Extraordinary Measures (9-11 Comm Why did Woodward see PDB's?)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4304339/

Faced with presidential resistance to turning over highly sensitive intelligence briefs, the commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks tried to learn the details in the documents by obtaining access to White House transcripts of interviews that senior officials gave to a prominent journalist, NEWSWEEK has learned.

The extraordinary access that top Bush administration officials gave Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward more than two years ago for his book, “Bush at War,” became a principle issue in the contentious battle between the September 11 panel and the White House over access to the President’s Daily Briefs or PDBs—the intelligence briefing report that is given to the president every morning.

Threatened with a subpoena for the documents, the White House relented somewhat last week and agreed to allow the full ten member commission to hear a summary of key PDBs about the Al Qaeda terrorist threat that were given to Bush and before him, to President Clinton. The summary was prepared by a four-member team that was allowed to read under highly restrictive conditions hundreds of PDBs dating back to 1998.

Still, the last-minute deal, sources tell NEWSWEEK, came only after intense negotiations in which members of the federal panel repeatedly brought up the Woodward interviews as evidence of the administration’s hypocritical approach toward secrecy. How, commission officials demanded to know, could the White House deny a federal panel investigating the worst crime in U.S. history access to documents that it had already shared with a journalist?
“Woodward was a point of reference to show the PDBs were not as sacrosanct as they claimed,” said one commission official familiar with the negotiations with the White House. “In his book, Woodward claims he saw the PDBs. That was an argument that these were not the ‘Holy of Holies.’”

[sattahipdeep]

1. Heres a thought

KRISTEN BREITWEISER: http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/911widows.html
There's always this level of anxiety because
nothing is finite. Nothing is finished.
Nothing is complete. Nothing is solid.
And I think that that has an emotional impact,
because really on the morning of September 11th,
we all became untethered from the Earth.
And we just want a grounding.
________________________________________________________________

Was raining in my heart
Falling deep inside of me
Drowning in my soul
This silence rushes over me
I am breath against this fire
And I will not turn away
I'm waiting for time to carry me
Like a tempest to the sea
Standing strong
Watching over
Love will keep me believing
Thru the dark...can you hear me calling
Holding on when I'm dreaming
Love is all...Love is all
Thundering on high
Love was all I knew before I fell
And now the shots of man
Are echoing inside myself
I am breath against this fire
And I will not turn away
I'm waiting for time to carry me
Like a tempset to the sea
Standing strong
Watching over

Yanni - Love Is All.

[remfan]

2. Why did Woodward see PDBs?

Because he was being used as part of the WH PR campaign to promote bush* as a "wartime" pResident. Why isn't the 9/11 commission given the same access? Because apparently they are NOT interested in promoting the WH talking points.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Do a Google search on Bob Woodward...you may be amazed to...

...learn about his background.

[TruthIsAll]

3. They probably showed Woodward very little.

And had him agree to spin what they did show.

[JoFerret]

4. And now they are caught in a trap

of their own making. (again)

[cally]

5. The more they try to hide them

the more I'm sure they had warnings about 9/11.

Woodward never should have seen the PDB's under any circumstances.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. The stonewalling itself is proof that LIHOP was indeed the plan...

Their resistance to cooperating w/ the panel (especially during an election year) at the very least indicates they are hiding something so devastating, so despicable that admitting it would surely sink them in November. And I doubt they're hiding mere incompetence (because they could say they were only in office for 9 months, not enough time to stop the terrorists, blah blah blah). That leaves LIHOP...