A Distraction?

For most of 2002, President Bush argued against the creation of the 9/11 Commission created saying the investigation would only distract his administration from the post-Sept. 11 War on Terrorism (c). Now to anyone who hasn't chugged down all the Bush Kool-Aid already knows that A)that never was the case and B)The commission have provided a much needed service to our country.

To remind readers, Bush opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in early 2002, then decided to do a 180 and use DHS to beat Democrats like Max Cleland over the head with in the fall. Bush also was opposed to the commission, first making that bogus non-argument above and secondly putting Henry Kissenger, who isn't exactly known for his penchant for Open Government, in charge. Both backfired and Bush did a 180 again.

Now the WH is upset that the 9/11 commission restated the obvious: THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN AL-QAIDA AND THE ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11TH WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN Sorry about the caps, but appearantly 49% of the population still hasn't gotten the information. Even though their own anti-terrorism czar Dick Clarke told Bush repeatedly in 2002 and 2003 that there was nothing, as did Joe Wilson, they still flat out lied to the congress and the public in the "marketing" of going to war in Iraq. The sole example Cheney cited of "numerous contacts" between Hussein and Al Qaida was a meeting between a senior Iraq intelligence agent and bin Laden in Sudan in 1994, one that the commission said went nowhere. Why would an Islamic extremist and a securlarist get along?

The Times' Douglas Jehl's second key graph: "Far from a bolt from the blue, the commission has demonstrated over the last 19 months that the Sept. 11 attacks were foreseen, at least in general terms, and might well have been prevented, had it not been for misjudgments, mistakes and glitches, some within the White House." Some is putting it mildly, although I think the FAA and FBI stunk the most after reading the staff statements and watching the public hearings.

Former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, a Republican, and Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana , deserve tons of credit for toning down the partisanship of the other panelists and getting the most information possible out of this secretive White House through subtle pushing and the help of the 9/11 families' media savvy.

Hats off to the staff too, whomever those toiling men and women are. While their bosses go on TV, they wade through thousands of pages of semi-classified stuff, memos, chatter, tapes, bureaucracy, and more. The families want to know more for sure, like why the radios didn't work between NYPD and NYFD that faithful day, but they surely got much more than they would have if Bush had had his way...Which would have exactly nothing.