More than likely there was never a more politically hacked commission formed than the 9/11 Omission Commission that was formed to find out how 9/11 happened.¬† Today the Ny Times sensing that their “bombshell” story about the CIA tapes being destroyed is about to bomb, attempts to revive the story by dragging in the commision.

“The CIA obstructed an official US investigation into the September 11 attacks by withholding tapes of interrogations of Al-Qaeda operatives, according to former investigators quoted in a report on Saturday. A review of documents by former members of the 9/11 commission revealed the panel made repeated, detailed requests to the spy agency in 2003 and 2004 for information about the interrogation of members of the extremist network, but were never notified of the tapes, the New York Times reported.

The review of the commission’s correspondence with the Central Intelligence Agency came after the agency earlier this month revealed it had destroyed videotapes in 2005 that showed harsh interrogations of two Al-Qaeda members.

The review, written up in a December 13 memo prepared by Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the 9/11 commission, said that “further investigation is needed” to resolve whether the CIA’s failure to hand over the tapes violated federal law.

The memorandum does not assert that withholding the tapes was illegal but states that federal law penalizes anyone who “knowingly and wilfully” withholds or “covers up” a “material fact” from a federal inquiry, the newspaper said.

The revelation adds to pressure on President George W. Bush’s administration, already under fire over the affair by human rights groups and lawmakers who allege that destroying the tapes covered up proof of torture.

Responding to the New York Times report, the CIA said the commission never specifically asked for interrogation videos.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield told AFP the agency had gone to “great lengths” to satisfy the panel’s requests, and that commission members had been provided with details from interrogations of detainees.

“The 9/11 commission certainly had access to, and drew from, detailed information that had been provided by terrorist detainees. That’s how they reconstructed the plot in their comprehensive report,” he said.”

And of course they had no need to view the tapes in the first place.¬† They’re mission - which they completely missed for the most part - was to find out what happened PRIOR to 9/11 that led to the event.

“According to the memo posted on the New York Times’ website, the commission was interested in interrogations of Al-Qaeda members because it was trying to reconstruct the events leading up to the attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington.

The commission made initial general requests for intelligence information from interrogations, including the two detainees on the destroyed videotapes, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rashim al-Nashiri, said the memorandum.

It followed up with more requests for “very detailed information” about the context of the interrogations, the credibility of statements from detainees, the quality of language translation and other issues.

“The commission was dissatisfied with the answers it received to these questions,” Zelikow’s memorandum said.”

Dissatified or not, the fact is that those tapes had nothing to do with what led to 9/11.  Just like with Able Danger they seemed totally disinterested with finding out exactly what happened - and more specifically who was at fault and instead turned the entire affair in to a political charade.
The “Omission Commission” missed all the major reasons for 9/11 - namely commission member Jamie Gorelick’s “wall”,¬† and focused on the non-reasons for it.¬† Now they want to throw wrenches in any further intelligence gathering that may cause another 9/11 someday.

What a pathetic bunch.