9/11 Panel Is Granted More Access to Data

The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will get greater access to classified intelligence briefings prepared for President Bush under an agreement announced Tuesday with the White House.

The 10-member bipartisan commission had been barred from reviewing notes taken by three commissioners and the panel’s executive director, Philip Zelikow, who reviewed the data in December but couldn’t take the summaries with them. Under the agreement, all the commission members will be allowed to read versions of the summaries that were edited by the White House.

Commissioners reviewed the materials in a daylong meeting Tuesday and said the information provided a better understanding of what the government knew before Sept. 11. The panel is seeking additional interviews with several officials, including national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

“The report we have today raised some questions,” said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the commission. “There are questions that go to what happened, the history of Al Qaeda and the history of the Clinton and Bush administrations.”

He declined to discuss details.

The materials in question are the presidential daily briefings prepared by the CIA. They include a memorandum dated one month before the 2001 attacks that discusses the possibility of airline hijackings by Al Qaeda terrorists.

“We’re pleased to work with them closely and in a cooperative manner,” White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said.

In a statement released Tuesday, the panel said the pact provided access to all briefings “of critical importance to the commission’s work.”

The Sept. 11 panel, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, was established by Congress to study the nation’s preparedness before the attacks and its response afterward, and to recommend ways to guard against similar disasters.

Commission members have complained that their work repeatedly has been delayed because of disputes with the Bush administration over access to documents and witnesses. Last month, the panel asked Congress to give it two additional months to finish its work, with a July 26 deadline.