Condoleezza Rice Is Getting 'A Bum Rap,' Cheney Tells Time

Mon 29 Mar 2004
Condoleezza Rice Is Getting 'A Bum Rap,' Cheney Tells Time
"PA"
London (ots) -

On Clinton Administration's Handling of Terrorism: 'There Was a Sense
In the Bush Administration] That They Hadn't Handled It Very Well' On Richard Clarke: 'I Don't Hold Him in High Regard'

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice is getting "a bum rap," Vice President Richard Cheney tells TIME in an exclusive interview. In response to whether Rice is being unfairly singled out in the criticism leveled by Richard Clarke, Bush's former counterterrorism chief, he tells TIME's John Dickerson, "To evaluate her performance only in that context is a bum rap. It doesn't do justice at all to what she has contributed. Evaluate the process and Condi's role in terms of whether the President has made the right decisions. There's no question he has made the right decisions."

TIME's cover package "Feeling the Heat: Could the Bush Administration Have Done More to Combat Terrorism before 9/11?" includes an exclusive interview with Vice President Dick Cheney as well as an inside look at the role of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. TIME's Timothy J. Burger, Massimo Calabresi, John F. Dickerson, Michael Elliott, Mark Thompson and Daren Fonda all contributed to the cover story. Many of Richard Clarke's allegations this week were laid out in an Aug. 12, 2002 TIME cover story, "While America Slept."

When Vice President Cheney was asked how the Bush White House viewed the Clinton team's approach to terrorism, Cheney says, "There was the sense that they hadn't handled it very well." And on Clarke, Cheney tells TIME, "He's taken advantage of the circumstances this week to promote himself and his book. I don't know the guy that well. I have had some dealings with him over the years, but judging based on what I've seen, I don't hold him in high regard. "

Asked whether an apology for failing to prevent 9/11 is necessary, Cheney responds, "Without question, we would have liked to be able to prevent that attack. Maybe we'll know after

the 9/11 commissioners] get through with all of their work. They'll come up with some ideas and recommendations about how that might have been done. It's hard at this point to see ... There are clearly some things that could have been done to be more effective. Whether or not there was a way to forecast what was going on here and head it off, I just don't know. Obviously, I think everybody feels bad about the loss of life. If you were at the White House that day, as many of us were, you know it's a moment you'll never forget."

When asked whether the Bush White House had the right priorities before 9/11, Cheney says, "We had a number of things that we had to focus on. Certainly counterterrorism was one of them ... There were a lot of other issues. The ABM treaty was one of them. We had campaigned on a platform of missile defense ...

Vladimir] Putin was relatively new to the business, as was the President, and getting that relationship off to a good start was an important piece of business. China surfaced front and center early on...You don't want to just walk in and just buy everything your predecessor left you ... You also have an obligation to get everybody to sit down and look at the key areas and ... decide we're going to continue down this path or we're going to make some fundamental changes."