straight to hell

I'm listening to the Clash, "Straight to Hell" and I am going over the events post- and pre-11, September, 2001 ('cause no matter what Reagan said, we ARE connected to the world and therefore our system of numerology and dates should reflect the rest of the world...) and this is what I have (re)discovered: And these are just a FEW of the articles from which I have cut and pasted information, Thank you Bill Gates (even though you donate to the Republicans, you bastard! But then again you want to end world wide sickness, which gives to you a certain God-like personality, so, run with it my be-spectaled friend...)

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.

Mr. Bush said last month that the dispute concerned "the presidential daily brief," a classified written intelligence report he gets each morning. The White House confirmed last year that one such report in August 2001, a month before the attacks, mentioned that al Qaeda might try to hijack U.S. passenger planes. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice has described the report as an analysis, rather than a warning, and said hijacking was mentioned in a traditional sense, not as it was used on Sept. 11.

According to a Congressional probe into the Sept. 11 attacks, the president's Aug. 6, 2001 daily briefing included information "acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of Bin Laden supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives." It referred to an al Qaeda support base in the United States, and FBI "judgments about patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks." Describing the White House's concerns about access to the document, Mr. Bush said it is important "for the writers of the presidential daily brief to feel comfortable that the documents will never be politicized and/or unnecessarily exposed for public purview."

The tug-of-war over the daily brief is not the first dispute over access to information involving the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney has fought the General Accounting Office and private watchdog groups who want access to the documents used by his energy task force. The Senate Committee probing prewar intelligence in Iraq has expressed frustration over delays in getting documents from the administration.

President Bush said Monday his staff is cooperating with the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, but stopped short of saying whether the White House would hand over top-level papers that may be subpoenaed. "Those are very sensitive documents," Mr. Bush said, adding that White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was working with Thomas Kean, chairman of the commission, on this issue.

Al Felzenberg, a spokesman for the commission said, "the president is correct on both counts. They are very sensitive documents. That's why we are having negotiations. These aren't things you just hand out to folks."

Mr. Bush's remarks were underscored later Monday by White House press secretary Scott McClellan. But McClellan, too, stopped short of saying the White House will turn over certain papers, such as transcripts of the president's daily terrorism briefings.

Kean's remarks to the Times were his first explicit public warning to the White House that it risked a subpoena and a politically damaging courtroom showdown with the commission over access to the documents, which include Oval Office intelligence reports that reached President Bush's desk in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. "I will not stand for it," said Kean, who is now the president of Drew University in Madison, N.J. "That means that we will use every tool at our command to get hold of every document." He told the Times that, while he had not directly threatened a subpoena in his recent conversations with the White House legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, "it's always on the table, because they know that Congress in their wisdom gave us the power to subpoena, to use it if necessary."

While Kean said he was barred by an agreement with the White House from describing the Oval Office documents at issue in any detail — he said the White House was "quite nervous" about any public hint at their contents — other commission officials said they included the detailed daily intelligence reports that were provided to Mr. Bush in the weeks leading up to Sept. 11. The reports are known within the White House as the Presidential Daily Briefing. Despite the threat of a subpoena and his warning of the possibility of a court battle over the documents, Kean said he maintained a good relationship with Gonzales and others at the White House, and that he was still hopeful the White House would produce all of the classified material demanded by the panel without a subpoena.

The chairman of the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks said the White House was continuing to withhold several highly classified intelligence documents from the panel and that he was prepared to subpoena the documents if they were not turned over within weeks

"continuing delays by the Bush administration in providing documents and other evidence needed by the panel."

While Kean said he was barred by an agreement with the White House from describing the Oval Office documents at issue in any detail — he said the White House was "quite nervous" about any public hint at their contents — other commission officials said they included the detailed daily intelligence reports that were provided to Mr. Bush in the weeks leading up to Sept. 11. The reports are known within the White House as the Presidential Daily Briefing. Despite the threat of a subpoena and his warning of the possibility of a court battle over the documents, Kean said he maintained a good relationship with Gonzales and others at the White House, and that he was still hopeful the White House would produce all of the classified material demanded by the panel without a subpoena.