The Sept. 11 commission report was particularly tough on Rice, portraying her as failing to act on repeated warnings in the first part of 2001 about the likelihood of a major terrorist attack on the United States.
For example, it noted that on Jan. 25, 2001, a few days after Bush took office, Richard A. Clarke, who had been held over from the previous administration as the counterterrorism coordinator for the NSC, wrote to Rice stating that "We urgently need . . . a Principals level review on the al Qaeda network." The report noted that Rice did not respond directly to Clarke's memo, and no such meeting of principals, or top officials, was held on terrorism until Sept. 4, 2001, although they met frequently on other issues, such as the Middle East peace process, Russia and the Persian Gulf.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, shown attending this year's State of the Union address, has been one of President Bush's closest advisers but has struggled in a management role, officials say.
(Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Post)
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The report also detailed several more specific warnings from Clarke to Rice in the spring and summer of 2001:
• On March 23, he told Rice that he thought terrorists might attack the White House with a truck bomb and also that "he thought there were terrorist cells within the United States, including al Qaeda."
• On May 29, Clarke wrote to Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, about possible assaults by a Palestinian associate of al Qaeda, adding that, "When these attacks occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them."
• On June 25, Clarke informed Rice and Hadley that "six separate intelligence reports showed al Qaeda personnel warning of a pending attack," the report said.
• Three days later, he added that the pattern of al Qaeda activity indicating preparations for an attack "had reached a crescendo."
• On June 30, a briefing was given to top officials titled, "Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile Attacks."
The spike in reported al Qaeda activity ended in July, but senior intelligence analysts continued to be deeply concerned, the report noted, causing them to include in the Aug. 6 "President's Daily Brief" an article titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US."
The report's findings are likely to figure in Rice's confirmation hearings but not for Hadley, if he is tapped to succeed her, because national security adviser is an appointment that does not require Senate approval.
