Berger says he warned Rice about al Qaeda

When the Bush administration was entering office, outgoing National Security Adviser Samuel Berger told his replacement, Condoleezza Rice, “she’d be spending more time on terrorism and al Qaeda than any other issue,” Berger told the panel investigating the attacks Wednesday.

“I did my best to emphasize the urgency I felt,” he said. “Getting” Osama bin Laden and stopping the al Qaeda network was a “top priority” of the Clinton administration, Berger said.

Clinton felt so strongly that in 2000 he traveled to Pakistan — against the “adamant advice of the secret service” — to press President Pervez Musharraf to join the battle against al Qaeda, Berger said…

Panel member Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democrat, told Berger his appearance was “asymmetrical” because Rice will not appear publicly before the panel…{{link http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/24/911.commission/index.html/ MORE}}

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