The 9/11 Commission & Abu Ghraib

The Progress Report, Center for American Progress
4 August 2004, David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

9/11 Commission Strikes Back

"This week, President Bush claimed he was embracing the bold institutional changes proposed by the 9/11 Commission by creating this national intelligence director. In reality, he is resisting key elements of the proposal, such as putting the new position in the Cabinet (and thus ensuring the new director would stay in the loop), giving the director the power to hire and fire, or granting the director control of his budget. The result? A weak figurehead without power to effectively oversee the 15 agencies in the U.S. intelligence community. Key 9/11 Commissioners joined members of Congress yesterday to argue that the proposed national intelligence director must have the power to hire, fire, and control a budget. Period."

Abu Ghraib: The Blame Game

"The mainstream media – after splashing their front pages with salacious photos – has largely lost interest in the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. The administration and high-ranking military officials, however, have continued their efforts to pin all the blame on "a few bad apples.

But as top officials play the blame game, official investigations into who was responsible are still ongoing. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said "there are some serious unanswered questions."