9/11 families are pissed

This is an interesting report from the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger:

The head of the national 9/11 commission yesterday came under tough, often emotional questioning from families of the terror victims concerned the panel has too little time to finish its investigation and is prejudging its conclusions.

...Members of the Family Steering Committee monitoring the commission's work said they were upset that the panel did not get full access to important documents, and angry over a published comment by Kean that the White House intelligence material contained "no smoking guns."

Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, acknowledged his choice of words was inappropriate.

"'No smoking gun' -- that was a bad phrase," Kean said after the meeting at Drew University, where he is president. He said he "may have been misquoted" in a New York Times story saying he had found nothing in the White House documents to indicate that President Bush or top aides had forewarning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"We did find lots of new information in the briefings, information that raises many new questions." said Kean.

"What I meant to say is that, given what we've seen and heard from other sources, there were no major surprises in the intelligence briefings," Kean said. "Nothing that would have made me stand back and say, 'Wow! I didn't know that.'"

Kean, however, said the documents will require the panel "to go back and talk again to witnesses we've already interviewed."

Emerging from their closed-door meeting with Kean, which was punctuated by shouts and table-pounding, family members expressed unhappiness that Kean appeared to have been pre-empting the investigation.

"I don't know how he can say that before more public hearings are held and top administration officials are questioned under oath," said Mindy Kleinberg of East Brunswick, a 9/11 widow. She called Kean's published remark "very offensive" and added he had "prejudged the work of the commission."

The story goes on to indicate that family members want the commission to be granted an extension until January 2005 to release its final report, so that more investigation can be done.

But, the Bush administration has already extended the commission's deadline by two months, from May to July of this year, and there is little Congressional support for a further delay.