Bush TV Ads and Noncooperation with 9/11 Commission Draws Fire from Sept. 11 Victims' Families

Interview with Andrew Rice, steering committee member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, conducted by Scott Harris

As the Democratic Party closed ranks behind their presumed presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, the Bush re-election campaign's newest television ads were greeted by widespread criticism for their use of images of fallen victims in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. A number of family members of those who lost their lives on September 11 called on the president to withdraw the ads, a request which the White House has defiantly refused. The Bush campaign, joined by other 9-11 families, maintains it has every right to focus on the president's performance during the attacks in the election campaign.

But more important to many of those who lost loved ones on September 11, is the Bush administration's non-cooperation with the independent Sept. 11 panel, investigating the failures in intelligence that led to the attacks on New York and Washington. The White House has been criticized for "stonewalling" the panel -- formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States -- by restricting access to key documents; limiting testimony by the president to a one-hour session before the commission's chairman and vice-chairman; and had initially resisted calls to extend the panel's investigation time period.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Andrew Rice, a member of the steering committee of the group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Rice, who lost his older brother David in the south tower of the World Trade Center, discusses why he believes the use of images of 9/11 by any candidate amounts to offensive exploitation - and his concern about the many obstacles being thrown at the Independent Commission investigating September 11.

Get more information about September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows by visiting their website at www.peacefultomorrows.org

Related links:

"White House vs. 9/11 Panel: Resistance, Resolution," by Dan Eggen, The Washington Post, March 9, 2004

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