Salon interviews former Georgia Senator Max Cleland about troubles the 9/11 Commission (which he is still a member of) is having in obtaining documents from not just the White House. ] Let me walk you through this thing here. First of all, ] we're not talking about a prescription drug plan under ] Medicare here. We're talking about the most serious ] assault on the homeland of the United States since the ] British invaded during the war of 1812. This is the deal. ] The joint inquiry made up of Democrats and Republican ] members of Congress, they issued a report [this summer], ] but they couldn't get at the PDB's. They kicked the can ] down the street so that the 9/11 commission could get at ] the full story. That's the reason for this independent ] commission, with the time and energy and staff to get at ] all of this. Had the Joint Intelligence Committee been ] able to do its job, there wouldn't have even been a 9/11 ] commission. ] ] We're coming down to the final [months] of the commission ] and we're still messing around with access issues. This ] is a key item. I don't think any independent commission ] can let an agency or the White House dictate to it how ] many commissioners see what. So this "deal," we shouldn't ] be dealing. If somebody wants to deal, we issue ] subpoenas. That's the deal. That was the deal with the ] FAA, that was the deal with Norad. ] ] And the reason is principle. Clinton has agreed to ] cooperate with the commission and is eager to come before ] it. So why doesn't this White House, which was on the ] bridge when the ship got attacked, why doesn't this White ] House want to know everything that happened on their ] watch so that it can't happen again? Why they want to ] play games with this commission, to make deals, I don't ] know. It's information control. It's not transparency. ] ] I don't know if they're hiding something. But the public ] will never know and the 9/11 commission will never know ] because under the current deal, a minority of ] commissioners will see a small number of documents and ] then brief the White House on what they're going to tell ] the other commissioners. Wait a minute! That doesn't make ] any sense at all. Former Senator Max Cleland Interview: 'The President ought to be ashamed' |