Bush said to have delayed 9/11 inquiry because it undermined case for war

Sen. Max Cleland is rattling some cages. He's now charging that the Bush administration deliberately delayed the publication of the joint congressional inquiry on 9/11 because they knew material contained within would undermine the case for war on Iraq, specifically because the report refutes the alleged Al-Qaeda connection.

Says Cleland, "The reason this report was delayed for so long -- deliberately opposed at first, then slow-walked after it was created -- is that the administration wanted to get the war in Iraq in and over...before (it) came out...

"Had this report come out in January like it should have done, we would have known these things before the war in Iraq, which would not have suited the administration."

Coincidentally, this lede was buried in a rewrite of an earlier UPI story.