Will the 9/11 Commissioners Cave ?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/062304A.shtml

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The stakes could not be higher for the president and vice president. Arguably, the commission is in position to play in 2004 a role analogous to that played by the Supreme Court in 2000 in ensuring the election of George W. Bush and Cheney. This, I believe, accounts for the dyspeptic reaction of the two to the staff report and the press play accorded it last week.

New York Times pundit William Safire is also outraged. In his column today he lashes out at the commission chairman, Republican Tom Kean, and the vice chairman, Democrat Lee Hamilton, for letting themselves be "jerked around by a manipulative staff." Safire drives home the point that the staff conclusion concerning Iraq and 9/11 was "not a judgment of the panel of commissioners," but rather "an interim report of the commission's runaway staff."

Republican Commissioners Fall Into Line
Appearing Sunday on ABC's This Week, Sept. 11 commission chairman Kean fell in line, saying repeatedly that the staff report is only an "interim report." Not only did he note it is "not finished," the commissioners themselves have not been involved in it so far and the final report will include whatever "new information" becomes available.

It is not hard to see what is coming. On Thursday Cheney told the press that he "probably" had more intelligence information than had been made available to the commission. Commissioner John Lehman, another Republican stalwart, told Meet the Press Sunday "the vice president was right when he said that he may have things that we don't have. And we are now in the process of getting the latest intelligence."


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Democracy as we knew it died December 12, 2000. The pending cave-in of the 9/11 Commission and the "national security" redactions that the White House are going to inflict on the report before it is released, are merely two more nails in democracy's coffin.

I trust these guys for some reason. They've done a good job so far.