Leaders of the panel
examining the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States
complained yesterday that with the clock ticking on the enormous
investigative task before them, the Bush administration has been slow
and unresponsive in producing information.
Six months into their work, time is "slipping by,"
said Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the panel and former Republican
governor of New Jersey. The level of administration cooperation in the
next few weeks, he said, "will determine whether we will be able to do
our job within the time allotted."
The National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, with a
bipartisan membership and a broad mandate to examine the circumstances
that led to the terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, must, by statute, finish its work next May. Its report, which
may spotlight political and intelligence failings of both the Bush and
Clinton administrations, would be completed in the midst of the 2004
election season.
While Kean and his vice chairman, former Democratic
congressman Lee H. Hamilton, said they did not believe the Bush
administration is deliberately dragging its feet, both said they now
need "strong support" from the White House to obtain documents and
access to witnesses they need.
The panel's task is "monumental," Kean said, calling
it the "most wide-ranging outside investigation of American national
security in the history of the United States."
The commission is seeking millions of documents from
16 federal agencies, and seeking to interview numerous witnesses. The
vast majority of documents have not yet been provided. In addition,
commission members are balking at the insistence by intelligence
agencies that their representatives be present during interviews of
officials, a demand that Kean said amounted to "intimidation" that
would hamper the search for information.
Kean and Hamilton said they are satisfied with the
production of extremely sensitive national security materials from the
White House itself. And, they said, they are pleased to have recently
received reports of interrogations of al Qaeda captives.
But they said the Pentagon and the Justice
Department, and to a lesser extent the CIA and the Department of
Homeland Security, have failed to provide materials in a timely manner.
They said, however, that in recent days the Justice Department has
taken steps to speed responses to their requests, replacing one lawyer
reviewing the materials with five.
The "energy level" at agencies responding to the
commission has been "sharply increased in recent weeks," Hamilton told
reporters.
"We've got a deadline," Kean added. "If there is
pressure, good," he said.
Commission members complained in particular that they
have been prevented from gaining access to numerous witnesses who
figure in the pending conspiracy trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only
person charged in the United States in connection with the attacks.
The Pentagon came in for the harshest criticism for
failing to respond to requests for information relating to NORAD, the
North American Aerospace Defense Command, which safeguards the nation's
airspace. Defense Department officials did not return telephone calls
for comment yesterday.
Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said
yesterday that "we have cooperated with the commission's investigation
and have already produced thousands of pages of requested documents
that are relevant to the inquiry. Much of the information is highly
classified national security information and requires an added amount
of care in handling."
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan added that "the
president has directed the agencies to cooperate and to cooperate
quickly because this is important work."
Several relatives of those who died in the attacks
expressed frustration after the commission's news conference yesterday,
which detailed the panel's progress to date. "I don't know why anyone
and everyone is not cooperating," said Kristen Breitweiser, whose
husband died at the World Trade Center.
Breitweiser said she expects the families will lobby
Congress for more time for the commission to do a thorough report,
rather than accept a flawed and incomplete one. "If we need to go into
an election cycle, we'll go into an election cycle," she said.
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