Republican-sponsored "sexgate" investigations of the late 1990s. The screams of outrage would still be echoing today.
But Bush and Cheney will get their pass from the commission, the Congress and a cheerleading media. The willingness of major media to go along with the charade is particularly galling, but not surprising in an era when the White House press corps tends to ask probing questions along the lines of "how high?" in response to presidential press secretary Scott McClellan's regular requests that they jump to the right.
As has so often been the case during this dark passage in the American journey, citizens seeking after an accurate report on the affairs of state will need to turn to "America's finest news source": The Onion.
The Onion's front page this week features a photo of Bush speaking as Cheney sips from a glass. The headline: "Cheney wows Sept. 11 commission by drinking glass of water while Bush speaks."
Published by
The Capital Times [Madison, WI]
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