BJ. Next question.
What was role of Omar Bashir, President of the Sudan, and his relationship to Berger and President Clinton [ -- and the Commission’s Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton]?
"Sudan President Omar al-Bashir [wrote] a letter to Lee Hamilton, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee." The letter offered the Sudan's extensive files on al-Qaeda to the U.S. That was 1997.
Like the entire Clinton Administration, the Congressman just ignored the letter; it was just one more terrorist alert that was missed.
The Commission’s 2004 final report did not mention Sudan’s offers and of course contained no mention of the direct involvement of the Commission’s Vice Chairman in the public version, at least.
This was news to me -- looks like it's the whole damn Rat Party (formerly the traditional, patriotic Democrat Party.)
You could be on to something!
"After eight months of negotiations and countless dinners of Nile perch and soggy French fries, I persuaded Sudan's president, Omar Hasan el Bashir, to make an unconditional offer to share Sudan's intelligence data with the FBI and CIA. The offer, made at my request directly to the 9/11 Commission's vice chairman, former Congressman Lee Hamilton (D., Ind.), sat in limbo for months. Hamilton personally discussed the offer with Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, with little effect."
-Mansoor Ijaz