Road Block.

Richard Clarke chose a good time to charge the Bush administration with ignoring the threat from Al Qaeda. After all, this week he--and a raft of Bush officials--testifies before a 9/11 Commission dedicated to evaluating just those kind of allegations. Once the Commission releases its report this summer, the nation should have a pretty good idea of which officials, agencies, and administrations took Al Qaeda seriously and which did not.At least, that's what you'd assume. In fact, it's quite possible the public will never learn whether Clarke is telling the unvarnished truth. Evaluating Clarke's allegations will require the Commission to examine sensitive or classified documents from the National Security Council (NSC) or intelligence agencies. But, as a result, once the Commission completes its report, it will have to negotiate with the White House about which of its findings must remain classified for reasons of national security. As the 2002 congressional investigation into the September 11 attacks showed, this administration considers the national interest to be largely synonymous with President Bush's political interest--and will fight to keep information damaging to the president out of public view.