HOW DEEP THE RABBIT HOLE GOES.

It came out last week that, on the very day we were attacked with box-cutters, Condi Rice was due to give a speech on national security that highlighted missile defense and played down anti-terrorism efforts. The Washington Post had excerpts of it and now the 9/11 Commission wants the whole thing. The White House says it's confidential:

The White House has refused to provide the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with a speech that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was to have delivered on the night of the attacks touting missile defense as a priority rather than al-Qaida, sources close to the commission said Tuesday.

With Rice scheduled to publicly testify Thursday before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, the commission submitted a last-minute request for Rice�s aborted Sept. 11 address, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity. But the White House has so far refused on the grounds that draft documents are confidential, the sources said.

Meanwhile, you might recall that Scott McClellan repeatedly called the Commission on the carpet for only having five members show up to Rice's informal questioning, when asked why the President would only talk to two members. Turns out that even five was too many:

Dealing with criticism that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice wouldn't testify in public before the 10-member commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, White House spokesman Scott McClellan complained last month that when she testified in private, "only five members showed up" to hear what she had to say.

What McClellan didn't tell reporters was that on Nov. 21 � long before Rice met with the five commissioners in February � the White House counsel's office had sent the commission a letter saying no more than three commissioners could attend meetings with White House aides of Rice's rank.

Is a lie of omission really a lie? Who cares. These people are dirty to the core.

Posted by Aaron S. Veenstra ::: 2004:04:07:09:02