WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- Wednesday's Sept. 11 commission hearing focused on former counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, who testified, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who didn't.
Clarke, whose recent book is starkly critical of the Bush administration, apologized to victims' families for failing to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks in his role on Bush's anti-terror team, but he also criticized the administration for moving too slowly.
Clarke's testimony before the commission, which was set up to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks and make recommendation for preventing further terror, was also critical of the Clinton administration, which rejected his plan for a series of attacks on Afghan infrastructure in August 1998.
Clarke, who served in the counter-terrorism arms of the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, said that before Sept. 11, the current administration did not assign the same importance to combating terrorism that he did.
"I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," Clarke said.
Clarke said he had trouble making his case to the Bush administration, which only allowed him to report to agency deputies rather than to agency heads, as he had in previous administrations.
Plans for strengthened anti-terror measures that Clarke recommended in January 2001 became bogged down and were not discussed on a high level until Sept. 4, 2001, Clarke said.
They would not be enacted until after the attacks.
"I was sufficiently frustrated that I asked to be reassigned," Clarke said.
Some members of the commission questioned Clarke's credibility.
Commissioner and former Illinois Gov. James Thompson said a press background report Clarke gave in 2002 painted a significantly brighter picture of Bush anti-terror efforts than his recently published book, "Against All Enemies."
Clarke responded to that criticism by saying he prepared the report in his capacity as a presidential adviser, which required of him a different approach.
"I was asked to highlight the positive aspects of what the administration had done, and to minimize the negative aspects of what the administration had done," he said.
He added that such assignments are common in Washington. "I don't think it's a question of morality at all, I think it's a question of politics," he said.
He stressed that he was never asked to say anything untrue.
Clarke also responded to charges not explicitly leveled in the hearing that his criticism of the Bush administration might be intended to make him a candidate or give him a place in a potential Democratic administration.
"I will not accept any position from the (Democratic presidential candidate John) Kerry administration, should there be one," he said, noting that he was speaking under oath.
Clarke attempted to further counter charges that he might be aligned with the Kerry campaign by saying he was last registered as a Republican and that his only connection to the campaign was through a long-time friend with whom he is co-teaching a class.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testified after Clarke, saying he had never heard Clarke complain about lack of access to principal decision makers in the Bush White House.
Armitage said he was also frustrated by the pace of progress on counter-terrorism measures but said he was preoccupied with reforming the State Department.
"I found a State Department, which for almost 12 years had been neglected," he said.
Several commissioners used their questions for Armitage to stress the absence of Rice, who has refused to testify before the commission in public, although she has answered commissioners' questions in private.
Rice and the Bush administration say it would be unprecedented for a serving presidential adviser to testify before such a commission, but some commissioners said she should agree to testify.
Rice's testimony "should be out in public, because we do have some disagreements with what Mr. Clarke has said here today," Commissioner and former Democratic Congressman Tim Roemer said.
Other testimony Wednesday included CIA Director George Tenet, who said separations between intelligence gathering and law enforcement need to be eased, and Clinton administration national security adviser Samuel Berger, who said an active military campaign against al-Qaida would have been politically impossible before Sept. 11.
The Sept. 11 Commission is set to issue its report on the attacks on July 26.
