Bush resisted ANY investigation of 9/11 until he was so badly embarrassed by the survivors of the victims of 9/11 that he finally agreed to an investigation OVER ONE YEAR AFTER THE ATTACKS. (
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/24/attack/main523156.shtml)
A Congressional Inquiry was formed but turned into a political cloak for the administration, as Porter Goss claimed that the uproar over the U.S. White House briefing on terror threats of August 6, 2001 "a lot of nonsense." He also said, "None of this is news, but it's all part of the finger-pointing. It's foolishness." The Post also reported that Goss refused to blame an "intelligence failure" for September 11, preferring to praise the agency's "fine work." The inquiry ended with a 27 page report that held no one accountable and was basically non-informative because what the Bush Administration actually knew about the attacks prior to 9/11 was not disclosed to the commission because it was "classified". For his outstanding work on this inquiry, Goss was later appointed by Bush to head the CIA. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Inquiry_into_Intelligence_Community_Activities_before_and_after_the_Terrorist_Attacks_of_September_11%2C_2001)
Though the 9/11 Commission should have been a Congressional Panel with subpoena powers, the Bush Administration INSISTED on appointing the CHAIR, Thomas Kean, a Republican who served as a long-time conduit of CIA covert operations abroad. Kean also has a history of investments that link him to Saudi Arabian investors who have financially supported both George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden in the past. (
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/moon/thomas_kean_record.htm and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_on_Terrorist_Attacks_Upon_the_United_States#Claims_of_lack_of_cooperation_from_the_White_House)
Many other conflicts of interest and apparent bias existed for several other Republican members of the commission.
Even after the 9/11 commission was formed LATE IN 2002, the Bush Administration blocked nearly every action of the commission to obtain information or get at the truth. "From the beginning of the commission's work, the White House has thrown in its way one roadblock after another regarding funding, duration and its access to people and documents. And time after time the White House has relented in the face of political pressure, but only as much as needed to reduce that pressure." -- Walter Cronkite (
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views04/0411-01.htm)
And yet, the Bush Administration continues to invoke 9/11 as a rallying cry for political gain. The term 9/11 was used hundreds of times during the RNC and countless times thereafter whenever the Bush Administration was taking political heat. It should remind Americans of the true whitewash the Bush Administration has done to the public. It should remind Americans that we are not safe with such cowards and concealers of truth as those evil men in power at the White House. Let this be what we remember on 9/11 so that we can begin to make the changes necessary to remove the Republicans from power who have systematically set about to destroy our democracy.