Saturday, November 08, 2003
Here it comes, folks...
9/11 Panel Issues Subpoena to Pentagon
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks stepped up pressure on the Bush administration to cooperate by issuing a subpoena on Friday to the Pentagon.
Members said they were still weighing a subpoena to the administration for Oval Office documents President Bush received in the days before Sept. 11, 2001, although the panel chose not to issue one today.
The 10-member panel said in a statement that it had encountered "serious delays" in obtaining information from the Defense Department. It voted to subpoena the Pentagon for documents, tapes and transcripts involving the actions of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, on the morning of Sept. 11, as the suicide hijackings were being carried out. The Defense Command is responsible for protecting American airspace.
"In several cases we were assured that all requested records had been produced but we then discovered, through investigation, that these assurances were mistaken," the panel said. "We are especially dismayed by problems in the production of the records of activities of Norad and certain Air Force commands on Sept. 11."
Members of the panel, which is known formally as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, say they also want access to information about communications between Norad and Air Force One, on which President Bush was traveling on Sept. 11.
Full story.
[UPDATE: Due to the discovery of a memo written by a congressional staffer indicating that the Democrats would like to investigate pre-9/11 intelligence in the White House itself, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has been disbanded. "We know enough, I guess," said Kean. "That'll just be the end of it, then."]
posted by Blicero : 11/08/2003 01:09:00 AM
