| -Caveat Lector-
The Washington
Times
www.washingtontimes.com
By Charles
Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published April 26,
2004
The September 11 commission rebuffed a request from Republican senators
that panelist Jamie S. Gorelick testify publicly about her handling of
U.S. counterterrorism efforts as President Clinton's deputy attorney
general.
She will not testify because she was
not on the original witness list drawn up by the commission and because no
other deputy-level officials have been asked to testify, a commission
spokesman said.
"We wanted to treat everybody
fairly," spokesman Al Felzenberg said late Friday. "She's not going to be
singled out."
Commissioners replied in a
letter Friday evening to Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican,
and the 10 others who had requested that Ms. Gorelick testify in public.
"We welcome their help," said Mr. Felzenberg,
who declined to give any details of the commission's letter other than to
say Ms. Gorelick won't testify. "We welcome their suggestions."
The decision rankled Republicans who say Ms.
Gorelick should testify because she played such an integral
role in setting U.S. counterterrorism policy during the Clinton
years, especially regarding the "wall" that kept intelligence
and law-enforcement agencies from openly working together to thwart
terrorism.
"The commission is either
interested in the whole truth or it is not," said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas
Republican who signed Thursday's letter to the commission asking that Ms.
Gorelick testify in public.
"By refusing to
require this key testimony, the commission administers a self-inflicted
wound, which further puts its judgment and impartiality in doubt," he
said.
Mr. Bond and other Republicans last week
wrote to Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor
of New Jersey, and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic
congressman from Indiana, after questions were raised about Ms. Gorelick's
ability to sit on the commission and impartially judge the U.S.
counterterrorism efforts before the 2001 terrorist attacks.
When Attorney General John Ashcroft testified,
he brought with him a just-declassified 1995 memo by Ms. Gorelick, in
which she laid out guidelines for a wall between intelligence and
law-enforcement agencies that were more strenuous than required by law.
Mr. Ashcroft pointedly blamed the Gorelick memo for hampering
counterterrorism efforts.
In the aftermath of
Mr. Ashcroft's testimony, House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James
Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, demanded that Ms. Gorelick resign
from the commission.
Mr. Bond, who was once
Mr. Ashcroft's fellow senator from Missouri, said unless Ms. Gorelick
testifies publicly, "There will be a significant gap of knowledge as far
as what the public will know about its government prior to 9/11."
At the time of the memo, Ms. Gorelick was the
No. 2 person under Mr. Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno. Ms.
Gorelick already has been interviewed for the commission in private,
according to Mr. Felzenberg, and there is no need for her to do so
publicly.
The only deputy level official
interviewed in public was when Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
appeared on behalf of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who at
the time was refusing to testify in public.
"He came as the designated hitter, and we
received him," Mr. Felzenberg said.
Also he
said, time is running short.
"We were asked to
do the definitive account of the 9/11 attacks and make recommendations for
a safer country," Mr. Felzenberg said. "We have two more hearings and then
we have a report to write."
Sen. Robert F.
Bennett, Utah Republican who also signed the letter, said, "She was right
in the thick of things. The commission would do well to hear from her."
Copyright � 2004 News World
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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