No apology expected when Rice testifies to commission

WASHINGTON -- Former White House counterterror chief Richard Clarke two weeks ago drew tears and gratitude from families -- and criticism from Republicans -- when he publicly apologized. "Your government failed you. ... I failed you," said Clarke, who resigned in 2003.

Few expect a similar statement from Clarke's former boss and President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, when she appears today to testify before the Sept. 11 commission that is investigating government anti-terror efforts preceding the attacks.

Still, the commission, due to report this summer on what went wrong, has already found plenty of government failure.

Flawed policy-making, bureaucratic breakdowns and poor communication among federal agencies helped make it possible for al-Qaida to flourish overseas, the commission has said in preliminary findings. The same flaws also made it possible for al-Qaida terrorists to get into America, take flying lessons, bypass airport and other security and hijack airliners, the commission has found.

"If you look at the big government mistakes of the last 50 years, you will always find systemic underpinnings," said Paul C. Light, a Brookings Institution scholar.

"The layers of career officials and political officials have never been deeper. ... Interagency confusion continues. It's very difficult to hold anybody responsible for what goes right or wrong in this hierarchy," he said.

There's also no tradition in American history, in contrast to Japan's, of anybody saying, "'It's my job, I was the administrator, we didn't do enough, it's time for me to leave,"' said Light.

And if thousands below them share some blame?

"So what?" said Bill Harvey, whose wife of one month, Sarah, died in the World Trade Center. "Am I going to be disappointed if 3,000 people are found to have been grossly negligent? I only care that people who were negligent in their jobs that day, or months or years leading up to it ... are not in those positions going forward.

In the days after Clarke's apology, news anchors on several television networks asked administration officials their opinion of Clarke's apology -- and whether they felt any sense of failure.

Rumsfeld noted that domestic security isn't the Defense Department's responsibility, but added that all security officials should reflect on Sept. 11.

"Everybody involved in any position of responsibility for security has to search their soul and say, 'What else might have been done?"' Rumsfeld said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had reviewed over the years what he and his department did at the time.

"I wish we had been able to discover that these individuals were in our country and they were planning ... such horrible attacks," Powell said. "And so I'm deeply regretful."

Light believes thousands of others -- federal employees, agents, CIA operatives and so on -- have done the same.

Although they haven't publicly accepted responsibility, they may have privately, to themselves.

"I'm sure there are people at the FBI to this day who say 'I had the evidence in my hand,"' said Light.