Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Even as White House political aides plot a 2004 campaign plan designed to capitalize on the emotions and issues raised by the September 11 terror attacks," report Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, "administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the attacks. At the center of the dispute is a more-than-800-page secret report prepared by a joint congressional inquiry detailing the intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the attacks - including provocative, if unheeded warnings, given President Bush and his top advisers during the summer of 2001." Bush administration officials are "refusing to declassify many of its most significant conclusions" and have "essentially thwarted congressional plans to release the report by the end of this month."