WTF Is It Now?!?

LOOK! SADDAM!
WASHINGTON (Salon) - House and Senate intelligence committees held their first public hearing looking back to the intelligence failures preceding the attacks of Sept. 11 and whether or not more could have been done to stop them.

Among the most chilling revelations from the joint committee's probe were the warnings, dating back to 1994, that terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were considering using hijacked airplanes as weapons to fly into government and high-rise buildings. The World Trade Center was named as a possible target for a hijacked plane as far back as 1998. And since the attack, the committee reported, both the Bush administration and key intelligence officials have been less than fully cooperative in the investigation.

While families of Sept. 11 victims gave emotional testimony before the committee, calling for a more thorough investigation and seemingly looking for someone to blame, the Bush administration is clearly concerned that the blame might be directed at the White House. The revelations in May about Bush's intelligence briefings sparked a round of questions asking exactly what the Bush administration knew about the terrorist attacks and when, and whether more could have been done to prevent them.

In her presentation of the joint committee's findings, staff director Eleanor Hill presented new information that had previously been classified. But, Hill said, the White House has demanded that any mention or chronology of intelligence briefings received by the president remain top secret. "We believe the American public has a compelling interest in this information and that public disclosure would not harm national security," Hill said.

Look forward to more stonewalling from the Accountability Administration.