Kerry calls on Bush to release secret 9/11 report

Kerry calls on Bush to release secret 9/11 report
BY CRAIG GORDON
WASHINGTON BUREAU
September 12, 2004

Boston - Sen. John Kerry used the anniversary of the nation's worst terrorist attack yesterday to call on President George W. Bush to declassify a secret post-9/11 report that recommends an overhaul of the nation's intelligence agencies.

It was a day in which both presidential candidates shelved campaign speeches in favor of public words of remembrance and comfort. But Kerry, who is trailing in the polls with less than two months to Election Day, also took a political tack.

After laying flowers at a Boston memorial garden and speaking at an event for Massachusetts victims' families, Kerry in a written statement called on Bush to release the report by a presidential intelligence commission that looked at how to restructure the nation's spy agencies to better confront terrorism.

Some of the report's recommendations are believed to be in line with those of the recent 9/11 Commission report, including the creation of a new national intelligence czar, which Bush has endorsed.

"The White House has held this important report under wraps for nearly three years while resisting efforts to strengthen our intelligence services that are essential to preventing terrorist attacks and protecting our nation," Kerry said in a written statement. "What is the White House hiding?"

Kerry has accused Bush of foot-dragging on efforts to restructure the nation's intelligence community in light of broad-based failures that prevented the United States from heading off the 9/11 attacks.

At the same time, Bush has made the Sept. 11 attacks and his response the central theme of his campaign, as he tries to convince voters that he, not Kerry, is the leader who can keep them safe in a dangerous world and that Kerry is unfit for the job.

Bush did not mention Kerry in his weekly radio address live from the Oval Office as he pledged that the nation "will not relent" until the terrorists are defeated.

His campaign, meanwhile, said it was Kerry's right to talk political issues yesterday - but that they would not follow suit in deference to the day.

"September 11 is a day of remembrance, and the Bush campaign will respond to these attacks on September 12," said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Kerry campaign spokeswoman Allison Dobson denied that Kerry was trying to use the national attention on the attacks to score political points. She said that with Congress preparing to consider a new central intelligence chief and weighing Bush's recommendations for intelligence reform, the report could add a valuable perspective. "We want time to get it out there," Dobson said.

The panel was chaired by retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who chaired the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and served as national security adviser when Bush's father was president.

The report could fuel Kerry's campaign criticism if it shows that Scowcroft recommended a similar intelligence shake-up to the one the 9/11 Commission recommended recently, but did it almost three years ago, with no White House action. Republican lawmakers recently pressed Scowcroft to release the report, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he doesn't know why it remains classified.