A showdown looms

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks this week threatened to subpoena documents the Bush administration has refused to hand over. The panel said it could not finish its work without the notes on a briefing that was delivered to President Bush a month before the attacks. The notes reportedly refer to intelligence warnings that al Qaida terrorists might attack the U.S. using hijacked airplanes. The threat of a subpoena came just days after Bush reversed himself and said he would support the commission’s request that Congress extend the deadline for its report, from May 27 to July 26. Bush’s spokesman said the president wanted to make sure the commissioners “have all the information they need to do a thorough job.”