Bush had no silver bullet to stop 9-11: Rice testifies before US panel
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, April 8: US National security adviser Condoleezza Rice told the Sept 11 Commission on Thursday there was no silver bullet that could have prevented the attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center and killed 3,000 people.
She acknowledged that four US presidents including George W. Bush had failed to respond adequately to terror threats. During her three-hour long and much-awaited testimony Ms Rice had several bitter encounters with Democratic members of the bipartisan commission who argued that the Bush administration could have prevented the attacks had it listened to the warnings from American and foreign intelligence agencies.
She read out some of the warnings picked up by the agencies "unbelievable news in coming weeks, big event ... there will be a very, very, very, very big uproar, there will be attacks in the near future" and said they were troubling but did not tell the administration, "when, where, who how".
"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," Ms Rice said.
"Tragically, for all the language of war spoken before Sept 11, this country simply was not on a war footing ... There was no silver bullet that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks."
Ms Rice also disputed claims made in earlier testimony by President Bush's former adviser Richard Clarke, who said that the administration failed to listen to his warnings. She said if the administration had implemented all of Mr Clarke's suggestions, it might have gone in the wrong direction.
She disputed Mr Clarke's another claim as well that President Bush put little emphasis on fighting terrorism before 9-11 and was more keen on taking on former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. After the terrorist attacks, Mr Clarke claimed, Mr Bush pressed for evidence that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9- 11. "I'm quite certain the president never pushed anyone to twist the facts," said Ms Rice while defending her boss.
Unlike Mr Clarke, Ms Rice didn't offer an apology for the failure to prevent the attacks. Instead, she said, I will never forget the sorrow and the anger I felt. Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democrat, was the first to take on Ms Rice, focusing on a briefing given to Mr Bush on Aug 6, 2001, about possible terror attacks.
Forced to disclose the title of that document, she said it was: "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within the United States". But she added: "This was not a warning. This was a historical memo prepared because the president was asking questions. Democratic members of the panel, however, insisted that the briefing warned of possible hijackings.
Ms Rice said even before 9-11 she was working on a strategic plan to fight terror, requiring cooperation from Afghanistan and Pakistan. War against Afghanistan for harbouring Al Qaeda would have been absolutely "not possible" before Sept 11 because of Pakistan's opposition, she said.
She said legal bars on coordination between the FBI and CIA also hurt the ability of the two agencies to combat terrorism. The bars have been removed after Sept 11.
