Sept. 11 Panel Votes to Subpoena FAA

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - The independent commission studying the Sept. 11 attacks has voted to subpoena the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), ordering the agency to hand over documents for the investigation.

The 10-member commission said it had learned through interviews that the agency had not turned over tapes, statements, reports and other documents "highly material to our inquiry."

One commission member said the documents relate in part to lingering questions over how, and how quickly, the FAA notified U.S. air defenses about hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001.

The FAA, which earlier told the panel it had provided everything, turned over additional material in the last few days and pledged to cooperate. But the commission said the delay "has significantly impeded the progress of our investigation and undermined our confidence in the completeness of the FAA's production."

The commission, comprised of five Democrats and five Republicans, voted to issue the subpoena Tuesday night after completing a public hearing on intelligence reforms.

"This disturbing development at one agency has led the commission to re-examine its general policy of relying on document requests rather than subpoenas," the panel said in a statement.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031015/ap_on_re_us/sept_11_commission_19

[RainDog]

1. faa=this morning's "remarkable development?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26589-2003Oct14.html

Yesterday's hearing (911 commission)-- the fourth held publicly since the panel was formed last year -- was interrupted by a lengthy emergency meeting that involved a "remarkable development" related to disputes over access to documents between the commission and the Bush administration, according to chairman Thomas H. Kean.

A commission spokesman said the development involved an agency other than the White House, but Kean and other members declined to reveal any other details. Kean said the panel will release more information by today. Several administration officials declined to comment or said they were unaware of the dispute.

Kean, a Republican former New Jersey governor, and the commission's vice chairman, former representative Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), have said that the panel's work would be harmed if it does not receive access to crucial administration documents immediately. The commission has subpoena power.

The panel, which has come under sharp criticism from some relatives of Sept. 11 victims for not being aggressive enough in demanding information from the Bush administration, is legislatively required to release a final report in May that will cover broad areas of intelligence policy, border security, airline safety and other matters. Stephen Push, who heads the group Families of September 11, said he and other relatives are frustrated because "the deadlines always seem to be pushed back" on obtaining key documents, which sources have said include classified presidential daily bulletins issued in the weeks before the attacks.

[Rose Siding]

2. They had really dug in on this

and didn't want to do it- said they'd find out more if people felt they could talk freely. whatever

This may end up being a big deal.

[RainDog]

5. I don't understand

the wapo said the committee was interrupted by a "remarkable development" involving the Bush administration, but the issue was not about the admin. but another agency or whatever.

So, what is the "chain of command" for the FAA? How could documents from the FAA impact the Bush administration? Maybe they are refusing to release documents which the committee had subpeoned from the FAA?

And the commission finds it "remarkable" that the Bush's are so willing to obstruct an investigation into why and how America was attacked on 9-11?

The wapo article is very mysterious about this...and the statement about the FAA doesn't add up to what was in this morning's article I linked to before.

So, what's it all about, Alfie?

[loudsue]

3. BOY this administration pisses me off!!!

Those creeps knew it was GONNA happen, knew it was happening, and LET it happen so they could play their "let's take over the world" arm-chair war game.

We need so many Independent Counsels for this administration, looking into all their crooked lies and treasonous acts that we'll break the bank funding them all.

Someone needs to lock the whole bunch of them up and throw away the key.

:kick:


:argh:

[NJCher]

4. FAA is unresponsive to anybody but Continental Airlines

A broadbased citizen group and I have been trying to work with the FAA for years over the horrendous aircraft noise problem NJ has but they are completely unresponsive to the citizenry. To them, the noise we have to put up with isn't even a consideration. There is an easy solution to the noise problem here (ocean routing) but they could care less.


Cher

[RainDog]

6. rmpalmer has this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=168165

which, I think, answers some of the questions I asked above. these two threads need to be cross-referenced, and the msnbc link should be here, too.

[RainDog]

7. here's the post from that thread

http://www.msnbc.com/news/980701.asp?0cv=CB10

The federal commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks has approved subpoenaing the Federal Aviation Administration after learning about the existence of potentially important tapes, radar records and other materials about the events of that day that the agency had failed to turn over, NEWSWEEK has learned.

THE BELATED discovery of the FAA tapes and other material infuriated some members of the commission and raised new fears that foot-dragging by federal agencies and the White House may make it impossible for the panel to complete its work by its legally imposed deadline next May. At an emergency meeting on Tuesday night, the commissioners unanimously agreed to issue the subpoenas—the first time it has taken such a step since it began its work late last year, commission sources said.

“This is a shocking display of inattention at best,” Richard Ben-Veniste, a commission member told NEWSWEEK, about the FAA’s failure to turn over the material. “It’s simply unacceptable for us to labor under a deadline and have a lack of compliance” such as that exhibited by the FAA.

The newly discovered tapes are potentially significant evidence related to the U.S. government’s response to the September 11 attacks. Of most immediate importance to the commission: when precisely was the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) notified that the country was under a terrorist attack? Investigators want to know whether the Bush White House and the U.S. military could have acted more quickly to—at a minimum—intercept American Airlines Flight 77, the hijacked aircraft that slammed into the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m., after both World Trade Center towers had been hit.
<snip>

...Investigators want to know why, for example, the FAA wasn’t already on alert for a possible hijacking plot and why there was no policy in place that allowed a military response to a domestic hijacking—even after multiple warnings about such a possibility had been given to President Bush and other senior officials during the summer of 2001. Top White House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and briefly President Bush, participated in an “air-threat conference call” on the morning of September 11—but an order giving the military authority to shoot down hijacked aircraft didn’t come until after the Pentagon crash.

And don't forget to rate story at bottom. 

[leesa]

12. Whya re they pretending to be so stupid? They KNOW there is

a policy in place and they KNOW the response should have been much, much, much faster. It is obvious that the response was deliberately delayed. The only question is WHO gave the order? It should not be hard to find the answer to that.

[goforit]

8. Hmmmm.........How do you deal with Murderers?..Ask em politely?

NOT!!!!!


Arrest and then convict!!!!!


You are not dealing with civilized people!!!
When are you people(investigative boards)gonna get the picture?????

[Pastiche423]

9. Has a reason been given for the deadline?

I've asked this before, but have never received an answer.

[grasswire]

10. why why why...

....haven't they used subpoena power earlier? Why? The clock is ticking.

[leesa]

11. When do they subpoena NORAD? And Cheney?

Who ordered the stand down of the military jets on 9-11-01?