Exclusive: Why The White House Said Yes To A 9-11 Inquiry
President Bush's decision to agree to an independent panel to investigate the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks could lead to the most far-reaching and explosive government inquiry in decades. It happened only after weeks of intense, behind-the-scenes wrangling that had put the White House on a collision course with a politically potent new force: a coalition of angry family members of 9-11 victims. For the past year White House aides had resisted proposals for an independent inquiry, arguing that it would divert resources from the war on terrorism and duplicate the work of an ongoing joint inquiry by the House and Senate intelligence committees. But last week, after a series of stunning disclosures about CIA and FBI intelligence failures, the White House abruptly shifted course. The change came, NEWSWEEK has learned, after three secret and at times contentious White House meetings between family members and top presidential aides, including one with chief of staff Andrew Card and two others with domestic-policy counselor Jay Lefkowitz. At the meetings, family members pushed for a blue-ribbon panel and voiced their frustration that top government officials had yet to be held "accountable." With momentum for the blue-ribbon commission rapidly gaining on Capitol Hill, and the family members threatening to go public, the White House had virtually no choice. "There was a freight train coming down the tracks," said one White House official. "They realized how powerful the voices of the families were," added Democrat Rep. Jane Harman, a House intelligence committee member.
But the tensions continue. Bush aides still don't want the commission to delve further into CIA and FBI failures. They suggested it focus on new areas like border security and visa issues; they also want the panel to investigate the "role of Congress" in overseeing the work of the intelligence agencies. Another potential flash point: the White House's refusal to turn over documents showing briefings the intelligence community gave Bush prior to 9-11. One aide described the documents as the "crown jewels" of executive privilege. "That's the kind of stuff we'd never give up," said the aide. Those positions could set up a new confrontation with family members. They say they are more furious than ever over new details about how the CIA lost track of two of the 9-11 hijackers who flew to the United States from a terrorist summit in Malaysia. (The lapse was first reported by NEWSWEEK.) "I never want to hear the phrase 'lessons learned' again," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed in the World Trade Center. "I want people brought up on charges of malfeasance." Bush aides say they want to work "constructively" with the families to ensure a productive inquiry. Discussions have begun about possible candidates to head up the panel. Among the top suggestions: former senators Bob Dole and Sam Nunn.
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Klaidman, a former NEWSWEEK managing editor, is writing a book on President Obama and terrorism to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012.
Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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