Agreement between 9/11 panel and White House

In a bit of - hopefully - good news, the White House and 9/11 panel have come to an agreement that will allow at least some members of the panel to see the classified documents they recently threatened to subpoena.

The 10-member panel will designate a subcommittee that will examine the most sensitive documents and report back, commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste said.

“We believe this agreement will prove satisfactory and enable us to get our job done,” according to a statement by the commission.

The White House was pleased by the development. “We look forward to the recommendations to make America safer,” spokeswoman Ashley Snee said. At President Bush’s direction, she said, the White House “has been working closely with the commission to ensure they have the information they need to be successful.”

Bush said last month that the dispute concerned “the presidential daily brief,” a classified written intelligence report he gets each morning.

In addition, they commission has sent subpoenas to both the FAA and the Pentagon. I'm glad that the White House has agreed to this compromise and I hope it really will give the commission the information its needs to do their job properly. I'm also very pleased that the head of the commission, former Governor Thomas Kean, has been so stubborn in doing his job and didn't let the White House's delaying tactics deter him from doing what he thinks is necessary. I just hope that there won't be any kind of trickery or other dishonesty involved in how the White House upholds their end of this deal. Sad to say, I tend to expect that there will be - at least from this administration. Maybe they can surprise me for once. It'd be nice...

Posted by thorswitch at November 13, 2003 02:16 AM | TrackBack