By: Charles Geraci A spokesman for the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks told E&P it used a photograph to lobby President Bush to let national security adviser Condoleezza Rice testify before the panel.
Published in The New York Times on Nov. 22, 1945, the photo shows Adm. William D. Leahy, White House chief of staff under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, appearing before a congressional panel studying the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The commission's Executive Director Philip Zelikow faxed the photo last Monday to the White House counsel's office.
"We were trying very hard to persuade the White House that a precedent exists for someone of Dr. Rice's stature to testify in an open public hearing," said spokesman Al Felzenberg. "This photo was used because the attack on Pearl Harbor is the only one that is similar in magnitude to September 11."
Felzenberg acknowledges the photo may not have been the chief reason for President Bush's decision to let Rice testify.
"I would assume many things went into the President's decision," Felzenberg said. "Hopefully, the strength of the arguments we made were one of those factors."
CNN.com has the historic Times photo on
this page.
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