WaxWorks
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Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Thumbing Their Nose
Why isn't the Bush Administration's constant attempt to stymie the 9/11 Commission a bigger story?
The federal panel reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks has scheduled interviews with former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore this month but is struggling to get similar cooperation from President Bush and administration officials.
Members of the bipartisan commission said they were considering a subpoena to force the public testimony of national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. She has declined to appear at the panel's two-day hearing later this month.
"The commission wants to go back in the court of public opinion and appeal to the administration for them to reconsider their first stand," said commissioner Timothy Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "If we don't get that kind of cooperation, compelling Dr. Rice to come before us is an option."
...While Clinton and Gore have consented to private questioning without a time constraint, Bush and Cheney have agreed only to private, separate, one-hour meetings with the commission's chairman and vice chairman, instead of the full panel.
First, they initially refuse to support giving the Commission an extension to present its findings. Now this. It sure looks to me like they've got something to hide. And maybe for good reason, as 9/11 victim's families have noted in this Salon.com article:
Some of the 9/11 families wonder why Bush would want to shine a spotlight on 9/11 at all, since they insist it highlights a massive breakdown of his government to prevent the attack. "It's a symbol of failure," said David Pototari, co-director of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. "The president is charged with defending this country, and literally nothing was done during the two hours of attack to defend the county. I've never been able to understand how Republicans have turned this tragedy into a victory."
"Everything that could go wrong went wrong," says Lori Van Auken, who also lost her husband on 9/11. "Every defensive measure failed."
The recent speculation about the convention and the suspicion of Republican motives arise against the backdrop of bitter wrangling between the 9/11 commission and the Bush administration. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was established by Congress to study the nation's preparedness before Sept. 11, 2001, and its response to the attacks and to make recommendations for the future. From the start, the White House opposed the creation of the commission and has battled over funding as well as access to key documents.
"If you're proud of your actions, you explain what happened," says Van Auken. "If you're not proud, you do it behind closed doors with two commissioners for one hour."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
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