Not Your Sweetie

Graham: His
9.11 Outrage



NEWSWEEK

March 10 issue — What prompted Florida Sen. Bob
Graham to join
the Democratic presidential sweepstakes last week?
The
66-year-old Graham—who recently had heart
surgery—has
toyed with the idea of running for years, but says
he always
lacked “fire in the belly.”




WHAT GAVE IT to him this time, he tells
NEWSWEEK, was his
experience last year overseeing a joint
House-Senate inquiry into the events
of 9-11. Graham says he became “outraged”
by the intelligence and
law-enforcement failures discovered by
the inquiry—most of which, he
charges, are still being suppressed by
the Bush administration. The inquiry’s
400-page report can’t be publicly
released because the administration won’t
declassify key portions. Graham says the
report documents far more
miscues by the FBI and CIA than have been
publicly revealed, as well as still
unpursued leads pointing to
“facilitation” of the hijackers by a “sovereign
nation.” (Sources say the country is
Saudi Arabia.) “There’s been a cover-up
of this,” Graham said.