Administration Faces Supoenas From 9/11 Panel

[baby_bear]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/national/26KEAN.html?hp

By PHILIP SHENON

Published: October 26, 2003

<snip>
MADISON, N.J., Oct. 25 — The chairman of the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks said that the White House was continuing to withhold several highly classified intelligence documents from the panel and that he was prepared to subpoena the documents if they were not turned over within weeks.

The chairman, Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, also said in an interview that he believed the bipartisan 10-member commission would soon be forced to issue subpoenas to other executive branch agencies because of continuing delays by the Bush administration in providing documents and other evidence.

"Any document that has to do with this investigation cannot be beyond our reach," Mr. Kean said on Friday in his first explicit public warning to the White House that it risked a subpoena and a politically damaging courtroom showdown with the commission over access to the documents, including Oval Office intelligence reports that reached President Bush's desk in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. "I will not stand for it," Mr. Kean said in the interview in his offices here at Drew University, where he is president. "That means that we will use every tool at our command to get hold of every document."
...
Mr. Kean's comments on Friday came as another member of the commission, Max Cleland, the former Democratic senator from Georgia, became the first panel member to say publicly that the commission could not complete its work by its May 2004 deadline and the first to accuse the White House of withholding classified information from the panel for purely political reasons.

"It's obvious that the White House wants to run out the clock here," he said in an interview in Washington. "It's Halloween, and we're still in negotiations with some assistant White House counsel about getting these documents — it's disgusting."


</snip>

There's much more.....


s_m

[alfredo]

1. Contempt of Congress

I wonder if they have hanging twins to put the squeeze on the Bush Junta. Until now they seem to be either corrupt lapdogs or wimps.

[meow2u3]

13. That's what led to Nixon's downfall

And the Bushies are acting likewise, only they're far more dangerous! :scared:

[huckleberry]

2. Wow!

I think they're actually making progress. Check out this quote from John McCain --

"If the families of the victims weighed in — and heavily, as they did before — then we'd have a chance of succeeding," said Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was an important sponsor of the legislation creating the commission. He said that, given the "obfuscation" of the administration in meeting document requests, he was ready to pursue an extension "if the commission feels it can't get its work done."

[baby_bear]

3. Well, at least they're making noise, if not progress

...and maybe the families of victims will perk up at McCain's remark and make even more noise!

Now, when will the Dems start making their own noise on this?

s_m

[Nay]

4. This is somewhat encouraging, but geez, it's been over 2 years

since the event. I can't help but think that I would be dragged off in handcuffs if I refused to produce documents for over 2 years. At least the committee sounds like it's getting some spine.

[MoonRiver]

23. The commission was formed long after 9/11.

Don't you remember how the cartel kept blocking the appointment of a commission in the first place?

The really good news is that the bushistas called it wrong, in terms of promoting their vile corruption, when they appointed the commission's head. That guy, assuming he's for real, is going after the evidence, regardless of where it leads.

[Minstrel Boy]

25. Imagine how this would be playing out

if Bush's first choice, Henry fucking Kissinger, had remained as chair.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. I don't think we well ever know the facts of what happened

on 9-11--Obviously the Bush regime has something to hide----Kean is a paper tiger.

[reprobate]

6. We know the facts. Take your pick: LIHOP or MIHOP

I lean towards MIHOP myself, but I'll respect anyone who supports MIHOP.

[wryter2000]

7. We never found out what really happened with Watergate, either

But Nixon got his butt bounced out, anyway.

[mbperrin]

8. THAT's the good part!

nt

[Desperadoe]

12. And because we didn't

we are in the mess that we are in today.

If the Democrats had pursued that like the dogs of the Repuke party pursued Clinton, we would never had elected another far right wing radical to the Presidency. They would have all been in jail where they belong serving life sentences for treason.

Instead, Nixon took the fall for all of the real criminal conspirators and the Dem fools cheered and thought that they won.
They didn't win anything. They fell for the con and now we're paying the price.

The crime of Watergate was the coverup of the coverup and Woodward was part of the plot.

Never stop diggin until you find the real prize........ not the one that they want you to find.

[Pastiche423]

15. Woodward was part of the plot?

How so? I've not heard this and would love to know what you know.

[Ernesto]

17. oh sure

you betcha

[Minstrel Boy]

22. transcript of the "smoking gun" Watergate tape,

June 23, 1972:

Nixon: When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: "Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that" ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, "the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case", period!
http://www.watergate.info/tapes/72-06-23_smoking-gun.shtml

HR Haldeman, in his book The Ends of Power, mentions several conversations in which Nixon expressed concern about where the investigation of Watergate would lead: "In fact, I was puzzled when he told me, 'Tell Ehrlichman this whole group of Cubans is tied to the Bay of Pigs.' After a pause I said, 'The Bay of Pigs? What does that have to do with this ?' But Nixon merely said, 'Ehrlichman will know what I mean,' and dropped the subject."

