Posted on 05/24/2003 6:10:13 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
Clintonistas on 9/11 Commission Hunt for Bush Cover-up
Two members of the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks who excoriated the Bush administration for its handling of the disaster during public hearings this week are said to be aggressive Democratic partisans with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Complaining that the presence on the commission of high powered Washington lawyer Richard Ben-Veniste and former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick all but guaranteed that the investigation would target the Republican White House, the Wall Street Journal observed last December that the two 9/11 probers were "Democratic partisans [who are] one or two steps removed from James Carville."
"Ms. Gorelick was Hillary Clinton's eyes and ears at Janet Reno's Justice Department," the Journal noted. "Mr. Ben-Veniste was the party's designated sandbag man on the Senate's Whitewater probe."
During Thursday's session, Ben-Veniste grilled former Federal Aviation Administration head Jane Garvey on why her agency failed to notify the North American Aerospace Defense Command that America was under attack until 22 minutes after the World Trade Center's second tower was struck.
Garvey said her recollection was that she made the notification significantly earlier, according to New York Newsday's account of the exchange. But Garvey added that she'd have to check her own records to be sure.
On Friday Ben-Veniste revisited the topic again, complaining to NORAD chief Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, "Given the awareness of the terrorist use of planes as weapons, how was it that NORAD was ... not better prepared to protect against the hijacking of commercial jets?"
Ben-Veniste managed to elicit the response he was looking for, with the NORAD chief replying, "In retrospect, I would agree with your comment."
Relatives of 9/11 victims who have voiced suspicion of the Bush White House were delighted with Ben-Veniste's prosecutorial style.
Kristen Breitweiser, who became a leading advocate for creating the commission after her husband, Ronald, was killed in the World Trade Center, broke into a smile as she watched Ben-Veniste press Garvey repeatedly, Newsday said.
"They asked the exact questions we want answered," a beaming Breitweiser told the paper. "To hear someone put on the spot and possibly be held accountable is so gratifying."
Apart from Ben-Vensite's stint running interference for the former first couple in the Whitewater investigation, he also represented the Clintons' handpicked Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe when McAuliffe came under suspicion in the campaign finance probe five years ago.
Another one of Ben-Veniste's more intriguing clients was Alder Berriman "Barry" Seal, who was assassinated in 1986 after he began cooperating with a federal probe into an Arkansas drug ring that flourished while Clinton was governor of the state.
For her part, Ms. Gorelick used Friday's hearing to put the Bush administration in the crosshairs for not making airline security a priority before the 9/11 attacks.
According to the Associated Press, Gorelick grilled Bush Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on what she described as "frantic warnings in the months before the attacks that a major act of terror was in the works."
"Did this higher level of chatter ... result in any action across the government?" she asked. Before the Bush official could reply, Gorelick snapped, "I take it your answer is no."
"That's correct," Mineta answered sheepishly.
In a related development, the Hudson Institute's Bill Whelan noted Friday that Sen. Hillary Clinton had suddenly joined presidential candidates Sen. Bob Graham and Sen. Joseph Lieberman in complaints that the Bush administration was dragging its feet on the 9/11 commission requests for information, with Graham going so far as to allege a Bush 9/11 cover-up.
"It's a win-win for her," Whelan told WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander. "If this thing fizzles, then watch how fast she gets away from it - it's Bob Graham's idea, she gets the heck away from it."
But if the 9/11 commission turns up damaging information, "then Hillary runs [for president] in 2008 and she's got that as a talking point," Whelan said.
The Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford said that Democrats on the commission are looking for evidence that Bush officials ignored warnings that might have predicted a 9/11-syle attack.
"Right after 9/11 Condi Rice said several times that they had no warning of airliners being used as weapons," he told the radio duo. "If Graham's right and there's something in there that shows they did get that warning, Rice is in the hotseat."
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