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This article appeared first in GoMemphis

 

9/11 commission gets tough

 

October 21, 2003

 

AFTER TRYING since May to get documents from the Federal Aviation Administration, the independent commission that is investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks took the unusual step of subpoenaing the records. The commission didn't cry obstructionism, but it came close.

The data the commission seeks deal with the critical 29 minutes between the time the FAA knew the commercial flight that eventually hit the Pentagon had been diverted and notification of the North American air defense command. Details were not forthcoming, but apparently the FAA isn't the only agency dragging its feet.

Commission chairman Thomas Kean said he hoped the subpoena "will tell other agencies that haven't complied with our requests to get on the stick and do so." White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has sent a memo to Cabinet departments and agencies instructing them to cooperate.

But the commission may not meet its May 27, 2004, deadline for submitting its final report. Congress should extend that deadline, to disabuse other federal agencies of the idea that they might be able to run out the clock.

The administration surely would not want a report detailing possible failings that led to 9/11 coming out in the middle of a presidential campaign. Congress can move the deadline past election day. The politics don't matter; the thoroughness and accuracy of the report and its proposals do.

 

 

Copyright 2003, GoMemphis. All Rights Reserved.

 

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