1115.org

In my continuing effort to get arrested for treason…

Now I dialed 911 a long time ago
Don’t you see how late they’re reactin’
They only come and they come when they wanna
So get the morgue embalm the goner
-Public Enemy

In the aftermath of September 11, the administration reluctantly set up an independent commission to look into the causes of the terrorist attacks and asses blame on the agencies responsible for the largest intelligence failure in the history of this country. The original chairman of the commission was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and the vice-chairman was former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. Much was made of the fact that Kissinger is Jewish and Mitchell is of Arab decent. Within weeks, both resigned citing conflicts of interest (both had clients in Saudi Arabia and other Mid East countries.) Former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean then took the job despite his own financial ties to Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law.

Since day one, the Bush administration has been refusing to release volumes of documents regarding intelligence including the Prez’s daily briefings in the months leading up to September 11th.

They won’t release the information to people with TOP SECRET status.

This week, the commission threatened to issue subpoenas for the information they want. A commission that was created by the administration now feels that they must take that same administration to court to get the information they were created to find. In which alternate universe did I just wake up?

Since this administration has a well known fetish for secrecy and smoky back rooms (energy task force, conflicts of interest, etc) it isn’t surprising that they are keeping these documents close.

The problem is this: If the commission charged with looking into September 11th can’t have access to these documents because of national security concerns, what is in them? If these briefings speak of holes in our security, why haven’t these holes been plugged in 2+ years? If they embarrass certain people, so what? What could possibly be more important than getting to the bottom of this?

The commission expires in May 2004. Joe Lieberman and John McCain have indicated that they would do whatever they could to keep the commission together beyond May. All of this could become very sticky in an election year.

I think it is obvious that the administration considers their reelection the top priority. Could it be that they are worried that people will find out that they missed important signals that if picked up could have prevented the attacks?

For that reason and many others, it is the administration that is a joke and an enemy of the public they were elected to serve.