Why the 9-11 Commission Will Fail

April 19, 2004

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by Bob Newman

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When the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, more often called the 9-11 commission, was created and I first read the names, affiliations and lack of qualifications of the commission members, I instantly knew the commission would fail.

Instead of staffing the commission with seasoned, bona fide intelligence experts who would know where to look and what stones to turn over in determining what went wrong on 9-11, politicians and lawyers were appointed, some of whom have disgustingly clear personal and professional agendas. Such people have no interest in learning the truth and serving the nation. Their only interest lies in furthering their own careers, settling vendettas, gaining political ground, and making money by going on the speaking circuit, etc.

When national security advisor Condi Rice recently appeared before the commission, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Democratic Party hit man and mouthpiece Richard Ben-Veniste take up an outrageously prosecutorial tone in a grandstanding piece of showmanship that will go down in the annals of American history as one of the most callous, reckless, partisan stunts of the era. But it did my heart good to see Dr. Rice stand her ground with this arrogant swine. His blatant attempts at intimidation failed miserably, and he was therefore denied his goal of manipulating Dr. Rice’s answers.

Former Senator Bob Kerrey, a Medal of Honor recipient and former Navy SEAL platoon commander who admitted, a few years ago, to being a mass murderer (he admitted to committing and ordering horrific war crimes against unarmed civilians), tried to trip Dr. Rice up. He failed as well, and it was great to see Dr. Rice, who had done her homework, humiliate Kerrey by citing his insistence after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that the United States kill Saddam Hussein because, as Kerrey wrongly believed, the Iraqi dictator was behind the attack (it was al Qaeda, not Saddam). Kerrey turned bright red, stammered and sputtered, and I loved it.

Back in the 1990s, Jamie Gorelick was a bureaucrat who was instrumental in preventing the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation from sharing crucial intelligence on terrorist activity. Now she is investigating herself, which is a clear conflict of interest, but she refuses to resign.

And Chairman Thomas Kean, when asked why he didn’t have a problem with this conflict of interest and serious breach of ethics, said, “People ought to stay out of our business.” This pompous statement is indicative of a man who fails to understand or simply does not care that the business he is conducting is the people’s business. Everything he thinks, says or does in relation to the commission is the business of every U.S. citizen. For him to say it isn’t reveals a power-mad, egotistical politician who should be fired immediately.

So expect little of substance when the commission issues its final report. The politicians and pettifoggers who make up the commission will see to its failure.

Bob Newman

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Bob Newman, a retired US Marine, is co-host of "Redmond & Newman" on 630 KHOW in Denver and is the military & terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News. His latest book, Trenches and Hard-Points, a Gulf War novel based on true events, was released in 2002.