http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGABJL88ZMD.htmlRelatives of Sept. 11 Victims Criticize Agreement Between White House and Commission
By Laurence Arnold Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Relatives of people who perished in the Sept. 11 attacks say a federal commission (which has until May 27 to submit its report on the terror attacks and on related issues of diplomacy, U.S. intelligence-gathering, immigration, commercial aviation and the flow of assets to terror organizations) accepted too many conditions in striking a deal with the White House over access to secret intelligence documents.
The Family Steering Committee, a group of victims' relatives who are monitoring the work of the independent commission, criticized the agreement announced late Wednesday. Under the deal, only some of the 10 commissioners will be allowed to examine classified intelligence documents, and their notes will be subject to White House review.
"All 10 commissioners should have full, unfettered and unrestricted access to all evidence," the group said in a statement Thursday. It urged the public release of "the full, official, and final written agreement." <snip>
The dispute centered on access to the "presidential daily brief," a classified written intelligence report Bush gets each morning.
The White House confirmed last year that one such report in August 2001, a month before the attacks, mentioned that al-Qaida might try to hijack U.S. passenger planes. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice has described the report as an analysis, rather than a warning, and said hijacking was mentioned in a traditional sense, not as it was used on Sept. 11. <snip>