If they do, what powers do they have over it?
Just as with all other reports that have to be declassified, the 9-11 commission will have to submit a draft of its report to the White House so that classified information can be censored. That’s the only power over the commission that I can think of.
The new Iraq WMD commission that is just starting its work – the one that Bush announced back in February, if memory service, and on which John McCain will serve – is 100% under the thumb of the White House. There is not a single thing that is independent about that commission.
Well, Bush did pick the members of the 9/11 commission, IIRC.
And Bush has definitely kept the 9/11 commission underfunded (only $11 million, vs. $30 million to investigate the Columbia shuttle disaster).
And the White House will edit the commission’s final report before it gets released to the public.
Whatever the legislative points are, I think it’s not unreasonable to say that the Bush White House effectively has the 9/11 commission under its thumb.
No. Bush picked the Chairman. Five members were picked by Democratic leaders of Congress, four more were picked by Republican leaders.
Congress chose to appropriate that level of funding. Further, Congress added another $1 million for the 9-11 commission when it extended the deadline for the report. I don’t think the commission has complained about being underfunded.
Okay, I must have gotten this confused with the “Iraq intelligence failure” commission. One of them was hand-picked by the White House, IIRC.
Though now I hear that the Chairman, Thomas Kean, has “a history of investments that link him to Saudi investors who have financially supported both George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden in the past. Especially noteworthy are his former business connections to Khalid bin Mahfouz, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law and alleged terrorist financier.” Hmmmm…
Well, as it turns out, I misremembered this one as well – the commission wanted an additional $11 million, since they only had three to start with.
And there definitely have been complaints about the lack of funding:
And to be fair, I saw one source claim the commission eventually got another $9 million from the Administration, but haven’t been able to verify it from anywhere else. Even so, the very fact that the White House controls the purse strings of the 9/11 commission should give one pause, don’t you agree?
And if today was representative of what we got for our money, even $3 million was too much for this farce. We paid $11 million so that former congresscritters and various present and past administration flunkies from both administrations could grandstand and spew BS on national television. Our tax dollars hard at work as usual, I see…
The OP was a factual answer and has been answered perfectly by Squink and Ravenman. Nothing further to add except the whole thing made me ill listening to it.
-XT
xtisme, that’s an interesting response to the questioning! Did you still watch all three hours?
We were glued to the TV here.
We watched it on MSNBC and followed it with a special edition of Hardball. One of the 9/11 widows that was interviewed said that several VIPs were cautioned not to fly that morning – prior to the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon.
I’m behind on my rumors. Any truth to this one?
Well, I did find this…
Also, this happened a couple of a months earlier but…
I wouldn’t say the 9/11 Commission was a waste of money – why, today we got Condi Rice to totally disavow the “George W. Bush is tough on terror” myth, when she admitted that the Bush Administration decided not to take retaliatory action for the USS Cole attack because they were afraid a “tit-for-tat” response would embolden Al Qaeda and provoke them into attacking us. :eek:
Contrast this with Dr. Rice’s testimony under oath about the hearings:
" I thank you for helping us to find a way to meet the nation’s need to learn all we can about the September 11th attacks, while preserving important constitutional principles.
The commission, and those who appear before it, have a vital charge. We owe it to those that we lost and to their loved ones and to our country, to learn all that we can about that tragic day and the events that led to it. "
As far as I can tell, xtisme and Dr. Rice have a conflict of opinion. XT’s all but accusing Dr. Rice of either perjury of incompetence.
Criminal or incompetent isn’t an unusual choice to have to make when considering members of the Admin.
What’s most disturbing re the OP is that Bush’s claims that Rice couldn’t legally testify before this “congressional body” were knowingly false (or at least, it’s a “Reagan dilemma” – is he lying, or ignorant of important things he should know?) because, of course, it’s not a Congressional body at all. But Bush knows that most people will see it that way b/c of its composition and venue.
See this editorial by Walter Cronkite; also a Daniel Schorr commentary within the past week or so, but I can’t locate it right now, which also cites precedents Bush certainly had to know about.
It’s really sad that we’ve replaced our lying, dope-smoking draft dodger with a lying, coke-sniffing draft dodger. 
But seriously, that just put him right out of the ballpark. So he treats me like a whore by paying me off with tax rebates (loved the note, Georgie) – I don’t get ruffled easy. But to stand up and openly lie, play us for fools, then snicker and condescend about it. Too much. No num-nums this year, Dubya.
I was just thinking about that sham of a Iraq WMD commission that is under the thumb of the White House.
Since that commission is entirely within the Executive Branch, there are no separation of powers issues to prevent Rice from testifying before it in open session.
Let’s just sit back and wait to see if that happens.
Fortunately, for the American electorate there’s the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence looking into things as well. It is the only investigation that’s looking into the WH’s use of intel to sell the invasion of Iraq to the American electorate and Congress, specifically the Office of Special Plans (OSP), the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG), and the use of the information provided by the Amhed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress (INC).