We Must Know the Causes of 9/11

By: Mike Hersh

I am not talking about making political hay about this. This is about our lives and safety. That's nonpartisan, at least to any decent human being. These are the most basic issues. No Patriot Act or Homeland Security Department can provide us with any national security unless we know the answers.

To be safe, we need to know what went wrong and why. It's very upsetting and troubling that certain politicians don't want us - or anyone else to know the truth. In intelligence jargon, those at the top inform others on a "need to know" basis. We cannot afford and should not let our elected officials hide the truth from us. We need to know.

As Helen Dewar of the Washington Post reported under the headline: "House GOP Stops 9/11 Probe Plan. Proponents of Proposal Point to White House Opposition." The Bush administration is still blocking any real inquiry into the causes of 9/11. As previously seen, the top elected Republicans are working to hide the truth from the American people, this time by backing out on an agreement as "A tentative congressional deal to create an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks fell apart hours after the White House and House Republican leaders objected to the plan, sources said last night."

All decent Americans want to know the truth, not to embarrass one party, agency, or another, but to prevent another terrorist attack, to save lives. However: "Commission backers questioned whether the White House was trying to scuttle the panel privately while endorsing it publicly and planned a news conference today to air their complaints and push again for approval." This is simply unconscionable.

At first, it seemed possible that the White House and other top politicians were ready to let the investigation finally begin. "Earlier in the day, three of the four top leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees, which are conducting a preliminary investigation of their own, announced they had reached agreement on a plan and said a fourth, House intelligence committee Chairman Porter J. Goss (R-FL), had signaled his approval."

Top Congressional leaders of both parties "acknowledged there were still some points of disagreement with the White House, which other sources said included the scope and duration of the inquiry, the composition of the panel, and subpoena powers". However, Bush and Cheney's demands to hobble the investigation proved too much to overcome. House Republicans caved.

The plans to launch a real investigation by adding "the commission proposal to the intelligence authorization bill, which is on a fast track for approval" fell apart under Republican obstructionism. This ended any hopes to even begin looking for answers, "before Congress recesse[d] for the Nov. 5 midterm elections". This because "when House and Senate conferees met later to ratify the accord, they were told that House Republican leaders would not bring the legislation to the full House for a vote if the commission proposal was included as written".

Why not? What could cause our elected officials to shirk their most basic duty - to protect us from terrorist attack? "'Clearly, it was because of [White House] objections', said a congressional aide." Why is the White House so steadfastly opposing a real investigation into 9/11? What are they trying to hide? Why are we letting them get away with it?