http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031114-065701-9732r9/11 panel access will be limited
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Published 11/14/2003 7:07 PM
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- The access that the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will get to ultra-secret presidential papers under its deal with the White House is hedged around with restrictions, United Press International has learned.
The deal has drawn flak from relatives of the victims of the attacks and from commission members unhappy with the limits placed on their access.
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A person familiar with the terms of the deal told UPI that the PDBs had been divided up into two groups. "There's the documents that have been identified by the White House -- based on the commission's request -- as really of core relevancy to the mission, and there are other documents that, if you view the request in the widest possible terms, could be relevant to it," the person said.Under the compromise agreement, "people who the commission designates" will see the broader group, and if they believe documents there to be relevant, they will have to "request that it be switched (into the narrower group) and give the reasons." The final decision on which papers are considered relevant will rest with the White House.
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"Why won't they publish the deal, so that we can all make up our minds about whether they were right to accept these limitations?" asked Lori Van Auken, who lost her husband Kenneth.<snip>