But pressure is now building on the President to make Scowcrofts report public, or at least show it to lawmakers considering major intelligence reforms in the wake of the hard-hitting 9/11 commission report. At a hearing last week, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said he had recently begged [Scowcroft] on hands and knees to release the report to the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services panels. Roberts indicated that Scowcroft, who chairs the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, said that decision was up to Bush. Roberts hopes to call Scowcroft to appear before the committee, at least in closed session, an official said. Also during last weeks Senate hearings on intelligence reform, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who had strenuously opposed Scowcrofts recommendations, which would strip key intelligence agencies and their multi-billion dollar budgets out of the Pentagon acknowledged when pressed by Senator Edward Kennedy that hed been briefed on the Scowcroft report and could think of no reason why it remains classified. The White House declined several opportunities to comment this week, and a Scowcroft aide said he was traveling and could not be reached.
Members of the 9/11 commission, which closed its doors over the weekend but will continue operating out of a privately-funded foundation were not given a copy of the Scowcroft report. But they were allowed to read it under tightly controlled conditions, according to Republican Chairman Tom Kean. And they have some familiarity with the making of the document; one 9/11 commissioner and a panel staffer helped write the report. Kean declined to give details about the Scowcroft paper but told TIME he was impressed by it, saying, I liked the Scowcroft report very much.