The Hindu : Bush for private hearing on 9/11

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 15, 2004

International

International

Bush for private hearing on 9/11

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, FEB. 14. The United States President, George W. Bush, has agreed only to a "private meeting" with the panel looking into the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, even as the Commission has suggested the possibility of a public hearing at a later date.

The Commission today requested a private meeting with the President to discuss information relevant to the Commission's work and Mr. Bush agreed to it, according to the White House spokesman.

The panel is also seeking and is likely to get private meetings with the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, the former President, Bill Clinton, and the former Vice-President, Al Gore.

A formal letter to the White House came from the Commission's two Co-Chairs, the former Republican Governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean, and the former Democratic Congressman, Lee Hamilton.

"While the Chair and the Vice-Chair have suggested the possibility of a public session at a later time, we believe the President can provide all the requested information in the private meeting and there is no need for any additional testimony," the White House has said.

One of the major things that the panel wishes to find out is what the Clinton and the Bush administrations may have known about 9/11, especially with regard to any specific intelligence on an impending terror attack on the U.S. Specifically, the panel is hoping to get some information from a highly classified Presidential Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, that apparently talked about hijackings by the Al-Qaeda.

The Commission, which has now a new deadline of May 27, has thus far heard several hundred witnesses including the President's National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice. Other senior administration officials have also appeared before the panel.

The White House was initially opposed to the formation of this bipartisan panel and has not been seen as being very cooperative in sharing documentation. The panel has issued at least two subpoenas to Federal agencies and had threatened the White House that it would obtain court orders for documents.

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