Al Qaeda a target early, Rice says

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National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told the September 11 commission yesterday that the White House completed work on its first major national-security policy directive on Sept. 4, 2001, and that the topic was "not Russia, not missile defense, not Iraq, but the elimination of al Qaeda."

Miss Rice, the first sitting national security adviser to testify publicly under oath, fielded tough and often contentious questions in the highly anticipated hearing.

The Bush administration, from its first days in office, began work on a more aggressive policy to "eliminate al Qaeda" rather than just respond to its provocations tit for tat, as was the policy during President Clinton's two terms, Miss Rice said.

"President Bush understood the threat, and he understood its importance," Miss Rice said. "He made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al Qaeda one attack at a time. He told me he was 'tired of swatting flies.' "

Democrats on the commission implied in their questioning that the Bush administration failed to heed warnings about an imminent attack by al Qaeda throughout the summer of 2001 -- the thesis of a book by former Rice subordinate Richard A. Clarke.

Richard Ben-Veniste, a longtime high-powered Democratic lawyer, grilled Miss Rice about an Aug. 6, 2001, memo to the president that discussed the possibility that Osama bin Laden was planning attacks inside the United States.

Miss Rice said the memo was drafted at the direction of Mr. Bush, who wanted his intelligence services to investigate the possibility of a domestic al Qaeda attack in addition to the suspicion that bin Laden's terror network was planning a strike at U.S. interests overseas.

"There was nothing in this memo that suggested that an attack was coming on New York or Washington, D.C.," Miss Rice said. "There was nothing in this memo as to time, place, how or where. This was not a threat report to the president or a threat report to me."

Former Rep. Tim Roemer, Indiana Democrat, pointed to another memo, written on Sept. 4, 2001, by Mr. Clarke, that warned that one day "hundreds of Americans" could be laying "dead in the streets due to a terrorist attack and we think there could have been something more we could do."

Miss Rice said Mr. Roemer was misreading the intent of Mr. Clarke's memo.