Specialty CollectionGenre: CONTEMPORARY STOCK FOOTAGE
Description: NEWSFEED: 4/18/04 WTC/911 COMMISSION PART TWO, CONDOLEEZA RICE TESTIFIES BEFORE THE COMMISSION; Condoleeza Rice before 9/11 commission like it says, answering some question, changing gears from patronizing to snotty ;Something about the C.S.G...whatever that is...Female senator questioning her, lots of wishy-washy smiles being exchanged ;Rice has this funny expression frozen on her face, like she's thinking, 'Are you f-cking kidding?' ;Rice says Bush administration hadn't been in office long enough to put together security...And something of that sort ought to have already existed, only a tragedy made its absence apparent; Difference between 'Operation Infinite Resolve' (what a cool name) and what Bush administration put together, military counter-terrorism plan ; Senator Gorton begins questioning...had there been plans for war against Afghanistan before 9/11/01, Pakistan ; Gorton asks if some plan had been adopted in spring of 2001 would have prevented 9/11, Rice looks into crystal ball & says no ; Gorton asks if more time had passed before attack could they have thwarted it...Rice sounds nervous but answers ambiguously ;Gorton asks if recent legislation has reduced terrorism or displaced it, Rice says 'we're safer but we're not safe' ;Gorton asks Rice for her opinion about preventing terrorism in U.S., security in a free country; Gorton compliments Rice on not ducking a certain question, Rice smiles like she just won a spelling bee ;Senator Kerry comments, having second thoughts about war in Iraq making al Queda more appealing to Islamic world, hushes applause; Kerry asks if Rice spoke to Philip somebody...Rice says she spoke with him several times ;Kerry refers to Bush's comment about 'swatting flies', asks what that meant, Rice balances between exasperated & patronizing ;Kerry is very passionate, this is even more entertaining than Rice's extraordinary facial expressions ;Rice says that Kerry himself had said response to Cole bombing should be to take down Hussein- WS some people in audience applauding; Next time I'm in front of a tough audience, I'll mention getting rid of Hussein- applause guaranteed! ;Light-hearted moment where Kerry is tickled that she liked his speech, Kerry brings up some Clark accusation ;Uh-oh, Kerry gives her the hand and Rice gets stern, power struggle! Rice finishes with evil little 'I won' smile; Kerry brings up Kenneth Williams testimony about July 5th meeting, agents suspicions that al Queda might use U.S. planes to attack...Failure to share intelligence between C.I.A. & F.B.I., Rice responds, Kerry replies to her response, she answers his reply ;Careful! Kerry uses the hand again, reads August 6th memo to president that says there may be a hijacking; Rice replies, using some kind of national security jargon- 'we weren't going to harden cockpits'; Rice says we hadn't been attacked on our soil in a big way in 200 years (oops-except that foiled WTC bombing, and that foiled LAX bombing...) Apparently the planes should have been made more secure long ago by somebody else ;Nice WS Pan from Rice at stand to reporters sitting on floor...next senator begins...transition to Bush adm ;Man this guy is just blabbering away ;Finally a question! Was Rice informed about al Queda in U.S., Rice says Clark mentioned them but hadn't made recommendations ;Since no action was recommended, Rice assumed F.B.I. was taking care of it ;Asks Rice a string of questions-did she know about: Arab nationals in U.S. pilot schools (no), no U.S. Marshalls on domestic flights (no) ;...Red Teams report on poor airline security (no), I.N.S. lobbying to stop transit w/o visa (found out after 9/11)......I.N.S. having internal security enforcement budget (no), U.S. policy not to oppose sanctuary policy in cities (no) ;..Policy granting visas to Saudis w/o interviews (found out after 9/11), Activity of Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs in U.S. (ditto)...Blatant Saudi support of radical Islam (found out after 9/11...), Saudis having custody of prominent al Queda member (a cynical no)..Saudis not allowing U.S. access to terrorists in Kobar Towers attack- (Yes!), airlines fined for questioning Arab passengers -'the inside arrangements of the F.A.A. are not my-' senator interjects - 'These are not so inside!'...F.A.A. allowing 4' knives on flights (no) Senator describes wall between justice dept & intelligence depts...Rice says wall is gone, says Saudis are cooperative; Rice: 'the president doesn't think of this as law-enforcement, he thinks of this as war', Rice's recommendations... ;
