more corruption with the 911 inquiry...what a surprise
"Whitewash': 9/11 Director Gave
Evidence to Own Inquiry
by Shaun Waterman
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The panel set up to investigate why the
United States failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was
rocked Thursday by the bizarre revelation that two of its senior officials were
so closely involved in the events they are investigating that they have had to
be interviewed as part of the inquiry.
Philip Zelikow, the commission's executive
director, worked on the Bush-Cheney transition
team as the new administration took power,
advising his longtime associate and former boss,
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, on
the structure of the incoming National Security
Council.
"He came forward in case he might have useful
information," said commission spokesman Al
Felzenberg.
Zelikow, who the commission says has
withdrawn himself from those parts of its
investigation directly connected with the
transition -- a process known as recusal -- was
also appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in
October 2001.
The board provides the White House with advice about the quality,
adequacy and legality of the whole spectrum of intelligence activities.
Jamie S. Gorelick, one the 10 members of the commission and the other
official who has answered investigators' questions, was a senior official
under Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration.
"(Zelikow) recused himself from those relevant parts of the inquiry," said
Felzenberg. "Frankly, we don't see what the fuss is about."
But the revelations have been greeted with dismay by the commission's
critics, especially survivors and relatives of the dead, because they suggest
the investigation will be -- in the words of Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her
husband Ron in tower 2 of the World Trade Center -- "a whitewash."
The families have said for many months that they are unhappy with
Zelikow's role, and are furious that they were not told he would be giving
evidence.
"Did he interview himself about his own role in the failures that left us
defenseless?" asked Lori Van Auken, the widow of Kenneth. "This is
bizarre.
"We entered a looking glass world on Sept. 11 and we're still in it."
The news is a particularly sharp blow to the commission's credibility
because Gorelick and Zelikow are the two officials to whom the White
House has granted the greatest access to the most secret and sensitive
national security documents of all, the presidential daily briefings.
Last year, officials acknowledged that one such briefing in August 2001,
more than a month prior to the attacks, warned that al-Qaida was
determined to strike in the United States. Some reports suggested that
hijacking -- and even the use of airplanes as missiles -- was mentioned as
the mode of assault.
The question of the transition is a significant one, because critics of
President Bush say the incoming administration "dropped the ball" on the
fight against Osama bin Laden, which had been ramping up under President
Clinton after a suicide attack by the al-Qaida network nearly destroyed the
USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.
Bush's supporters counter it was Clinton's failure to capture or kill bin Laden
after his network destroyed two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998 that
emboldened the extremists to attack the United States on Sept. 11.
The families planned a meeting on the issue Thursday evening with
commission members and staff, which one predicted would be a "slugfest."
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