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President Bush and Vice President Cheney wanted NO INVESTIGATION of 9/11.

It was about a month before the Congressional Inquiry began. It was to be known officially as the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.

It was January 2002. The Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, received a rare phone call from Vice President Dick Cheney.

According to the book, The Commission, written by Philip Shenon, Cheney’s tone was polite, but threatening. Daschle described Cheney’s voice as muffled, kind of under the breath, quiet, measured and very deliberate.

Cheney was calling to complain about the 9/11 hearings that had just been scheduled. He urged Daschle to shut down any additional public hearings on 9/11. He said it would be time consuming and he didn’t want the White House to be tied down with all the problems associated with 9/11 hearings.

There was no precedent for what Cheney was requesting. Every other disaster in the United States had been thoroughly investigated, but he didn’t want a thorough investigation of 9/11.

Daschle disagreed with the vice president. He said “It is imperative that we try to find out what happened on September 11 and why.”

Cheney called Daschle more than once to object to a public airing of 9/11. President Bush also spoke to Daschle at least once, expressing the same objections.

On May 16, 2002, Senator Daschle held a conference with reporters about intelligence reports indicating that terrorist cells were planning airplane hijackings prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. He called on the Bush administration to disclose the content of these reports and said he supported hearings on the matter. Following his remarks he answered questions from the reporters.

At minute 3:39 of the conference, Daschle was asked by a reporter: “Senator, you told us earlier this year that Vice President Cheney called you and asked you not to hold wide-ranging hearings and to limit the investigation to the Intelligence Committee. Looking back, do you -- why do you think he made that call? Do you think that he knew that the White House did know something, that they were trying to keep the investigation limited because they didn't want to look culpable at all?...”

Daschle replied: “Well, I'm not going to come to any conclusions. It is true that the vice president has requested on several occasions that we not have an investigation into this issue. And I know that there are many of our colleagues who -- on both sides of the aisle, I might say -- who take a different point of view. I personally think that this issue now has become far more prominent, far more consequential, and needs to be investigated and clearly considered in a far more comprehensive way....”

At minute 9:55 there was this exchange:

Reporter: How many times did the vice president ask you not to investigate this? And have others at the White House also asked that there be no investigation?

Daschle: Oh, I'm not sure. It was -- there were numerous times. I can't recall exactly how many.

Reporter: What were his reasons?

Daschle: His reasons were that the intelligence community was so involved with the aftermath of 9/11 that they didn't want to take people off of what it was they were doing to do something like this. I respect that, but I just feel that if we could do it in World War II, after war was declared and as we attempted to find out what happened at Pearl Harbor, we ought to be able to do it now....

Reporter: So he asked you -- just to make sure I'm clear on this, he asked you more than once?

Daschle: Correct.

Reporter: And it was "no investigation whatsoever." He wasn't asking for you to keep it closed, keep it to Intelligence. He wanted no investigation.

Daschle: That's correct.

Reporter: And didn't the president also -- I remember him following up with you at a breakfast and reiterating what the vice president called you about.

Daschle: That's correct.

Reporter: So the president (sought that too?)

Daschle: That's right.

Here is a link to the May 16, 2002 conference:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?170120-1/senate-majority-leader-news-conference

Cheney and Bush expressed their desire to have no investigation before the 2002 Congressional Inquiry even started.

It was the 2002 Inquiry that produced the 28 pages that Bush ordered locked away and hidden from the public.

If Bush and Cheney had their way, there would have been "NO PAGES".

They also strongly objected to the formation of the 9/11 Commission in 2003. That fact has been thoroughly documented and reported by numerous mainstream news outlets. The White House also did not fully cooperate with the 9/11 Commission.

In the index of Philip Shenon's book, The Commission, there are 33 pages discussing Bush's opposition and lack of cooperation. 

The White House also objected to adequate funding of the 9/11 Commission. They approved an initial amount of only 3 million dollars and reluctantly increased it to 15 million. For comparison, the Iraq War cost 1.7 trillion dollars.

Bush and Cheney answered questions presented by the 9/11 Commission panel behind closed doors. They answered together, not separately, and the session was not shown or made available to the public or the families of the 9/11 victims. They were not under oath and no transcripts were released.