The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States will issue a subpoena to NYC today. Previously the commission has issued subpoenas for materials being withheld by the Pentagon, NORAD, and the FAA, and had threatened to subpoena the White House in order to gain access to presidential briefing materials before reaching agreement on that issue, although not to the satisfaction of all commissioners.

Washington - New York City will be hit with a subpoena today from the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, which charges the city is withholding key documents and impeding its probe.

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Bloomberg said it was "puzzling why the commission is trying to distract the public by focusing on the city's response as opposed to the question we all want answered - how this savage terrorist attack was planned and executed without any warning."

Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate investigator, said, "That statement is unfortunate in that it indicates a failure to understand the breadth and scope of our mandate, which of course, focuses on how this tragedy could have occurred, but also requires us to provide for the nation a definitive report on what happened on the day of 9/11."

Call for City’s 9/11 Records

Meanwhile, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city would fight the commission's subpoena, citing concerns for victim privacy.

Ed Skyler, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also accused the commission of ``trying to distract the public'' and said it should focus on learning ``how this savage terrorist attack was planned and executed without any warning - so that we never again have to endure such a tragedy.''

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Skyler said the city will fight the subpoena. ``It will take a court order to make the city violate the privacy of those we lost and those who responded to that horrific event,'' he said.

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Also Thursday, the commission outlined details of an agreement it reached last week with the Bush administration to gain access to parts of secret presidential intelligence briefings. The commission had threatened to subpoena the White House before last week's agreement.

The commission said it will receive access to years of material from the president's daily brief pertaining to the panel's probe, including material ``involving threats to the U.S. homeland.''

The group's executive director and three commissioners will take notes from the intelligence briefings and prepare a summary for the rest of the commission. That summary is subject to White House review.

Commissioner Tim Roemer criticized the arrangement and said the commission should consider issuing a subpoena for more information. ``There are too many restrictions, too much power by the White House, and too few commissioners seeing it,'' he said

NYC to Challenge 9/11 Commission Subpoena

The 9-11 commission's deadline is May 27, 2004. Commissioners have complained that requested materials have been withheld by the various services, departments and agencies, thereby seriously impeding the commission's work.

The fact that the commission has had to resort to subpoenas to gain access to necessary records from NORAD, the FAA, the Pentagon, and New York City itself cannot but add credence to the arguments of critics who claim that the Bush administration has something to hide about the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the words of the immortal Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist, dramatist, and poet:

Honesty is the best policy.

S