She has
time for this, but not the 9/11 Commission. Guess this story struck a nerve.
Another relevent diary today include:
contrapunktus discussing (w/links) the Clarke interview on Frontline.
Today's headlines are all about the Empire Striking Back with Rice trying to be everywhere, and with Frist a featured assassin. Just check Leaders of G.O.P. Try to Discredit a Critic of Bush or GOP Leaders Seek Release of Clarke's 2002 Testimony.
But let's see how well Condi does the backstroke:
Rice revises statement in private session on 9/11
BY KENNETH R. BAZINET AND THOMAS M. DEFRANK
New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - A member of the 9/11 commission said Friday that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice indicated in a private session she was wrong to have once stated no one expected terrorists to use planes as missiles.
The White House reportedly also backpedaled Friday on whether President Bush pressed counterterror czar Richard Clarke the day after the attacks to find evidence that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was involved.
Clarke claimed the meeting occurred in the White House Situation Room and presidential aides said earlier this week the meeting never happened.
But CBS News reported last night that White House aides now concede the meeting "probably" occurred.
The conflicting versions of events before and after 9/11 will ensure that debate will continue through the weekend over Clarke's accusations that Bush downgraded the importance of counterterrorism.
Clarke, Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will all appear on talk shows Sunday to press their case.
Rice, who has refused to testify before the panel under oath and in public, met with the commission privately for four hours Feb. 7.
One issue was her May 16, 2002, statement at the White House when she said, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center . . . that they would try to use . . . a hijacked airplane as a missile."
Intelligence reports had detailed such plans as much as five years before 9/11.
Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the 9/11 panel, said that during a closed-door session Rice revised that statement.
"She corrected (herself) in our private interview by saying, `I could not anticipate that they would try to use an airplane as a missile,' but acknowledging that the intelligence community could anticipate it," Ben-Veniste said.