Stonewalling 9/11

George W. Bush has based his whole campaign for re-election on how he has handled terrorism.

So why does he stonewall every single independent investigation into how he has handled terrorism?

We all watched while tried to stop the 9/11 Commission for doing its job, and now, apparently, his handpicked CIA director is stonewalling the release of a report that gets specific and names names, at least until after the election.

The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.

"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."

Disgracefully, the story - which is a major scandal - was broken by an opinion column instead of reporter.

"The existence of the letter was first reported Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times in an opinion column by Robert Scheer."

It amazes me that the press lets Bush get away with this image as the Guy Who Never Bases Decisions on Politics, when he makes decisions on the basis of nothing BUT politics. He is more political than any President of my lifetime. He makes decisions on how to conduct a WAR on the basis of politics, he makes LIFE AND DEATH decisions on the basis of politics, and he makes decisions on how to handle an ATTACK ON AMERICA on the basis of politics.

Bush is a totally political creature with neither a moral center nor a genuine principle that he can call his own.