There has been much criticism of the 9/11 Commission and rightly so.  But to those of us who has followed the convoluted path to its creation we know that the Mr. Bush did not even want a bipartisan commission at all to investigate the tragedy.

We know that Mr. Bush and his administration stonewalled for months on end and the the Republican controlled Congress only alloted a paltry 4 million dollars for the Commission.  We have followed the unceasing efforts of the 4 New Jersey widows who were the prime movers in the creation of the commission.

Now we know that there was a viper in the midst of the Commission: the commission's executive director Philip Zelikow.

A new book The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.

The author Philip Shenon writes:

However, Zelikow failed to disclose several additional and egregious conflicts-of-interest, among them, the fact that he had been a member of Rice’s NSC transition team in 2000-01. In that capacity, Zelikow had been the “architect” responsible for demoting Richard Clarke and his counter-terrorism team within the NSC. As Shenon puts it, Zelikow “had laid the groundwork for much of went wrong at the White House in the weeks and months before September 11. Would he want people to know that?”

I am reminded of the fact that a young Fred Thompson served on the impeachment inquiry of Richard Nixon by the House.  Fred Thompson was a mole for Mr. Nixon in the investigation.  So Mr. Zelikow now served the same function in the 9/11 commission.

It is time for a citizens inquiry into 9/11 with full transparency.

(a big thanks to Talkingpointsmemo.com)