Angry Widow (Breitweiser) calls for new 9/11 Panel [View All]

Angry widow calls for new 9/11 panel

By PAUL DE LA GARZA, Times Staff Writer


TAMPA - With details emerging Thursday that the Sept. 11 commission omitted crucial information from its final report last year, a group of 9/11 widows called for creation of a new independent panel.

"I'm very disturbed, and I want to get some answers," said Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband, Ronald, died in the World Trade Center. "I want to know what the truth is."

Her organization, the September 11th Advocates, or the Jersey Girls, was instrumental in pushing for creation of the Sept. 11 commission.

On Thursday, the now-disbanded commission became embroiled in controversy, after acknowledging it omitted crucial information about ringleader Mohammed Atta in its final report last summer. Former commission members planned to issue a "comprehensive statement" Thursday afternoon addressing the latest developments but they balked, saying they were still reviewing documents.

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U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon has generated headlines because he has lashed out at the Pentagon and the commission over what he perceives as a missed opportunity to foil the Sept. 11 plot.

Weldon says that intelligence sources shared the information about Able Danger and Atta with the commission but that it did not make it into the report.

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Early in the week, Al Felzenberg, who had been the commission's chief spokesman, said the panel was unaware of intelligence specifically naming Atta. But he said subsequent information provided Wednesday confirmed that the commission had been aware of the intelligence.

It did not make it into the final report because the information was not consistent with what the commission knew about Atta's whereabouts before the attacks, he said.

(snip)

Citing the latest revelations, Breitweiser, the Sept. 11 widow, called the findings of the Sept. 11 commission "an utterly hollow report."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/12/Worldandnation/Angry_widow_calls_for.shtml