Stonewalled by the C.I.A., by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton: "We call that obstruction."

[DeepModem Mom]

Stonewalled by the C.I.A.
By THOMAS H. KEAN and LEE H. HAMILTON
Published: January 2, 2008

Washington

MORE than five years ago, Congress and President Bush created the 9/11 commission. The goal was to provide the American people with the fullest possible account of the “facts and circumstances relating to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001” — and to offer recommendations to prevent future attacks. Soon after its creation, the president’s chief of staff directed all executive branch agencies to cooperate with the commission.

The commission’s mandate was sweeping and it explicitly included the intelligence agencies. But the recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those videotapes — and did not tell us about them — obstructed our investigation.

There could have been absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone at the C.I.A. — or the White House — of the commission’s interest in any and all information related to Qaeda detainees involved in the 9/11 plot. Yet no one in the administration ever told the commission of the existence of videotapes of detainee interrogations.

When the press reported that, in 2002 and maybe at other times, the C.I.A. had recorded hundreds of hours of interrogations of at least two Qaeda detainees, we went back to check our records. We found that we did ask, repeatedly, for the kind of information that would have been contained in such videotapes....

***

As a legal matter, it is not up to us to examine the C.I.A.’s failure to disclose the existence of these tapes. That is for others. What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.

(Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton served as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the 9/11 commission.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02kean.html

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[aquart]

2. Golly, so do I.

Did they keep this article in a desk drawer for five years? Lose it when a hard drive crashed? Why are they so late to the party?

Am I supposed to believe they didn't know they were being suckered?

[fascisthunter]

3. no shit (nt)

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I'm assuming this is a direct response to the now known existence of the tapes --

and I'm wondering if the criminal probe announced today by the DOJ is a response to this op-ed piece published in the WP, where offical Washington couldn't miss it.

[Parche]

4. 9/11 Tapes

I think those are the wrong tapes that they should be looking for.....

They need to get the DC tapes from the Hotel and Gas Station across the street from the
Pentagon....why are they not talking about these tapes?

Those along with bldg 7 are the smoking gun in the 9/11 scam....:hi:

[Virginia Dare]

5. So, I guess we can all agree now that the 9/11 Commission Report..

was complete and utter bullshit?

[Quantess]

7. Interesting.

K & R