http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32309-2004Jul6.html
9/11 Panel Defends Intelligence
Commissioners Had Access to Same Sources as Cheney
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 7, 2004; Page A02
The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said
yesterday that it has had access to the same information on alleged
ties between al Qaeda and Iraq as Vice President Cheney, who suggested
last month that the panel may not have been privy to all available
intelligence when it found limited links between the two.
The one-sentence statement, issued by Chairman Thomas H. Kean (R) and
Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton (D), continues the debate over the
findings on Iraq by the Sept. 11 commission, which issued a report
last month concluding that Iraq and al Qaeda had limited contacts but
had not developed a "collaborative relationship."
A day later, in a June 17 television interview, Cheney said he
believed there was a "general relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda
and said he "probably" had information that the commission had not
seen. Commission officials asked the administration to give the panel
any additional evidence, but they have said since that none has been
provided.
"After examining available transcripts of the Vice President's public
remarks, the 9-11 Commission believes it has access to the same
information the Vice President has seen regarding contacts between al
Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 9-11 attacks," Kean and Hamilton said in
their statement yesterday.
Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems said the vice president welcomed the
commission's statement because it "puts to rest a non-story."
"As we've said all along, the administration provided the commission
with unprecedented access to sensitive information so they could
perform their mission," Kellems said. "The vice president critiqued
some press coverage of the staff report. He did not criticize the
commission's work."
Several commission officials did not return calls for comment yesterday.
Although the commission did not provide more details, the statement
suggests that it will stand by its assessment of the relationship
between Hussein's government and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in
its final report, which is due to be completed by July 26. The
findings initially prompted some squabbling between Democratic and
Republican commissioners, but one panel official said recently that
"everyone is on the same page" after a detailed briefing by commission
staff two weeks ago.
In two interim reports issued last month, the commission's
investigators said that they found "no credible evidence" that Iraq
and al Qaeda had cooperated in attacks on the United States and that a
purported April 9, 2001, meeting between an Iraqi intelligence officer
and Mohamed Atta, leader of the terrorist hijackers, never occurred.
The panel said that the FBI placed Atta in Virginia on April 4 through
a bank surveillance video and that records show calls were made from
the hijacker's cell phone in Florida on April 6, 9, 10 and 11. There
is also "no evidence that Atta ventured overseas again or re-entered
the United States before July, when he traveled to Spain and back
under his true name," one of the reports said.
Cheney, who previously had said that the alleged meeting was "pretty
well confirmed," said during the June 17 interview on CNBC that "we
just don't know" whether it happened.
"We have never been able to confirm that, nor have we been able to
knock it down," Cheney said.
� 2004 The Washington Post Company
[Todays Threads] [This Message] [Subscription] [Fast Unsubscribe] [User Settings] [Donations and Support]
