Trouble ahead for Bush from 9/11 panel

Commission plans to campaign, not disband

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

Members of the commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks have injected a potentially unsettling element into President George Bush’s re-election campaign by deciding not to disband.

Although the bipartisan commission scrupulously avoided apportioning blame to either the Clinton or Bush administrations, the decision ensures that 9/11 and Iraq will remain at the forefront of the election campaign.

The commission’s 10 members said they planned to team up in pairs - one Democrat and one Republican - to campaign throughout the US for the adoption of their 41 recommendations to make the country safer.

"All 10 of us have decided to do everything we can, whether it’s testimony or lobbying or speaking or whatever’s necessary, to let the American people know about these recommendations - know how important they are, our belief that they can save lives," Thomas Kean, the commission’s chair, told reporters on Thursday.

Jamie Gorelick, who served in the Clinton administration, made the point even plainer. "Everyone who is running for office can be asked: Do you support these recommendations?"

The strategy would mark the start of a new chapter in the life of a commission which has grown in credibility over the last 20 months. It has also accumulated moral force, thanks in large measure to the support of victims’ families. Advocates for the families said they would also press for the adoption of the commission’s recommendations.

That could prove an embarrassment to the Bush administration, whose officials have responded cautiously to the commission’s call for a sweeping overhaul of the intelligence services.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,1268098,00.html?=rss