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White House vetting could delay 9/11 report until after election
The chairman of an independent commission looking into US counterterrorism activities prior to the September 11 attacks said he could not guarantee that the panel's report will be released before the November presidential election because of a protracted White House vetting process. . . . The probe, which President George W. Bush initially opposed but later agreed to under pressure, has turned in to a political hot potato after former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke accused Bush of doing a "terrible job" of fighting terrorism prior to the strikes on New York and Washington in September 2001. . . . In a new book and public testimony before the commission, Clarke, who left his White House job last year, said the administration did not treat terrorism as an urgent matter before the attacks. . . . The accusation has sparked a fierce round of finger pointing and propelled counterterrorism to the forefront of the US political campaign. . . . But the report, expected to contain hundreds of pages of findings and testimony, is unlikely to be finished before July, according to congressional officials. . . . That will leave the vetting team only three to four months to complete its work, if American are to see the document before they go to the polls on November 2. . . . It took the White House close to seven months to clear a congressional report on US intelligence in the lead-up to the attacks, which killed all the occupants of four passenger jets, destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and severely damaged the Pentagon. . . . Moreover, the congressional account emerged from that vetting last July with dozens of blacked-out pages . . . Bush opposed the commission entirely, he initially didn't include funding they requested after they were established, he still has not provided documents the commission has said are necessary for their work," said the campaign of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

posted by LoZo 4:26 PM