Bush faces 9/11 Commission

US President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney today answered questions for over three hours from September 11 commissioners trying to learn how followers of Osama bin Laden pulled off the worst terrorist attack in US history.

The 10 commissioners gathered around Bush and Cheney, who were seated on chairs near the fireplace in the Oval Office for an extraordinary behind-closed-doors meeting that was off-limits to all but White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and two members of his staff.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan called the meeting a “good opportunity for the president to sit down with members of the commission and talk with them about the seriousness with which we took the threat from al-Qaida, the steps we were taking to confront it, and how we have been responding to the attacks of September 11.”

“This is a private meeting,” he said. “The discussion from this meeting will be reflected in their final report.”

The White House initially opposed the creation of the panel investigating the attacks that killed some 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Bush and Cheney agreed to answer questions jointly after sparring with the commissioners for months over ground rules for the meeting.

In the question-and-answer session, Bush faced a familiar challenge: convincing Americans that he responded appropriately to an intelligence system that CIA Director George Tenet said was “blinking red” with warnings of a terrorist strike.

Except in this case, he had a very limited audience in a private setting.

“I answered every question,” Bush said after the session.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Bush declined to say what topics the commission focused on during a meeting that lasted over three hours.

But he did say the session was cordial. “I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I took the time...I enjoyed it.”