Without Precedent

[DR_GONZO]

What is worse, that this commission didn't do it's job or that they will be profiting off of not doing their job?

Chairmen's book tells of frustrations faced by 9/11 commission

By HOPE YEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8/5/2006
WASHINGTON - The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception, the panel's chairmen say in a new book.

Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton also say in "Without Precedent" that their panel was too soft in questioning former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani - and that the 20-month investigation may have suffered for it.

The book, a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, recounts obstacles the authors say the Bush administration threw up, internal disputes over President Bush's use of the attacks as a reason for invading Iraq, and the way the final report avoided questioning whether U.S. policy in the Middle East may have contributed to the attacks.

Kean and Hamilton said the commission found it mind-boggling that authorities had asserted during hearings that their air defenses had reacted quickly and were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93, which appeared headed toward Washington.

In fact, the commission determined - after it subpoenaed audiotapes and e-mails of the sequence of events - that the shoot-down order did not reach North American Aerospace Command pilots until after all the hijacked planes had crashed.

The book states that commission staff, "exceedingly frustrated" by what they thought could be deception, proposed a full review of why the FAA and the Pentagon's NORAD had presented inaccurate information. That ultimately could have led to sanctions.

Because of a lack of time, the panel ultimately referred the matter to the inspectors general at the Pentagon and Transportation Department. Both are preparing reports, spokesmen said this week.

The questioning of Giuliani was considered by Kean and Hamilton "a low point" in the commission's examination of witnesses during public hearings. "We did not ask tough questions, nor did we get all of the information we needed to put on the public record," they wrote.

Commission members backed off, Kean and Hamilton said, after drawing criticism in newspaper editorials for sharp questioning of New York fire and police officials at earlier hearings. The editorials said the commission was insensitive to the officials' bravery on the day of the attacks.

"It proved difficult, if not impossible, to raise hard questions about 9/11 in New York without it being perceived as criticism of the individual police and firefighters or of Mayor Giuliani," Kean and Hamilton said.

Congress established the commission in 2002 to investigate government missteps leading to the Sept. 11 attacks. Its 567-page unanimous report was released in July 2004.

[LHardy]

The 9/11 commission was a joke from the start. Gathered together to protect the legacy of Billy "do nothing" Clinton.
Hell they even had Susan "It was my wall" Gerelick at the table and never ounce was she recused for her roll leading upto the attacks and the failure of her "Wall" to allow the agencies to share information. Yet that is what Billy "bob up and down" Clinton wanted.