President Bush yesterday finally agreed to allow National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice to testify publicly and under oath before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.

President Bush, White House Press Briefing, March 30, 2004.

Bush did not take questions and left the room after his statement.
For weeks, the White House has insisted for weeks that Rice not testifying was a matter of constitutional principle and would set a dangerous precedent.

On 60 Minutes this weekend Rice said, "It is a longstanding principle that sitting national security advisers do not testify before the Congress."

It is unclear what "longstanding principle" Rice was referring to since President Clinton allowed his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, to testify in public before the House Governmental Affairs Committee only 8 years ago and Zbigniew Brzezinski was allowed under President Carter.

In return for Rice testifying, the commission agreed to strict conditions that ruled out any further public testimony from White House officials, including Rice herself. So after Rice's appearance before the panel, public testimony from various aides who might be in a position to confirm or deny her claims is not an option.

The commission also promised that Rice's testimony won't set a precedent.

Bush also agreed to meet privately with all 10 commissioners for an undetermined time limit, backing off his previous demand to meet only with the Chairman and Vice Chairman for just one hour.

But again, the apparent retreat by the president came with conditions. In return, the commission agreed that Bush will not be under oath and can have Vice President Dick Cheney appear with him by his side.

Rice has outright denied having specific information of an imminent domestic threat involving hijacking airplanes, but she might have a particularly hard time convincing the 9/11 Commission of this fact.

A former FBI translator with top-secret clearance has called Rice's claims "an outrageous lie." She says she testified before the 9/11 Commission that the FBI had information that an attack using airplanes was being planned before September 11.


Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator who was hired shortly after Sept. 11 to translate intelligence gathered over the previous year related to the 9/11 attacks. She speaks fluent Farsi, Arabic and Turkish.

full transcript:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl