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November 15, 2002
On Commission
White House Yields on a 9/11 Inquiry Backed by Congress
By DAVID FIRESTONE
WASHINGTON, Friday, Nov. 15 - Yielding to intense pressure from families of Sept. 11 victims, the White House agreed last night to a Congressional compromise that would create an independent commission to investigate the terrorist attacks. The House immediately approved a bill to establish the commission on a 366-to-3 vote before adjourning for the year early this morning. The Senate was expected to pass it later today.
[...] Members of the panel, which will be known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, are intended to be nationally recognized American citizens, none currently holding office, with broad experience in national security affairs and law enforcement. Former cabinet members and elected officials have been mentioned for the positions. The commission will issue a report to the president and to Congress 18 months after it begins, which could provide an embarrassing political issue in the middle of the 2004 election campaign.
[...] The agreement calls for two commission members each to be appointed by the Senate Republican leader, the Senate Democratic leader, the House Republican leader and the House Democratic leader. (Mr. McCain's choice will be one of the Senate Republican leader's two appointments.) The president will choose the chairman, and Congressional Democrats the vice chairman. Subpoenas can be issued by either the chairman and vice chairman together, or by any six members.
It's sad that it's taken over a year for Congress and the White House to finally reach an agreement on how to handle the necessary investigation into the 9/11 attacks. Of course, given the White House's initial stand against any kind of an investigation, this certainly is progress.
It does sound like they've taken a number of steps to help make sure that the commission is reasonably fair, though I am a bit concerned about what kind of a chairman Bush will appoint. The structure of the plan, however, does not put all of the power into the chairman's hands alone. Each party will have 5 members on the commission, and any 6 members can opt to issue a subpoena if they feel it is necessary.
It will be good if this commission can help answer questions as to what the US could have done mre effectively to help prevent this disaster, and even better if we can learn enough to prevent this kind of a tragedy from occuring again - especially if we can figure out how to do it without having to give up our freedoms in the name of security.
I do very much believe that, had the intelligence community been more attentive to the information it had access to, or had been better able to coordinate across agency lines, that there would have been a very good chance that the attacks could have been prevented. Rather than trying to coordinate and analyze databases full of consumer and commercial information (under the "Total Information Awareness" Program), perhaps the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, and NSA, along with state and local law enforcement agencies should work to coordinate their databases of tips, interviews, and other information they've received through various investigations. If all of that information could be cross-referenced and analyzed on a regular basis, I think it would be an incredibly effective tool for helping to stop terroristic activity (and might even help capture some "regular" criminals in the process), without violating the average citizen's privacy or restricting our civil liberties any further.
Posted by thorswitch at November 15, 2002 06:02 AM
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