Members of the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks called on Congress to determine whether the Pentagon withheld intelligence information showing that a secret American military unit had identified Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as potential threats more than a year before the attacks.
The former commission members said the information, if true, could rewrite an important chapter of the history of the intelligence failures before Sept. 11, 2001.
"I think this is a big deal," said John F. Lehman, a Republican member of the commission who was Navy secretary in the Reagan administration. "The issue is whether there was in fact surveillance before 9/11 of Atta and, if so, why weren't we told about it? Who made the decision not to brief the commission's staff or the commissioners?"
The above is from Philip Shenon and Douglas Jehl's "9/11 Panel Members Ask Congress to Learn if Pentagon Withheld Files on Hijackers in 2000" in this morning's New York Times.
Among others, Clara's e-mailing to note Maureen Dowd is back from vacation. Clara noted Maureen Dowd for Women's History Month back in March. (In "thank God!" news, Thomas Friedman is now on vacation. Betty e-mailed on that.)
The scheduled topics for Democracy Now! today (thanks Rod):
FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and human rights lawyer David Cole.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
