They got the answers and you're not gonna see them...

[khaosworks]

The Secrets of September 11
Newsweek Web Exclusive

Even as White House political aides plot a 2004 campaign plan designed to capitalize on the emotions and issues raised by the September 11 terror attacks, administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the attacks.

AT THE CENTER of the dispute is a more-than-800-page secret report prepared by a joint congressional inquiry detailing the intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the attacks--including provocative, if unheeded warnings, given President Bush and his top advisers during the summer of 2001.

The report was completed last December; only a bare-bones list of "findings" with virtually no details was made public. But nearly six months later, a "working group" of Bush administration intelligence officials assigned to review the document has taken a hard line against further public disclosure. By refusing to declassify many of its most significant conclusions, the administration has essentially thwarted congressional plans to release the report by the end of this month, congressional and administration sources tell NEWSWEEK. In some cases, these sources say, the administration has even sought to "reclassify" some material that was already discussed in public testimony--a move one Senate staffer described as "ludicrous." The administration's stand has infuriated the two members of Congress who oversaw the report--Democratic Sen. Bob Graham and Republican Rep. Porter Goss. The two are now preparing a letter of complaint to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Graham is "increasingly frustrated" by the administration's "unwillingness to release what he regards as important information the public should have about 9-11," a spokesman said. In Graham's view, the Bush administration isn't protecting legitimate issues of national security but information that could be a political "embarrassment," the aide said. Graham, who last year served as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, recently told NEWSWEEK: "There has been a cover-up of this."

Graham's stand may not be terribly surprising, given that the Florida Democrat is running for president and is seeking to use the issue himself politically. But he has found a strong ally in House Intelligence Committee Chairman Goss, a staunch Republican (and former CIA officer) who in the past has consistently defended the administration's handling of 9-11 issues and is considered especially close to Cheney.

"I find this process horrendously frustrating," Goss said in an interview. He was particularly piqued that the administration was refusing to declassify material that top intelligence officials had already testified about. "Senior intelligence officials said things in public hearings that they [administration officials] don't want us to put in the report," said Goss. "That's not something I can rationally accept without further public explanation."

Unlike Graham, Goss insists there are no political "gotchas" in the report, only a large volume of important information about the performance and shortcomings of U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies prior to September 11.

And even congressional staffers close to the process say it is unclear whether the administration's resistance to public disclosure reflects fear of political damage or simply an ingrained "culture of secrecy" that permeates the intelligence community--and has strong proponents at the highest levels of the White House.

It depends on how deep they dug as far as the inquiry was concerned - one wonders if there's references to the 199I document that Bush signed to warn off the FBI from investigating the World Assembly of Muslim Youth that had ties to Al-Qaeda as well as the Bin Laden family and the Saudi Royals. This of course, is when the Saudis still meant something to the US and the State Department didn't want to piss them off. Obviously, there was an intelligence failure of massive proportions - possibly even catastrophic, given the consequences. The big question will be, how much did the White House know and when did the White House know it? And really, while the answers may be quite innocent - no one is suggesting that there's any proof Dubya knew about 9/11 beforehand and let it happen - the questions may be a bit too awkward for a man planning to wrap himself in the flag at next year's 9/11 anniversary.

Comments

[daphnis.livejournal.com]

There has to come a point when all the nefarious activities and under-the-table deals begin to ooze ominously from under the Presidential Cover-up Tent! Why it hasn't happened yet ~ or rather why the American public and media people have chosen to pretend that it couldn't possibly true ~ is a mystery to me. But little seismic rumblings are being recorded throughout the nation, and I don't believe Bush's Bully Boys can suppress them all. All it will take to shift the balance in the Senate from Republican to Democrat is for two or more disaffected GOPs to go Independent, like McCain, Snowe, Grassley, Collins, and/or Voinovitch(sp?), or even completely to switch allegiance to the Dems. Could happen, with some encouragement from concerned voters....