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Outspoken commission member leaves for import export bank { December 5 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/national/05TERR.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/national/05TERR.html
December 5, 2003
Ex-Senator Will Soon Leave 9/11 Panel
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — Max Cleland, a former senator from Georgia and one of five Democrats on the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is expected to resign within weeks, creating a vacancy with only six months left in the inquiry, commission officials said today.
Mr. Cleland's intention to resign from the 10-member commission has been known since last summer, when Senate Democrats announced that they had recommended him for a Democratic slot on the board of the Export-Import Bank. But the timing of his departure became clear only last week, when the White House formally sent the nomination to the Senate.
His imminent departure from the panel has created concern among victims' family groups, because Mr. Cleland has been one of the commission's most outspoken members and has joined with advocates for the families in their criticism of the Bush administration. The time to find a replacement is limited because the commission is required by law to complete its work in May.
Mr. Cleland has publicly accused the White House of trying to undermine the work of the commission and of "Nixonian" efforts to conceal important evidence about the government's law enforcement and intelligence failures in the weeks before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
In a statement this week, the Family Steering Committee, an umbrella group of victims' family organizations, said Mr. Cleland needed to be replaced by someone who is "familiar with the issues at hand and is thoroughly committed to following all of the facts wherever they may lead," adding that "these criteria are imperative and mandatory."
Under the terms of the law creating the commission, Mr. Cleland's successor will be chosen by Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, whose office said on Thursday that it would move quickly to replace Mr. Cleland.
A hearing before the Senate banking committee on Mr. Cleland's nomination to the Export-Import Bank is scheduled for Tuesday, and a Senate vote is expected before mid-January.
Advocates for victims' families have recommended several potential replacements for Mr. Cleland, notably Eleanor Hill, a former Democratic Senate staff member and Pentagon inspector general who led the staff of last year's Congressional investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. Cleland's departure is not expected to have a major impact on the work of the commission, which has operated in a largely bipartisan, collegial manner. The chairman of the commission is Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, whose deputy is Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic House member from Indiana. The panel's Democratic members include Timothy J. Roemer, another former House member, and Jamie S. Gorelick, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.
But Mr. Cleland's resignation would mean the loss of the most publicly defiant voice on the panel, which is known formally as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
Mr. Cleland, who was defeated in a re-election bid last year, has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he believes that the Bush administration has tried to stonewall the commission in its requests for documents and other evidence about the Sept. 11 attacks.
He has also criticized the commission's leadership for accepting a deal with the White House that will give only three members of the panel access to Oval Office intelligence briefings that were given to Mr. Bush in the weeks before the attacks. The commission and the White House have defended the agreement, saying it will allow the panel's representatives to see a full range of intelligence reports.
In an interview last month, Mr. Cleland said that the commission had "gotten off to a slow start" and that the agreement with the White House for access to the intelligence briefings was the final proof for him that "this commission will be compromised in its final report."
"We have limited access for a limited number of commissioners to a limited number of these Presidential Daily Briefings," Mr. Cleland said of the intelligence reports prepared for Mr. Bush each morning. "All of the commissioners should have had full access to all of the documents, and that will be the fatal flaw in the commission's report."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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