Bush hated the 9-11 Commission, argued against forming it in the first place, hated the idea of Homeland Security, fought against providing info to it every step of the way, fought against having any of his top officials testify, fought against having to testify himself and was too scared to testify without having Cheney sit next to him and hold his hand, and gave lip-service to its recommendations only because it was so popular. Really, why should Bush be interested in finding out how the worst intelligence failure in our nation's history happened on his watch in hopes of preventing it from happening again?
Now that the 9-11 group wants to do a follow-up, they have no official standing, so Bush can tell them to take a hike.
Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission, said he was surprised and disappointed that the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several other executive branch agencies had failed to respond to requests made two months ago for updated information on the government's antiterrorism programs.That's right. Bush can't even be bothered to say a polite "no." He's just closing his eyes and ears and pretending they don't even exist.
"It's very disappointing," Mr. Kean said of the administration's failure to cooperate with the group. "All we're trying to do is make the public safer."
Mr. Kean said there had been no response of any sort to interview requests for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director; Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, and Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, among others.
