by June Engman
Thursday, Apr. 01, 2004 at 1:23 PM
Only two of the the 9/11 commissioners have above-top-secret clearance and are allowed to look at 300-plus documents of that classification, and one of them worked on the Bush-Cheney transition team.
9/11 panel testifying to itself?
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 31, 2004
As a citizen truly concerned about the happenings of 9/11, I called Al Felzenberg, spokesman of the 9/11 Commission (the National Commission on Terrorism Attacks Upon the United States), for an explanation of how this commission works. He explained to me that the full committee investigating the attacks consist of 10 people, all of whom have top-secret clearance.
However, only two of them have above-top-secret clearance and are allowed to look at 300-plus documents of that classification. The other eight commission members will be allowed only to look at a 17- page summary of those documents.
I also learned from a Universal Press International report ("9/11 director gave evidence to own inquiry") that the commission's executive director and one of the 10 members are so close to the events being investigated that they have been interviewed as part of the inquiry:
1. Philip Zelikow, the executive director, worked on the Bush-Cheney transition team. His former boss was Condoleezza Rice.
2. Commission member Jamie Gorelick was a senior official in the attorney general's office during the Clinton administration.
Since they were both close enough to the terror-related events surrounding the Clinton and Bush administrations to give evidence, did they then interview themselves about their roles in the failures? Is it mere coincidence that Zelikow heads the panel and Gorelick is one of the members allowed to see all the documents, while most of the others are relegated to seeing only the summary? I can only wonder how open and honest this inquiry will be.
June Engman
www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040331...