The 9/11 Commission, which heard a devastating tape of a flight attendant aboard doomed American Airlines flight 11 calling in the hijacking before the plane was crashed into the World Trade Center at hearings today, formally requested an extension....its fate is in the hand of Congress now. The White House doesn't want the commission's report to come too close to the November 2004 elections, sources say. Family members tell me they expect the commission will likely be granted an extension -- if it agrees not to issue its report until after the elections.

What's remarkable about the past two days of testimony at the 9/11 commission hearings is the realization at how many of the basic facts the public has understood about the September 11th plot are just plain wrong:

"In its report on what happened aboard the jets, the commission concluded that the hijackers made bomb threats on at least three of the four planes and shot pepper spray on at least two flights," the Washington Post reports. "Passengers calling from cell phones noted the use of box cutters on only one flight, the report said. The commission also said it was skeptical of an earlier report that a gun was aboard one plane.

..."Some family members of the victims, who attended the hearings, said the tapes provided some closure. 'All the visions I had of what he must have gone through . . . were made real,' said Rosemary Dillard, whose husband, Eddie A. Dillard, was aboard Flight 77. 'I appreciated it. It was hard to listen to.'"

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Posted by Laura at January 27, 2004 10:38 PM