Posted on: Tuesday, October 28, 2003

EDITORIAL
Sept. 11 stonewalling provokes suspicion

With unresolved questions about the link between the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and America's pre-emptive war against Iraq, the Bush administration would be wise not to fuel suspicions that it's keeping secrets.

But what else is the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks — not to mention the public — supposed to think when the White House resists releasing intelligence reports?

The Bush administration insists it has handed over more than 2 million pages of documents to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9-11 Commission.

But those materials do not include the information the panel needs to establish what the president knew before the attacks. "Those are very sensitive documents," Bush said yesterday.

You don't say.

It's no secret that the Bush administration has been less than thrilled at the prospect of a 10-member federal commission getting its hands on intelligence material Bush received in the weeks just before the attacks. National security, obviously, requires discretion. But this is, in the immortal words of Howard Baker, a case of "what did he know and when did he know it?"

Withholding the documents only serves to foster insecurity that we have not been told the whole story. And Republicans are just as troubled by White House stonewalling as the Democrats:

"Americans and our allies across the globe must have confidence in our leadership," said Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9-11 Commission and the Republican former governor of New Jersey, says he is willing to subpoena documents from the White House if they're not turned over in the coming weeks.

After all, how else is his panel to propose reforms in the nation's intelligence agencies, among other tasks, if it doesn't know what intelligence was available before Sept. 11?

If there's nothing to hide, the White House has nothing to worry about. And if there is, we'd rather find out through responsible channels than through leaks.