INFORMATION, PLEASE

If there ever was a time when the government should not impede an investigation, it is with the national commission created to review the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The plane crashes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania took thousands of lives and launched the U.S. war on terrorism and led to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Given the attacks’ far-reaching ramifications, it is necessary to know if the government missed any key warnings that al-Qaida, and perhaps other groups, were planning such events.

So, it is disheartening to hear, from a commission status report released earlier this week, that some government agencies – the Pentagon and Department of Justice, in particular – have not been particularly cooperative. The bipartisan leaders of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States said they have received only a fraction of the millions of documents they have requested. Chairman Thomas Kean, former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, former Democratic member of the House from Indiana, also balked at the administration’s requirement that witnesses be interviewed in the presence of what they called government “minders.”

It is one thing to stonewall an investigation into the crafting of energy policy, it is quite another to impede an investigation into the world’s most deadly terrorist attack. That’s why they are right to bring their concerns to light and the White House, which initially opposed the creation of the review panel, should immediately address them. Government impediments to the investigation, intentional or not, must be removed so that the commission can do its work and issue a thorough report, as required, by next May.

What it finds may be disheartening but that is all the more reason to move ahead quickly and openly to find any mistakes and fix them. This review should not be about pointing fingers and assigning blame. Rather, it should be about finding out if there were intelligence failures and working to ensure that they are not repeated. The problems in the intelligence community, however, cannot be fixed however if they are continually kept under wraps. That is why the commission should be given immediate access to the documents it seeks. Failing more cooperation from the executive branch, the deadline for the commission’s report should be extended.

CIA and FBI insiders have gotten spectacular media coverage of their charges that the United States ignored key evidence that a major terrorist plot was afoot and that, at the other extreme, the administration hyped intelligence about Iraq’s weapons capabilities and Saddam Hussein’s ties to al-Qaida to justify attacking Baghdad and overthrowing the dictator. Such stories are very damaging to the credibility of the agencies and the administration. The public must know if they are true. That is why the government must expeditiously cooperate with the 9-11 investigation.