Hearings on September Eleventh, 2001, Attacks

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2004-3-26

This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English.

Hearings took place this week into intelligence and law
enforcement failures before the attacks on the United States in
two-thousand-one.

The Bush administration is disputing accusations that it did not
consider terrorism an urgent threat before September eleventh.
Officials said they had worked throughout that year to prepare a
plan to deal with the threat from Al Qaida.

Former anti-terrorism official Richard Clarke made the accusation
Wednesday in Washington. He spoke before an independent commission
of former lawmakers and officials. There are five Democrats and five
Republicans.

Mister Clarke has worked in four administrations. He helped
direct anti-terrorism policies for almost ten years. Mister Clarke
says the administration did not take his warnings seriously. He says
he had called for action against Al Qaida and its Taleban supporters
in Afghanistan before September eleventh.

Three-thousand people died in the attacks of that day. Hijackers
flew planes into the World Trade Center and the military
headquarters at the Pentagon.

Mister Clarke told the commission that intelligence agencies
warned repeatedly in two-thousand-one that Al Qaida appeared ready
to attack the United States. He said he expressed his concern in a
letter to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice a week before
the attacks. Mister Clarke also accused the administration of
harming the war on terrorism by invading Iraq.

Republican members of the commission accused Mister Clarke of
making baseless accusations in an effort to sell his new book. They
questioned his truthfulness. They also suggested that he wanted to
help the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator John Kerry.

Democrats on the commission said the accusations by Mister Clarke
should be taken seriously. They said his years of government work
showed that he had been trusted by presidents from both parties.

Condoleeza Rice has noted that Mister Clarke defended the
policies of the administration in the past. Mizz Rice has spoken to
the commission, but would not do so publicly.

The commission held two days of public hearings this week. The
members also heard from Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Officials from the administration of Bill
Clinton also spoke. And so did the head of the Central Intelligence
Agency. George Tenet has served under both presidents.

Mister Tenet was asked why two administrations have been unable
to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. He said there had been some
disagreement among intelligence officials about whether the C.I.A.
had permission to kill the leader of Al Qaida. Mister Tenet said
even if he had been killed, that would not have prevented the
attacks.

The commission is expected to hold more hearings next month and
to release its findings in July.

In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk.
This is Steve Ember.


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