9/11 Hearings
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Key truths, and mission, shouldn't get lost in politics
Editorial
The Detroit Free Press
March 27, 2004
It is unfortunate that so much political hay is being made of the work of the special commission investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But part of the blame goes to President George W. Bush, who resisted full cooperation with the panel long enough to force an extension of its deadline -- and drag the work into the presidential campaign.
If there was a recurrent theme in this week's much publicized hearings, it was cover-your-butt. Officials of the current and previous administrations, which happen to be from opposite parties, each said they had done all they could and others could have done more to attack terrorists before the terrorists attacked America. Obviously, neither did enough -- and both underestimated Al Qaeda's capacity for evil.
Straddling the administrations of Republican Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton is Richard Clarke, a career terrorism fighter and presidential adviser whose new book criticizes the Bush White House for going to war in Iraq at the expense of the more important war on terrorism. Despite White House efforts to demean Clarke and shred his accounts, he emerges as a solid, credible figure who expected a heavy-handed reaction and is getting it. At least he had the fortitude to accept some of the blame for 9/11, acknowledging that he, too, had "failed" the American people on their most vital interest, national security.
Now, Republicans in Congress are trying to declassify testimony Clarke gave in 2002 before a closed meeting of the House-Senate intelligence committees. They will be looking for contradictions in his two appearances -- in other words, something they can use to brand him a liar. In the hardball politics being played in Campaign '04, don't expect anything to be declassified if it does not serve such purpose, not withstanding Clarke's own admissions that how he might present things as an employee of the president could differ from what he feels free to say now, as a private citizen.
None of this will undo the terrible damage of 9/11. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks cannot ignore it but must keep its focus forward, toward policies to make as sure as possible that America never goes through this nightmare again.
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