The Bush administration was embroiled in a new controversy on Sunday over its handling of intelligence after the chairman of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks warned he would use the courts and issue subpoenas to obtain evidence from an uncooperative White House.
Thomas Kean, the chairman of the federal commission created last year to investigate the attacks, told The New York Times: "Anything that has to do with 9/11, we have to see it -- anything. There are a lot of theories about 9/11, and as long as there is any document out there that bears on any of those theories, we're going to leave questions unanswered. And we cannot leave questions unanswered."
The former Republican governor of New Jersey also warned that his commission would not hesitate to embarrass the White House by launching court proceedings to obtain classified material.
"I will not stand for it," he told the newspaper. "That means we will use every tool at our command to get hold of every document."
Members of the commission accuse the administration of sabotaging their work through endless delays, making it impossible to meet next May's reporting deadline.
The administration faces two investigations into its processing of classified data relating to the war on Iraq. A criminal investigation has been opened into the outing of a CIA operative by administration officials.
Senate committees are also investigating the Bush administration's use of intelligence reports to bolster its claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Yesterday one senator charged with tracing how the administration constructed its case for war said the complaints of non-cooperation were familiar.
"My sense of it is that on the intelligence committee we have been facing the same problems," Jay Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, told NBC television.
The commission has demanded especially sensitive material from the White House: copies of presidential daily briefings for the weeks preceding the attacks.
The object of his inquiry is to reveal how much the White House knew about potential terrorist threats against the World Trade Center. Last year the White House confirmed that President George W. Bush had received a written intelligence report in August 2001 warning that al-Qaeda might try to hijack airliners.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese