Sept. 11 commission hears Bush, Cheney describe anti-terror efforts

<br>WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush defended his administration's efforts to stop terrorist strikes and assessed the nation's potential vulnerabilities to attack in an extraordinary meeting with

Friday, April 30th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush defended his administration's efforts to stop terrorist strikes and assessed the nation's potential vulnerabilities to attack in an extraordinary meeting with the Sept. 11 commission, setting the stage for the panel to focus on reform proposals as it finishes its work.

The bipartisan commission met privately with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for more than three hours Thursday in the Oval Office in a session presidential scholars called unprecedented. With few remaining witness interviews left, commissioners will begin working on recommendations to meet its July 26 deadline.

``It was an extraordinarily good meeting. The president was forthright,'' said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, the commission's Republican chairman.

``We said we hoped we could test some things out as to whether some of recommendations we were considering were indeed practical,'' he said. ``The president said he was open to some ideas, and nothing was ruled out.''

``It was a very good meeting,'' Democratic commissioner Bob Kerrey said. ``I do think it'll help _ in particular the president's description of what happened during 2001 and most particularly on 9/11.''

Kerrey described some of the answers as ``surprising'' and ``new'' but declined to give details. ``I think the less I say that could be construed as critical, the better chance we have of reaching consensus when we write our final report.''

Kerrey, along with Lee Hamilton, the commission's vice chairman, left the Oval Office meeting early because of what they said were prior commitments.

Sitting in high-back chairs, Bush and Cheney fielded a broad array of questions about the lack of a U.S. military response after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors and an Aug. 6, 2001, presidential brief Bush received a month before the attacks warning that Osama bin Laden was preparing to strike.

The government's response on the day of the attacks also was discussed, with Bush and Cheney offering a detailed narrative that will be helpful for the commission's remaining two public hearings, commission members said.

On May 18-19, the commission will hold a hearing in New York City on the city's emergency response and the 9/11 plot, with testimony from former Mayor Rudy Guiliani and former city and fire officials. On June 8-9, the panel will review national crisis management.

Thursday's meeting could reverberate into the November elections as the commission reports in late July on intelligence failures and missed signals before the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Bush has made his handling of terrorism the centerpiece of his campaign.

``I answered every question they asked,'' Bush said after the meeting. ``I think it helped them understand how I think and how I run the White House and how we deal with threats.'' He said there was a lot of discussion about how to protect the nation better.

``We are still vulnerable to attack,'' Bush told reporters. ``And the reason why is al-Qaida still exists, al-Qaida's dangerous, al-Qaida hates us. And we have to be correct 100 percent of the time in defending America and they've got to be right once.''

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, talking with reporters as the commission questioned Bush, said it was an opportunity for the president to ``talk with them about the seriousness with which we took the threat from al-Qaida, the steps we were taking to confront it and how we have been responding to the attacks of Sept. 11.''

Charged with investigating the Sept. 11 hijackings and recommending steps to prevent future attacks, the commission already has documented a string of urgent warnings communicated to the highest levels of government before the attacks.

One area some commissioners say they want to focus on is the administration's response on Sept. 11, 2001. Some relatives of Sept. 11 victims believe that if military jets were scrambled sooner after the first hijacked plane hit New York's World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., the government could have prevented American Airlines Flight 77 from crashing into the Pentagon more than 50 minutes later.

Unlike the commission's televised hearings where tempers sometimes flared, there were no tense moments in the Oval Office, said former Gov. Jim Thompson, a Republican commission member. He called Bush ``a bit of a tease'' and said there was laughter at times.

It was Bush who responded to most of the questions, officials said. Cheney spoke only when Bush turned to him about details he didn't know, according to one participant.

Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic member and an aggressive questioner at earlier sessions, said, ``It was a very cordial meeting'' and everyone got to ask questions.

Former White House terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke has contended that terrorism was not an urgent issue for Bush before Sept. 11, 2001, and that the administration had squandered the opportunity to eliminate al-Qaida.

The White House initially had opposed creation of the commission and later raised objections to extending its term, balked at Bush being questioned by all of the commission members and tried to prevent Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, from testifying in public under oath.

Unlike the commission's private meeting with former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, the meeting was not recorded or transcribed. While details will be included in the panel's final report, they may deleted from the version for public release if the White House deems the information classified.

``We would have hoped there would have been some sort of record of the meeting for the annals of history,'' said Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband Ronald died in the World Trade Center. ``It is enormously important for the American public to have an open, transparent dialogue and debate on our nation's ability to defend ourselves.''