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By Joe Conason

June 22, 2002  |  Within the past two weeks, Congress has quietly set aside legislation that would establish an independent commission to investigate the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. That important bill, already approved by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and supported by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle – along with most of his fellow Democrats and a handful of prominent Republicans, notably including Arizona’s John McCain – is dead, at least for the moment.

The critical probe will thus remain under the purview of the special House-Senate Joint Committee on Intelligence, whose deliberations are being held almost entirely behind closed doors.

It doesn’t matter that the families of those murdered in the Sept. 11 assaults want an independent investigation. It doesn’t matter that many intelligence and security experts believe an independent investigation is the wisest course for the country. It doesn’t matter that the limited scope of the congressional investigation will fail to address important concerns such as transportation security and immigration, among others. It also doesn’t matter that the congressional intelligence committees themselves, having failed to exercise adequate oversight in years past, are part of the problem that needs to be examined.

What apparently does matter is that certain members of Congress maintain control over the investigation -- and as a result, enjoy a vastly increased amount of face-time in the national media.

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