W spares one hour for two guys on the 9/11 comission

[mburbank]

Bush to Limit Interview with 9/11 Panel to an Hour

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States will get one hour to ask President Bush what he knew about events leading up to the suicide airline hijackings, the White House said on Friday.



"They are looking at an hour as you pointed out," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said when asked by a reporter whether he could confirm reports that Bush was limiting the meeting to an hour.

Rather than sitting down with all 10 members of the so-called 9/11 commission, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have only agreed to meet privately with its chairman, Thomas Kean, and the vice chairman, Lee Hamilton.

The panel would prefer that Bush meet with all of the members.

Created by the U.S. Congress, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States is charged with examining lapses in intelligence and national security in the months before the attacks. Strikes by hijacked airplanes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed about 3,000 people.

The panel has expressed concern that it will not have enough time to gather all the information it needs to meet a May 27 deadline to complete its report.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert has been opposed to granting the panel's request for a 60-day extension on the grounds that the report would be issued at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign, potentially politicizing its findings.

Some Democrats in Congress have accused the White House of only half-heartedly backing the commission's request for an extension.

But McClellan called such accusations "silly."