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9/11 panel likely to get extension

By SHAUN WATERMAN, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The GOP leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives is softening its opposition to extending the life of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, making it likely the panel will get the extra time it has asked for to complete its work.

A long-time close aide to House Speaker Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told United Press International Sunday that Hastert still believed the commission should finish by its congressionally mandated deadline of May 27 but that if a motion to extend it was raised, Hastert would not block it or work to get other GOP members to oppose it.

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"If something comes from the Senate," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said in an interview, "I don't think we'd stop it."

He declined to comment on the reasons for the speaker's change of heart.

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A spokesman for the commission welcomed the news. "We respect his views on when we ought to finish, but we will be very pleased if he does not stand in the way of the extra time we have asked for," said Al Felzenberg.

The panel -- formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States -- requested a 60-day extension last month, after what it term as foot-dragging by some government agencies through the summer of 2003 delayed the investigation and raised the prospect that public hearings might have to be scaled back.

The delays forced the commission to issue subpoenas to the Federal Aviation Administration, New York City and North American Aerospace Defense Command', the part of the U.S. military responsible for the air defense of the continental United States. It also led to contentious and drawn out negotiations with the White House over access to highly classified presidential papers.

Earlier this month, the commission announced that it was accepting the limited access to these papers it had negotiated with the White House and had voted down a proposal to issue a subpoena. The White House subsequently came out in support of the 60-day extension but moving the deadline will require a vote in both chambers of Congress and Hastert's opposition had made it unlikely that a vote would ever be taken in the House.

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White House officials declined to say whether they had reached out to the speaker. "We are working with congress to get (the commission) the extra time they need to complete their important work. That's all I can say," spokesman Ken Lisaius told UPI.

An aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he, too, wanted to get the commission the additional time it needed and was working with a number of senators who had taken the lead on the issue: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.; and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Frist, said that the issue could be brought to a vote in the Senate using a procedural mechanism called unanimous consent but that this required a consensus among senators.

"There are some issues in terms of the length of the extension, but we are working on those," Call told UPI Sunday.

Exactly how much more time the commission gets is a contentious issue because of the approaching presidential election.

Relatives of those who died in the attacks -- and who campaigned for the commission to be set up in the teeth of initial opposition from the White House and GOP leadership -- have expressed alarm that its report might get swept up into the partisan warfare preceding the election.

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As a result, several commissioners suggested moving the deadline until January 2005. Bi-partisan bills in both the House and Senate would extend the deadline into next year.

However, this raises the prospect of high-profile and hard-hitting hearings during the political heat of an election summer -- with fallout that could be difficult to predict. Moreover, some commission officials say such a long delay is not necessary.

"The commission neither wants nor needs a longer extension," commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow told UPI this weekend.

Zelikow said he hoped that Congress would move expeditiously. "From our point of view, this is urgent. Until an extension is granted, we have to proceed as if we will be finishing on May 27," he said.

The relatives' organization, the Family Steering Committee, argued in a statement Friday that a longer extension is vital, both to ensure the report does not become a political football and to enable the commission to follow up what they say is important new information that has come to light.

"The FSC would encourage all Americans to support the Jan. 10, 2005, deadline," said the statement, "so that the (commission) can... continue to investigate all new, relevant material ... recently given to the commission by whistleblowers, ex-government agents, or agents of foreign governments ..."

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The statement also said that the hard-hitting public hearings the families believe to be essential for public accountability will have to be curtailed unless the deadline is extended to next year. It urged the commission to ask for a longer extension at its meeting Tuesday.

Zelikow said that any commissioner could raise the issue but added that the issue had already been discussed at length at the panel's Feb. 10 meeting and "the commission reaffirmed its earlier decision (to ask for a 60-day extension) and did so by consensus."

So far this year, the commission has had one set of hearings in January and plans another for late March, Felzenberg said.

The forthcoming hearing will focus on counter-terrorism policy prior to Sept. 11, 2001. It will feature public testimony from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his predecessor William Cohen, as well as from Secretary of State Colin Powell and his predecessor Madeleine Albright. Long-standing CIA Director George Tenet is also expected to testify.

"There are others we want to hear from, too," Felzenberg said, "but we are still working on some scheduling issues with them."

Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean, the former GOP governor of New Jersey, said after the latest hearing that anyone who gave public testimony would be asked to do so under oath.

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The commission continues to negotiate with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their predecessors about whether and under what circumstances they might give evidence, said Zelikow.

"Their responses have been basically positive," he said. "Now its just a matter of working out details" like timing, date, location and the numbers and identity of officials present on both sides. He said the chairman and his deputy, former U.S. Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, D-Ind., were conducting the negotiations.

He said that none of the four principles "has indicated an interest in public testimony."

"We would have to meet in private anyway to discuss the classified matters," Zelikow said, "so the question is whether we do it all again in public."

The question of how many commissioners will attend any private sessions, he added, "is of very great interest to some commissioners, especially those who fear they might not be included.

"From a staff perspective, my concern is that the commission as a whole gets the information it needs to do its job."

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