9/11 Commission and the President's Documentation
President Bush said Monday his staff is cooperating with an independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, but stopped short of saying whether the White House would hand over top-level papers that may be subpoenaed.
"Those are very sensitive documents," Bush said, adding that White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was working with Thomas Kean, chairman of the commission, on this issue.
"The president is correct on both counts," said Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the commission. "They are very sensitive documents. That's why we are having negotiations. These aren't things you just hand out to folks." But he added that Kean "feels we need certain things to do our job."
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Matt's Chat
My view on this is simple, let's learn all that is learnable about the tragedy so we can ensure that something like it never happens again. Mr. President, I think it is important for you to be forthcoming with whatever documentation you may have; but I support your continued vigilance on the security front. What we knew and when we knew it is a matter of intelligence methods. That is not for the general public. If that is what these documents are, then I suggest that negotiations continue in such a way that those doing the study get what they need with the explicit instruction on what is and what is not safe to release to the general populace.
Mark's Remarks
I firmly agree with my colleague....Despite the liberal spin of non-compliance, those working with the commission and the admin say that the President is correct in what is going on. We cannot make sensitive documents available for general dissemination, especially ones that might detail methods and such. However, we do need to know what happened in and around the events of 9/11. However, in my not so objective opinion, much of the failures can be placed in the lap of Bill Clinton. He gutted our military during his tenure, that is where his "massive downsizing of the government" took place, and he handicapped our intelligence gathering with much red tape and unfeasible directives. I think we need to be asking about how we let osama slip away many times, as well.....