Haldeman later writes that Nixon always used code words when talking about the death of JFK. He said Nixon always referred to the assassination as "the Bay of Pigs."

Nixon also expressed concern about potential revelations regarding E Howard Hunt. (Hunt, by the way, lost on appeal when he sued for libel over a 1978 article entitled "CIA to Admit Hunt Involvement in Kennedy Slaying.") Nixon, from the same tape:

"Of course, this is a, this is a Hunt, you will-that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab there's a hell of a lot of things and that we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt, and a lot of hanky-panky that we have nothing to do with ourselves."

[Rose Siding]

9. Well Kean is sounding more like an American

than a republican.

This is a little freaky, though:
snip>
"If the families of the victims weighed in — and heavily, as they did before — then we'd have a chance of succeeding," said Senator John McCain..."

Is he saying the families aren't doing enough? VERY strange.

[Malva Zebrina]

10. I thought that also

like it is the family's fault or responsibility. Heh--shove it off on someone else, McCain.

[psychopomp]

26. As non-partican particans

The families can influence public opinion and broaden the scope of inquiry, if only on the part of the public, in a manner that no politician could. I think that is what McCain meant.

[kayell]

30. It sounds like McCain is telling the families

that NOW would be a good time to turn up the volumn, turn it WAY UP.

[Neecy]

31. He's feeling the heat

Kean if from NJ, and there are quite a few 9/11 families in that state. I'm sure the pressure is on for him not to be a puppet (and rightly so).

[Aries]

11. Cleland has a good line

"(Cleland) said that the White House and President Bush's re-election campaign had reason to fear what the commission was uncovering in its investigation of intelligence and law enforcement failures before Sept. 11. "As each day goes by, we learn that this government knew a whole lot more about these terrorists before Sept. 11 than it has ever admitted."

You think maybe?

[kodi]

14. the busheviks will "out" every govt secret to stay in power.

already they outed a US spy. what else are they willing to do as blackmail to prevent their removal from power.

i suspect that they are desperately looking for dirt on every one on that blue ribbon panel just to have some leverage, and would not put it past them to threaten to reveal deep state secrets if not left alone.

executive privilege might have worked 12 months ago, but now with rising skepticism about whatever the white house says, EP is going to echo loudly in people's minds as a lame excuse.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. And since when did a supeona

mean anything to this WH. They will just ignore it and get away it with like they did with the ones for Cheney's Energy TF meeting.

This crew doesn't abide by no stinking laws, laws are for the peons, not for them.

[snippy]

18. I think Bush probably can get away with stonewalling this forever.

Most non-partisan Americans will never hold 9/11 against Bush for several reasons. First, it is over and done with and nothing can be done about it. It is water under the bridge. Second, most of these people would consider LIHOP and MIHOP as insanely rabid anti-Bush delusions. They will automatically reject anything said by someone who argues the truth of either LIHOP or MIHOP. Third, when presented with a choice of trusting the president or not trusting him, most of these people always will choose to trust him. They also are willing to give a president even more of the benefit of the doubt if they think he is withholding politically embarassing information.

However, there is one area concerning 9/11 that I think the democrats can use to their political advantage. That one area is the lies the administration has told about the August 6, 2001 intelligence briefing Bush received. That briefing warned of an impending terrorist attack against the US that might involve hijacked airplanes, but the White House has always maintained that the briefing was only to provide Bush with a summary of the historical practices of al Qaeda. The administration has told other lies about the briefing as well. I think those lies about the briefing will bother lots of people now that they already believe that the administration has lied repeatedly about Iraq. It is old news, but the democrats should use it now when Bush's trustwothiness and honesty are suspect in so many non-partisan peoples' minds.

[Rose Siding]

20. I'm more optimistic

I think Cleland is BUSTING to tell what he knows already. I suspect that is because it is SO damning. He isn't going to let them mess around forever.

The commission and the CIA's anger really could work up into a perfect storm.

[snippy]

29. I hope you are right. I agree about the possibilty of "a perfect storm."

That could be the end game the CIA has planned.

[leesa]

19. I want PEOPLE subpoenaed, along with documents

I want bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, Powell, Perle, Rumfilled, and the rest of the Pentagon and Norad stooges under oathe in front of an independent prosecuter.

[Cocoa]

21. why does Kean hate Bush so much?

So much hate speech these days...

[MoonRiver]

24. Ha, ha, ha. A better question is: why would anybody NOT hate b*sh.

GIVE ME A BREAK!

[rman]

28. where does Kean say he hates Bush

what hate speech there are you talking about?

are you sure you'r not confusing Kean with Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter?

[proud patriot]

27. messege to bush

Stop Obstructing the will of the American People