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9/11 panel seeks extension

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 28. The bipartisan Independent Commission looking into the terror attacks of September 11,2001 announced that it was seeking more time to complete its work — two months or until the end of July from the current May 27 deadline.

The White House which had been wary even to institute this commission is not quite keen on the idea of giving more time knowing full well that the findings will come right at the time of heated electioneering with Democrats wanting to get into every small detail that the panel might have got into. "We are telling the Congress and the President what we need to do the best possible job", the Chairman of the panel, the Republican Thomas Kean a former Governor of New Jersey said; and his Democratic Vice-Chairman, Lee Hamilton of Indiana said that the commission was `mindful' of the politics involved, but if the extra time was not available then it would not be in a position to have "as many hearings as we would like".

The extension of the time deadline would have to come from Congress; and media reports have it that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is opposed to the idea; and the White House which has made its intentions quite obvious has ultimately left the ball in Congress' court. The formal request for extension of time came on the day of public hearings when the panel listened to a taped telephone conversation on the morning of September 11,2001 in which a calm and composed American Airlines flight attendant was relaying information on what was going on in the Cabin. The panel also questioned former officials of the Federal Aviation Administration whose security chief said that he did not know until this week that the State Department maintained a special watch-list of terrorists, known as `Tipoff'.

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