Officials Called To Testify
Then government officials who were called to testify before the commission included:
- George W. Bush - President; testimony not under oath. The session was not officially transcribed because the White House considered it a "private meeting" in which highly classified information would be discussed. Asked to limit the length of testimony to one hour (However, the meeting lasted for three hours and ten minutes). Testimony took place in the Oval Office. Initially, Bush insisted that he testify only to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the commission, but later agreed to testify before the full panel.
- Dick Cheney - Vice President; testimony not under oath. The session was not officially transcribed because the White House considered it a "private meeting" in which highly classified information would be discussed. Testimony took place in the Oval Office.
- George John Tenet - Director of Central Intelligence Agency
- Colin Powell - Secretary of State
- Donald H. Rumsfeld - Secretary of Defense
- Condoleezza Rice - National Security Advisor
- Richard Armitage - Deputy Secretary of State
- Paul Wolfowitz - Deputy Secretary of Defense
- Tom Ridge - Secretary of Homeland Security and former Governor of Pennsylvania
- John Ashcroft - Attorney General
Past government officials who were called to testify before the commission included:
- Bill Clinton - former President; testified in private separately from Al Gore. Testimony was recorded and not limited in time.
- Al Gore - former Vice President; testified in private separately from Bill Clinton. Testimony was recorded and not limited in time.
- Madeleine Albright - former Secretary of State
- William Cohen - former Secretary of Defense
- Sandy Berger - former National Security Advisor
- Richard A. Clarke - former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council in the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations
- Janet Reno - former Attorney General
- Sibel Edmonds-former FBI translator
President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former President Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Al Gore all gave private testimony. President Bush and Vice President Cheney insisted on testifying together and not under oath, while Clinton and Gore met with the panel separately. As National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice claimed that she was not required to testify under oath because the position of NSA is an advisory role, independent of authority over a bureaucracy and does not require confirmation by the Senate. Legal scholars disagree on the legitimacy of her claim. Eventually, Condoleezza Rice testified publicly and under oath.
Read more about this topic: 9/11 Commission
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