9-11 REPORT white house gets to edit papers | xltronic messageboard
 
You are not logged in!

F.A.Q
Log in

Register
  
 
  
 
(nobody)
...and 364 guests

Last 5 registered
Oplandisks
nothingstar
N_loop
yipe
foxtrotromeo

Browse members...
  
 
Members 8025
Messages 2614103
Today 0
Topics 127542
  
 
Messageboard index
9-11 REPORT white house gets to edit papers
 

offline Archrival on 2003-11-16 13:01 [#00952213]
Points: 4265 Status: Lurker



Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
By PHILIP SHENON

Published: November 14, 2003

ASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — The commission investigating the
Sept. 11 terror attacks said on Thursday that its deal with
the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office
intelligence reports would let the White House edit the
documents before they were released to the commission's
representatives.

Advertisement

The agreement, announced on Wednesday, has led to the first
public split on the commission. Two Democrats on the
10-member panel say that the commission should have demanded
full access to the intelligence summaries, known as the
President's Daily Brief, and that the White House should not
be allowed to determine what is relevant to the
investigation.

An umbrella group of victims' families joined the criticism,
saying the terms of the accord should be public.

While spokesmen for panel refused again to provide the
terms, citing the sensitivity of the talks with the White
House, its executive director acknowledged that the White
House would be able to remove information from the reports
unrelated to Al Qaeda and to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"An entire P.D.B. will have articles about China, South
Africa, Venezuela," the executive director, Philip D.
Zelikow, said in an interview. "The notion that the
commission should want to read P.D.B. articles that have
nothing to do with Al Qaeda would be a novel suggestion. The
commission has not asked to see the country's most sensitive
intelligence information on China or North Korea."

A Democrat on the panel who has criticized the accord,
former Representative Timothy J. Roemer of Indiana, said in
an interview that he believed that the panel had agreed to
terms that would let the White House edit the reports to
remove the contexts in which the intelligence was presented
and to hide any "smoking guns."

"The President's Daily Brief can run 9 to 12 pages long,"
Mr. Roemer said. "But under this agreement, the commission


 

offline Archrival on 2003-11-16 13:02 [#00952215]
Points: 4265 Status: Lurker



will be allowed to see only specific articles or paragraphs
within the P.D.B.'s. Our members may see only two or three
paragraphs out of a nine-page report."

He said the commission should have insisted on access to the
full reports, because "you need the context of how the
P.D.B. was presented to the president in order to determine
whether or not there were smoking guns."

The other Democratic critic on the panel, former Senator Max
Cleland of Georgia, has described the agreement as
unconscionable.

Administration officials have acknowledged that they are
concerned that intelligence reports received by Mr. Bush in
the weeks before 9/11 might be construed to suggest that the
White House failed to respond to evidence suggesting that Al
Qaeda was planning a catastrophic attack. The White House
acknowledged last year in response to news reports that a
copy of the Daily Brief in August 2001 noted that Al Qaeda
might use hijacked planes in an attack.

Commission officials have said that under the agreement the
panel will be able to designate four members to read the
reports. They will be allowed to take notes on the
documents, and the White House will be allowed to review and
edit the notes to remove especially sensitive information.

In its statement, the victims' family group, the Family
Steering Committee, said the agreement would "prevent a full
uncovering of the truth and is unacceptable." The group is
led by many advocates who were most responsible for
pressuring Congress to create the commission last year over
the initial objections of the White House.

"As it now stands, a limited number of commissioners will
have restricted access to a limited number of P.D.B.
documents," the group said. "The commission should issue a
statement to the American public fully explaining why this
agreement was chosen in lieu of issuing subpoenas to the
C.I.A. and executive branch."

The group said, "All 10 commissioners should have full,
unfettered and unrestricted access to all evidence,
including but


 

offline Archrival on 2003-11-16 13:03 [#00952216]
Points: 4265 Status: Lurker



The group said, "All 10 commissioners should have full,
unfettered and unrestricted access to all evidence,
including but not limited to all Presidential Daily
Briefings."

A spokesman for the group, Kristen Breitweiser, whose
husband, Ronald, was killed at the World Trade Center, said
the families were alarmed that the terms of the accord were
kept secret.

`'I think this entire deal needs to be explained to the
public," Ms. Breitweiser said. "This is an independent
commission that is supposed to be transparent, that is
supposed to be open."


 

offline Oddioblender from Fort Worth, TX (United States) on 2003-11-16 13:10 [#00952220]
Points: 9601 Status: Lurker



how dumb.


 

offline REFLEX from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) on 2003-11-16 14:50 [#00952362]
Points: 8864 Status: Regular



man.. the governemnts of the world, especially america (La
Merika the land of the star) love to edit everything we see
and read... almost. there is so much shit lost between them
the media and us the people, its not even funny, we as
society will never know or fully understand why or how our
govt. do the things they do.


 


Messageboard index