Panel refuses to call Gorelick to testify publicly

The September 11 commission rebuffed a request from Republican senators that panelist Jamie S. Gorelick testify publicly about her handling of U.S. counterterrorism efforts as President Clinton’s deputy attorney general.

She will not testify because she was not on the original witness list drawn up by the commission and because no other deputy-level officials have been asked to testify, a commission spokesman said.

“We wanted to treat everybody fairly,” spokesman Al Felzenberg said late Friday. “She’s not going to be singled out.”

Commissioners replied in a letter Friday evening to Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, and the 10 others who had requested that Ms. Gorelick testify in public.

“We welcome their help,” said Mr. Felzenberg, who declined to give any details of the commission’s letter other than to say Ms. Gorelick won’t testify. “We welcome their suggestions.”

The decision rankled Republicans who say Ms. Gorelick should testify because she played such an integral role in setting U.S. counterterrorism policy during the Clinton years, especially regarding the “wall” that kept intelligence and law-enforcement agencies from openly working together to thwart terrorism.

“The commission is either interested in the whole truth or it is not,” said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican who signed Thursday’s letter to the commission asking that Ms. Gorelick testify in public.

“By refusing to require this key testimony, the commission administers a self-inflicted wound, which further puts its judgment and impartiality in doubt,” he said.

Mr. Bond and other Republicans last week wrote to Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, after questions were raised about Ms. Gorelick’s ability to sit on the commission and impartially judge the U.S. counterterrorism efforts before the 2001 terrorist attacks.

When Attorney General John Ashcroft testified, he brought with him a just-declassified 1995 memo by Ms. Gorelick, in which she laid out guidelines for a wall between intelligence and law-enforcement agencies that were more strenuous than required by law. Mr. Ashcroft pointedly blamed the Gorelick memo for hampering counterterrorism efforts.

In the aftermath of Mr. Ashcroft’s testimony, House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, demanded that Ms. Gorelick resign from the commission.

Mr. Bond, who was once Mr. Ashcroft’s fellow senator from Missouri, said unless Ms. Gorelick testifies publicly, “There will be a significant gap of knowledge as far as what the public will know about its government prior to 9/11.”

At the time of the memo, Ms. Gorelick was the No. 2 person under Mr. Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno. Ms. Gorelick already has been interviewed for the commission in private, according to Mr. Felzenberg, and there is no need for her to do so publicly.

The only deputy level official interviewed in public was when Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage appeared on behalf of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who at the time was refusing to testify in public.

“He came as the designated hitter, and we received him,” Mr. Felzenberg said.

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