Source
Staten Island Advance -
Thursday, April 22, 2004
By TERENCE J. KIVLAN
WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Vice President Cheney will testify together on
April 29 before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.
Their private testimony will not be under oath.
The White House's insistence that Bush and Cheney testify together before the
commission has stirred some controversy.
Asked recently why he wanted to appear with Cheney, Bush said it afforded a
"good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9/11 commission is
looking forward to asking us."
But the arrangement has drawn fire from some Democrats and relatives of Sept. 11
victims.
"I think it reinforces the idea that the president can't go it alone,"
said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) earlier this month.
"It's almost as if they have to hold hands," said Bill Doyle of
Annadale. "I think they should answer questions individually."
And with Bush and Cheney testifying together, the commission can't check for
discrepancies in their stories, said Doyle, the father of a World Trade Center
victim and a family support group leader.
Some Sept. 11 victims' relatives saw nothing wrong with the president and vice
president appearing together.
"It doesn't bother me at all," said Frank Siller, whose firefighter
brother Stephen was killed at Ground Zero. "They are a team and they work
together," said Siller.
Bush and Cheney initially offered to appear separately -- but only for one hour
each, and before only two of the panel members, Chairman Tom Kean, former
Republican governor of New Jersey, and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, a former
Democratic congressman from Indiana.
Bush is likely to be questioned on his response to the recently declassified
Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing asserting that terrorists may be preparing
"hijackings and other types of attacks."
He has said the memo was too vague to act on and one of many enigmatic reports
he and other administration officials received in the months before Sept. 11 on
possible terrorist attacks.
