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Congressional report says (blank) and (blank)By BILL ADAIR, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published July 25, 2003
WASHINGTON - You won't learn much on page 406 of the congressional report about the Sept. 11 attacks. The page begins "The Joint Inquiry also found ... " but is followed by 23 blank lines, to indicate sentences that have been redacted. It's the same on page 286, where the Bush administration declassified only one word: and. The rest of the page is blanked out. Leaders of the congressional investigation said Thursday that the administration was uncooperative with their probe and refused to declassify important information. "We repeatedly encountered obstacles in getting necessary information from the Bush administration," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a panel member who now is the House minority leader. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said "There's a lot of stuff in here. But there's a lot of information that's not in here that should be, in my judgment." To highlight the problem, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., brought 27 poster-sized pages to a news conference. Most of the pages were blanked out. "I remain deeply disturbed by the amount of material that has been censored," said Graham, co-chairman of the panel and a presidential candidate. "It has cost us considerable momentum for legislative reform." Many of the redacted sentences are found in sections of the report that discuss foreign support for the hijackers, covert action against Osama bin Laden and terrorist activities since 1979. The names of many FBI agents and CIA officials also are blanked out. Graham said many of the redactions were absurd. In several cases, the Bush administration refused to declassify details that were allowed to appear elsewhere in the report. The bipartisan report also detailed problems the congressional panel encountered when it tried to obtain intelligence documents. The Bush administration often balked at providing documents or put restrictions on how congressional investigators could obtain copies. After the report was finished in December, it took seven months to get the administration's approval to publish it. Many sections, especially those involving a foreign government that provided aid to the hijackers, still have not been declassified. Asked about the committee's complaints, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "nearly 80 percent of the report" had been released to the public. "Only the most sensitive of national security information, which could potentially compromise the sources and methods or otherwise harm our national security, is not being declassified."  © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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