| July 28, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 15:
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9/11 Report Recommends Public Accountability, Greater Openness
The Joint House-Senate Inquiry released its long awaited report last week on the September 11th intelligence failures. One of the most interesting and disconcerting aspects of the report is what portions of the report the administration chose to classify. While the report outlines recommendations for increased accountability for intelligence agencies, reform of the classification system, and increased access to information for the American public, the administration chose to withhold information, seemingly to protect Saudi Arabia, a key foreign ally, rather than for national security reasons.
Among the still classified details are more than two dozen blank pages associated with the role of foreign countries in the attacks. Sens. Bob Graham (D- FL) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) criticized the excessive secrecy of the current administration. Graham told CBS News that the administration pushed to classify sections of the report to avoid political embarrassment rather than protect national security. To read Graham's floor statement, click here. For his part, Shelby agreed, noting to CNN that much more of the report could have been disclosed to the public. "My judgment is 95 percent of that information should be declassified, become uncensored, so the American people would know," Shelby told NBC's Meet The Press.
The report's release is interesting for advocates of government openness for several reasons. The report finds that the U.S. was fighting to prevent attacks "without the benefit of an alert, mobilized and committed American public." The report then notes that this may be the intelligence community's "most potent weapon" in the "'war' against Bin Laden.” In addition, the administration and intelligence community refused or delayed turning over documents to the report's investigators such as Presidential Daily Briefings, critical to understanding what information Presidents and senior advisors received.