Checking today's NYTimes

[Aliette Guibert]

This is Art -Bush-bullshit's Art?
Aliette G.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/politics/20PANE.html?hp

Clinton Aides Plan to Tell Panel of Warning Bush Team on Qaeda
By PHILIP SHENON

Published: March 20, 2004


WASHINGTON, March 19 - 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 Qaeda posed the worst
security threat facing the nation - and how the new administration was slow
to act.
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They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence
briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became
Mr. Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Ms. Rice's deputy;
and Philip D. Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others.
One official scheduled to testify, Richard A. Clarke, who was President Bill
Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the
warning about the Qaeda 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 Qaeda to
the bombing in Yemen two months earlier of an American warship, the Cole, in
which 17 sailors were killed.
"It was very explicit," Mr. Clarke said of the warning given to the Bush
administration officials. "Rice was briefed, and Hadley was briefed, and
Zelikow sat in." Mr. Clarke served as Mr. Bush's counterterrorism chief in
the early months of 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 Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Defense Secretary
William S. Cohen and Samuel R. Berger, Mr. Clinton's national security
adviser - is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
They are expected to testify along with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who will answer for the Bush
administration, as well as George J. Tenet, director of central intelligence
in both administrations.
While Clinton officials have offered similar accounts in the past, a new
public review of how they warned Mr. Bush's aides about the need to deal
quickly with the Qaeda 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 Mr. Bush may see
political motives in the testimony of some of them.
The testimony could also prove uncomfortable for the commission, since Mr.
Zelikow is now the executive director of the bipartisan panel. And the
Clinton administration officials can expect to come under tough questioning
about their own performance in office and why they did not do more to
respond to the terrorist threat in the late 1990's.
The White House does not dispute that intelligence briefings about the Qaeda
threat occurred during the transition, and the commission has received
extensive notes and other documentation from the White House and Clinton
administration officials about what was discussed.
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."
The White House rejects any suggestion that it failed to act on the threats

of Qaeda terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The president and his team received briefings on the threat from Al Qaeda
prior to taking office, and fighting terrorism became a top priority when
this administration came into office," Sean McCormack, a White House
spokesman, said. "We actively pursued the Clinton administration's policies
on Al Qaeda until we could get into place a more comprehensive policy."