9-11 Commission Suspected Pentagon Deception

Members of the 9/11 Commission considered asking the Justice Department to initiate a criminal investigation into a cover-up of the Pentagon's reaction to the terror attacks.

The Washington Post reports:

Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.

Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response to the hijackings, these sources said.

(more)

Steve Benen from the great blog, The Carpetbagger Report has more in a guest post today at Crooks and Liars.

In other 9/11 related news, lung damage among firefighters who worked at ground zero is substantially higher than previously thought.

There's also an Ollie Stone movie coming out that's getting some glowing reviews. Oliver Stone getting good reviews scares me.

VIDEO: The Pentagon wasn't the only one covering up--here's Condi doing her routine before the Commission.