(CBS)
For the first time, the chairman of the independent
commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks
is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and
should have been prevented, reports CBS News
Correspondent Randall Pinkston.
"This
is a very, very important part of history
and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas
Kean.
"As
you read the report, you're going to have
a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what
should have been done," he said. "This was
not something that had to happen."
Appointed
by the Bush administration, Kean, a former
Republican governor of New Jersey, is now
pointing fingers inside the administration
and laying blame.
"There
are people that, if I was doing the job, would
certainly not be in the position they were
in at that time because they failed. They
simply failed," Kean said.
To
find out who failed and why, the commission
has navigated a political landmine, threatening
a subpoena to gain access to the president's
top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may
shed light on one of the most controversial
assertions of the Bush administration -- that
there was never any thought given to the idea
that terrorists might fly an airplane into
a building.
"I
don't think anybody could have predicted that
they would try to use an airplane as a missile,
a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national
security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16,
2002.
"How
is it possible we have a national security
advisor coming out and saying we had no idea
they could use planes as weapons when we had
FBI records from 1991 stating that this is
a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser,
one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied
Congress and the president to appoint the
commission.
The
widows want to know why various government
agencies didn't connect the dots before Sept.
11, such as warnings from FBI offices in Minnesota
and Arizona about suspicious student pilots.
"If
you were to tell me that two years after the
murder of my husband that we wouldn't have
one question answered, I wouldn't believe
it," Breitweiser said.
Kean
admits the commission also has more questions
than answers.
Asked
whether we should at least know if people
sitting in the decision-making spots on that
critical day are still in those positions,
Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we
will."
Kean
promises major revelations in public testimony
beginning next month from top officials in
the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National
Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush
and former President Clinton.
©
MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved


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