"Out, out damn spot!"
Agence France Press: The chairman of an independent commission looking into US counterterrorism activities prior to the September 11 attacks said he could not guarantee that the panel's report will be released before the November presidential election because of a protracted White House vetting process. Former Republican New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean said he was "surprised" by the situation, but saw no way around it.
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://truthout.org/docs_04/040704B.shtml
White House Vetting Could Delay
9/11 Report Until After Election
Agence France Presse
Tuesday 06 April 2004
The chairman of an independent commission looking
into US counterterrorism activities prior to the
September 11 attacks said he could not guarantee that
the panel's report will be released before the
November presidential election because of a protracted
White House vetting process. Former Republican New
Jersey Governor Thomas Kean said he was "surprised" by
the situation, but saw no way around it.
The probe, which President George W. Bush initially
opposed but later agreed to under pressure, has turned
in to a political hot potato after former White House
counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke accused Bush of
doing a "terrible job" of fighting terrorism prior to
the strikes on New York and Washington in September
2001.
In a new book and public testimony before the
commission, Clarke, who left his White House job last
year, said the administration did not treat terrorism
as an urgent matter before the attacks.
The accusation has sparked a fierce round of finger
pointing and propelled counterterrorism to the
forefront of the US political campaign.
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" television
program, Kean said White House vetters will go over
his report "line by line to find out if there's
anything in there which could harm American interests
in the area of intelligence."
A special clearance team led by White House Chief of
Staff Andrew Card and made up of top US intelligence
and counterterrorism officials has already been set
up, he said.
But the report, expected to contain hundreds of
pages of findings and testimony, is unlikely to be
finished before July, according to congressional
officials.
That will leave the vetting team only three to four
months to complete its work, if American are to see
the document before they go to the polls on November
2.
Asked if American will be able to see the report
before the election, Kean answered, "I have no
guarantees."
It took the White House close to seven months to
clear a congressional report on US intelligence in the
lead-up to the attacks, which killed all the occupants
of four passenger jets, destroyed the twin towers of
the World Trade Center in New York and severely
damaged the Pentagon building in Washington, leaving
some 3,000 people dead in all.
Moreover, the congressional account emerged from
that vetting last July with dozens of blacked-out
pages, which experts later said contained sensitive
information about an alleged Saudi role in financing
al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic networks.
Democratic commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton
assured on the same show that the panel will not put
up with any political editing of the document, saying,
"We're not going to let them distort our report."
Hamilton also expressed confidence White House
vetters will focus on protecting intelligence sources
and information collection methods rather than on the
panel's substantive findings.
But reacting to the controversy surrounding the
probe, the John Kerry election campaign released a
compendium of press reports showing the president's
lack of enthusiasm for the commission and its work
since its inception.
"Bush opposed the commission entirely, he initially
didn't include funding they requested after they were
established, he still has not provided documents the
commission has said are necessary for their work,"
said the campaign of the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee.
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Posted by richard at April 7, 2004 12:50 PM