Bush responds to calls for a commission to probe 9/11

After months of stalling, the White House this week embraced the formation of an independent commission that we hope will find an answer to the question Americans have been asking for more than a year: Why did 9/11 occur? The intent of Republicans and Democrats in Congress who have been pushing for such an investigation isn't to place blame. Rather, it is to find out which government agencies failed and what corrective action is needed to prevent similar terrorist attacks on America's mainland.
President Bush should have quickly embraced the congressional initiative, seeing as how he and key members of his administration have been warning since Sept. 11, 2001, that another attack is more than a mere possibility. Indeed, just this week, the White House and intelligence agencies put out the word that a major campaign against the United States may well be in the offing. They advised all Americans to be ever vigilant.
But it would be helpful to at least have some insight as to how America came to be so vulnerable that Islamic extremists under the guidance of Osama bin Laden were able to hijack four airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center twin towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and into farmland in western Pennsylvania.
Bush's concerns that Democrats would play politics with the commission -- the 10-member panel would be evenly divided between Democratic and Republican appointees -- were unfounded. Senate leaders from both parties assured him that the private citizens who would make up the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States would be of the highest caliber and have experience in national security affairs and law enforcement.
Demands
Nonetheless, the White House balked and so Congress gave in to the administration's demand that it choose the chairman. In addition, members of Congress agreed to the administration's position that any subpoenas must be issued at the request of at least six members.
"Our agreement protects the principles we and the families of Sept. 11 have pursued in calling for such a commission since last November," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told The New York Times. "Equal bipartisan membership, a broad mandate to review policies and responses related to the terrorist attacks across the range of government agencies, and the subpoena power to dig deep to find out what went wrong and how we can make sure it never happens again."
We would urge the president and his administration to use McCain's words as a guide when they are asked to participate in the inquiry.
There is precedent for such an independent inquiry -- the Warren Commission was convened to determine who was behind the assassination of President Kennedy -- and there is no reason to believe that this effort will become a witch hunt.
Because of the ever-present threat of another terrorist attack, the American people have a right to know what went wrong on 9/11.