Strick, the 9/11 commission cannot possibly keep politics out of this, because so much of what they are investigating is the politics surrounding the 9/11 attacks and the response to it. It has to be political.

Second, I'm basing my argument about the 70 FBI investigations on what the public perception of the FBI was pre-9/11, which was that the agency was largely incompetent. When Agent Rowley blew the whistle, that perception was greatly reinforced. She was fired for it due to pressures from within the agency and from Ashcroft's Justice Dept.

I agree with what someone said in another thread. The PDB is damning in that it will prove that the administration, all the way up to Bush, DID RECEIVE ADVANCE WARNINGS. That they did nothing even when the dots were connected for them is what could possibly lead to more investigations, which is why Bush won't be testifying under oath, and why he didn't want Rice to testify under oath. He learned that much from Clinton, at least.

When you put Clarke's assessment (from a White House counter-terrorism insider at the National Security Council) together with the investigative record, and then add what the FBI agents will testify about next week all together, what I think we will be seeing at the very least is that the Bush administration was asleep at the wheel. But if it is proven that the Bush administration wasn't asleep at the wheel, but rather ignoring the threat altogether to focus on their Iraq agenda, well. It will be back to Crawford, that's for sure.