RELUCTANT WITNESSES.(The Talk of the Town)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 12-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

From 2002, Lawrence Wright profiles the F.B.I. agent John O'Neill, who died in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center

From 2002, Nicholas Lemann profiles Condoleezza Rice

After an unusually conspicuous episode of sullenness and stonewalling, the Bush Administration has yielded--a little--to the importunings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, the ten-member bipartisan panel familiarly known as the 9/11 commission. Last Tuesday afternoon, President Bush appeared at the lectern of the White House press briefing room, quickly read a four-minute statement, and left as reporters called out questions to his retreating back. The statement was an announcement that Bush's national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, "will provide public testimony." It added, as if in passing, that Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney "will jointly meet with all members of the commission in a private session."

Bush didn't like the idea of a 9/11 commission to begin with. He fought its creation for a year, until congressional pressure and the indignation of families of the murdered forced him to...

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