US: Capitulating to bipartisan pressure, the White House agreed yesterday to allow National Security Adviser Dr Condoleezza Rice to testify in public under oath before the commission investigating the September 11th terrorist attacks on the US, writes Conor O'Clery North America Editor in New York
Seeking to head off growing calls for President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to testify in public also, the White House said the two would meet the full panel in private with no time limit, rather than with the chairman and vice chairman for one hour only as originally planned.
The bipartisan commission agreed to a White House condition that it would seek no further sworn testimony from Dr Rice and that her appearance should not be taken as a precedent.
The dramatic reversal of course came after lengthy telephone negotiations between the commission and White House counsel Mr Alberto Gonzales, and against a background of Republican and Democratic criticism of Dr Rice for appearing on television while snubbing the commission.
In the end the President understood "it was very important for the public" that Dr Rice appear under oath, commission chairman Mr Thomas Kean, a Republican, told reporters yesterday.
He said that this would give them a chance to clear up "discrepancies" between the the sworn testimony of former counter-terrorism aide Mr Richard Clarke criticising Mr Bush and the comments on TV by Dr Rice.
Dr Rice denied Mr Clarke's charge that she and Mr Bush did not pursue anti-terrorism strategy urgently and that Iraq undermined the war on terrorism, and last week called some of his allegations "scurrilous". "We want to hear from Dr Rice of the development of policy in the eight months leading to 9/11", Mr Kean said referring to the first part of the Bush administration. The agreement with the White House would hopefully "take the partisan edge of things," Democratic vice chairman Mr Lee Hamilton said.
The evidence of Mr Bush and Mr Cheney will not be recorded and there will be no transcript, though the commission will have a notetaker, Mr Kean said.
Former president Mr Bill Clinton and his vice president Mr Al Gore have already agreed to give evidence in private in the coming days.
No date has yet been set for Dr Rice's testimony, and Mr Kean said it could be followed by a further private session.
In a letter to the commission Mr Gonzales said there was no precedent for a sitting national security advisor testifying in public to a legislative body but that the president recognised the "truly unique and extraordinary circumstances" of 9/11.
Mr Kean said he also agreed with the principle but this was "an extraordinary event in human history".
Democratic commission member Mr Bob Kerrey said Dr Rice's testimony would be critical in determining what the Bush administration could have done to prevent the attacks.