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October 1, 2006 9/11 Panel Members Weren’t Told of Meeting By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action. Details of the previously undisclosed meeting on July 10, 2001, two months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, were first reported...

Of all the 9/11 anniversary coverage this morning, FNC was absolutely the best, letting the unadulterated tape tell the story of that savage September day.Of course, there were others, and as you might have guessed in advance, CNN's was easily the worst. Most notably, not once was Flight 175's actual impact into the South Tower ever shown. But one particularly ugly moment immediately floated to the top of the CNN bowl. Former Dem Congressman (he didn't last long) and former 'd-list' DLC hack Tim Roemer was given 5 minutes by CNN to make a free, but utterly tasteless & depraved...

There is no evidence that Pentagon officials intentionally misled the Sept. 11 commission when they gave inaccurate accounts about actions at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, a Defense Department spokesman said. A forthcoming report from the Pentagon's inspector general will address the question of whether military commanders intentionally misled the commission, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Brian Maka. But "there is nothing that indicates the information provided to the commission was knowingly false," Maka said. The inspector general's report is the result of a compromise among commissioners, some of whom concluded that the Pentagon may have been deliberately...

WASHINGTON - The government is still failing to enact many swift and strong security changes to prevent terror attacks, the former Sept. 11 Commission has concluded. More than four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the government has not done enough to stop nuclear proliferation, give emergency first responders adequate communications systems and ensure that homeland security grants are going to the most high-risk communities, former commissioners said Friday. "We're taking small steps when we need a giant leap," said former Democratic commissioner Timothy Roemer, who is now president of the Center for National Policy at George Mason University...

Scandal: Remember Sandy Berger? He was Bill Clinton's national security adviser. Until Tuesday, he was a top adviser to John Kerry. Now, he's in big trouble.The former Clinton White House official is being investigated for taking notes and classified documents from the National Archives as he prepared for the 9-11 hearings.Berger claims he accidentally took the documents, some of which he later threw out. He claims further he wasn't trying to hide anything from the 9-11 commission and would cooperate with any investigation. He blamed it all on "sloppiness."Sorry, but Berger's bizarre behavior raises many questions. Included among those are...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Bluntly contradicting the Bush administration, the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaida target the United States. In a chilling report that sketched the history of Osama bin Laden's network, the commission said his far-flung training camps were "apparently quite good." Terrorists-to-be were encouraged to "think creatively about ways to commit mass murder," it added. Bin Laden made overtures to Saddam for assistance, the commission said in the staff report, as he did with leaders in Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere as he sought to build...

The value of the national commission now investigating the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, is that it forces the nation to look beyond its feelings of grief and awe, and grimly assess the things that could have been done better. This is a service to the future, but it is never a dismissal of the heroism of the past. We needed these respectful but hardheaded men and women to ask tough questions about the Bush administration's vigilance before 9/11, and this week we needed to hear their stern questions about New York City's emergency response to the attack on the...

Kean's remark sparked laughter among the assembled reporters because it turned upside down the assumption of the question, and of much of official Washington: that the White House requested the joint appearance, scheduled for April 29, so Cheney could coach Bush on his answers. While Bush has declined to explain the rationale for the joint meeting, Democrats charge that Cheney is a ''ventriloquist," and even a number of independent observers say it appears that the two men are trying to keep their stories straight.

WASHINGTON, April 16 — The commission investigating the 9/11 attacks has concluded that immigration policies promoted as essential to keeping the country safe from future attacks have been largely ineffective, producing little, if any, information leading to the identification or apprehension of terrorists. The commission said one program had proved so fruitless that it was discontinued after less than a year. The critical assessment was released this week as part of a preliminary finding to a final report due in July. It returned a spotlight to programs that have been controversial from the start, aimed mostly at people, like the...

WASHINGTON - The CIA (news - web sites) missed the big-picture significance of "tell-tale indicators" of impending terrorist attacks, partly because of its culture of a piecemeal approach to intelligence analysis, a federal panel probing the Sept. 11 attacks said Wednesday. With the commission holding a second day of hearings on U.S. intelligence leading up to the 2001 hijackings, preliminary findings from the panel's latest report concluded that a more detailed look at clues prior to Sept. 11 could have unveiled the plot behind the attacks. A more strategic analysis could have identified that the plot might require suicide hijackers...

David Shippers, former House legal counsel for the impeachment investigation and author of Sell Out, was interviewed by Quinn on his radio show this AM. Shippers had some very interesting things to say....some examples, Shippers claims that he contacted the Justice Dept weeks agon with warnings that a large terrorist strike involving southern Manhattan was imimnent. He was ignored. He also states that our best Middle Eastern terrorist expert, an FBI agent, has yet to be consulted. Essentially, Shippers is stating that when all is said and done the American public will find that the authorities had lots of ...

<p>After several months of negotiations, plus a few unseemly public threats, the federal commission investigating the events of 9/11 has reached agreeement with the White House for access to some of the nation's most classified intelligence briefings. This is a dramatic concession by the Bush administration: For the first time, outsiders be will be allowed to read daily briefing material meant for only the president and a tiny handful of top officials.</p>

Kissinger steps down as chairman of 9/11 panel 12/13/2002 Associated Press WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger stepped down Friday as chairman of a panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, citing controversy over potential conflicts of interest with his private-sector clients. "It is clear that, although specific potential conflicts can be resolved in this manner, the controversy would quickly move to the consulting firm I have built and own," Kissinger wrote in a letter to President Bush, who appointed him. "I have, therefore, concluded that I cannot accept the responsibility you proposed." The decision was another blow...

The Bush administration is balking at a request from Congress that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld testify in public before the Congressional committee investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, government officials said today. The administration's resistance has frustrated lawmakers by making it difficult for the joint Senate and House committee to schedule public hearings, even as it races against a deadline to complete its work by the end of the current session of Congress. The dispute apparently centers on the administration's reluctance to have the two secretaries answer questions about whether they have...

<p>"As far as I know, there is no smoking gun," said Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat and member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.</p> <p>Without any evidence pointing to a single intelligence breakdown, the panel is working on identifying and fixing problems in the U.S. intelligence system, members told the newspaper.</p>