WASHINGTON, 26 March 2004 — Relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks praised former counterterrorism official Richard Clarke yesterday for publicly apologizing for not doing enough to prevent the tragedy.

Clarke, whose credibility has been questioned by the Bush administration, began his testimony on Wednesday to a commission probing the attacks by asking for relatives’ forgiveness, prompting cheers, gasps and sobs from the packed hearing room on Capitol Hill. “It’s the first time we have had a public apology by any of the officials that were in office on that terrible morning,” said Patty Casazza, who lost her husband when a hijacked plane rammed into the World Trade Center in New York.

“An apology goes a long way to healing the wounds and moving forward,” Casazza told ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Relatives of those killed have been pushing for answers and some have voiced criticism over the Bush administration’s cooperation with the commission.

Clarke, who served the last four US presidents, has incensed the White House by saying publicly and in a book published this week that President George W. Bush did not take the terrorism threat seriously enough and that more could have been done to prevent the attacks.

Clarke, who resigned 13 months ago, said the Clinton administration was active in tracking Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network but the Bush administration, which took office in January 2001, did not consider the issue urgent.

In his testimony, Clarke turned around to directly face the relatives and said: “Those entrusted with protecting you, failed you. And I failed you. We tried hard but that doesn’t matter because we failed.”

He added: “I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.”

Beverly Eckert, whose husband died in the World Trade Center, said she “totally broke down” at Clarke’s apology.

“It was a very emotional moment. As Patty said, no one has ever apologized. Most of the witnesses who come to these hearings come with, I would categorize them, as rather self-serving statements and everything they tried to do. He’s the only one who said we tried our best but we failed...not only did he apologize, he asked for our forgiveness. That meant a lot,” said Eckert, who along with Casazza is part of an activist family group demanding answers to how the Sept. 11 attacks occurred.

The commission, which held public hearings for two days in Washington, is billed as a non-partisan body but some relatives said they were upset by how some members had attacked Clarke.

Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her husband in the World Trade Center attack, said some of the commission members had “sunk to a level of partisan politics” by criticizing Clarke and questioning his credibility.

“We want it to be independent, bipartisan. I think it is most unfortunate that it became a character assassination,” she told NBC’s “Today” show.