For a reminder of the 911 Commission's mandate, click here. And yet they have agreements to keep things confidential for 5 years? Thanks to Ron for sending this in...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2294509#2294550

Not many people noticed this during Mr. Ben Veniste's interview in the wake of the Clinton-Fox News Sunday interview:
"BLITZER: Now, I read this report, the 9/11 Commission report. This is a big, thick book. I don't see anything and I don't remember seeing anything about this exchange that you had with the president in this report.

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I had hoped that we had -- we would have made both the Clinton interview and the Bush interview a part of our report, but that was not to be. I was outvoted on that question.

BLITZER: Why?

BEN-VENISTE: I didn't have the votes.

BLITZER: Well, was -- were the Republican members trying to protect the president and the vice president? Is that what your suspicion is?

BEN-VENISTE: I think the question was that there was a degree of confidentiality associated with that and that we would take from that the output that is reflected in the report, but go no further. And that until some five years' time after our work, we would keep that confidential. I thought we would be better to make all of the information that we had available to the public and make our report as transparent as possible so that the American public could have that."

This is a video of the interview on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer from Crooks and Liars, with this important and overlooked part; see it yourself:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/26/what-did-bush-do-about-the-cole/