- In an election year, a Republican President seeking his
second term can be expected to propose more tax cuts and, in this era of
right-wing profligacy, considerably more spending as well. Informed critics
calculate the costs of George W. Bush's latest proposals in the trillions
of dollars-a vague yet substantial sum that will come due sometime during
what budgetary jargon denotes as "the out years," meaning long
after Mr. Bush has departed the White House.
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- Excessive spending and tax breaks always elicit more
applause than controversies over the global "Axis of Evil," Niger's
phantom yellowcake and Iraq's weapons of mass disappearance. So do such
perennially popular topics as improved health care, the protection of heterosexual
marriage and, in the immortal words of the President's father, jobs, jobs,
jobs. Estimates of future deficits depend on whether the President actually
tries to send astronauts to live on Mars and the moon, or abandons that
vision in deference to disapproving poll numbers. In short, bread and maybe
circuses.
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- What Mr. Bush understandably chose not to highlight,
however, is his administration's continuing determination to undermine,
restrict and censor the investigation of the most significant event of
his Presidency: the attacks on New York and Washington of Sept. 11, 2001.
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- The President is fortunate that until now, the bipartisan
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has received
far less attention than controversies over the design for a World Trade
Center memorial. At every step, from his opposition to its creation, to
his abortive appointment of Henry Kissinger as its chair, to his refusal
to provide it with adequate funding and cooperation, Mr. Bush has treated
the commission and its essential work with contempt.
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- In the latest development, the President's aides refused
additional time for the 9/11 commission to complete its report. Although
the original deadline in the enabling legislation is May 27, the commissioners
recently asked for a few more months to ensure that their product will
be "thorough and credible."
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- Earlier this month, Thomas Kean-the former New Jersey
governor who has chaired the commission since Mr. Kissinger recused himself-explained
why the commission needs more time. As the genial Republican told The New
York Times, he is only permitted to read the most important classified
documents concerning 9/11 in a little closet known as a "sensitive
compartmented information facility" (or SCIF). He cannot photocopy
the documents, and if he takes notes about them, he must leave the notes
in the SCIF when he leaves.
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- Other recent statements by Mr. Kean, which he subsequently
modified, suggest that the White House has ample reason to worry about
what the commission's report will say. In December, he told CBS News that
he believes the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented-and that incompetent
officials were at fault for the failure to uncover and frustrate the plot.
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- Following the creation and staffing of the commission,
many months passed before the administration agreed to let Mr. Kean look
at any of those crucial documents. The commission still has hundreds of
interviews to conduct, and millions of pages to examine, before its members
begin to draft their conclusions.
-
- But the President's political advisers, concerned about
the political impact of the commission's report, are unsympathetic to its
requests for additional time-and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who would
have to approve an extension, is perfectly obedient to his masters in the
White House. According to Newsweek, the administration offered Mr. Kean
a choice: Either keep to the May deadline, or postpone release of the report
until December, when its findings cannot affect the election.
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- Mr. Bush doesn't want his re-election subject to any
informed judgment about the disaster that reshaped the nation and his Presidency.
But why should such crucial facts be withheld from the voters? What does
the President fear?
-
- Perhaps inadvertently, Mr. Kean provided a clue to the
answers in his Times interview. Asked whether he thinks the disaster "did
not have to happen," he replied, "Yes, there is a good chance
that 9/11 could have been prevented by any number of people along the way.
Everybody pretty well agrees our intelligence agencies were not set up
to deal with domestic terrorism . They were not ready for an internal attack."
Then, asked whether "anyone in the Bush administration [had] any idea
that an attack was being planned," he replied: "That is why we
are looking at the internal papers. I can't talk about what's classified.
[The] President's daily briefings are classified. If I told you what was
in them, I would go to jail."
-
- But the commission's final report may well indicate what
the President was told in his daily briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, when he was
sunning himself in Crawford, Tex.-as well as the many warnings he and his
associates were given by the previous administration. That kind of information
could send him back to Crawford for a permanent vacation.
-
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- You may reach Joe Conason via email at: jconason@observer.com.
- This column ran on page 5 in the 1/26/2004 edition of
The New York Observer.
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- Joe Conason is the author of
-
- The Hunting of the President:
- The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton
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- COPYRIGHT © 2004 THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
-
- http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp
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