Morning Show Wrap

N E W Y O R K, June 17, 2004 &#151;<br> -- A product of Noted Now and The Note

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Leads

The morning shows led with the 9/11 Commission and the most recent car bombing in Baghdad.

9/11 Commission Report

Lisa Meyers' report on the 9/11 Commission's report for NBC's "Today Show" explicitly played up the political implications in a negative light for President Bush, saying that the 9/11 Commission's report "contradicted Bush Administration claims of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda." Meyers reported that Sen. John Kerry seized on the report as "proof the American people were misled."

9/11 Commissioner John Lehman conceded on CBS' "Early Show" that the panel's report establishes that there was "no participation of Iraq, at least we have no evidence of it, in the plot itself." At the same time, Lehman maintained, "In years past, particularly when Osama and Al Qaeda were in Sudan there were contacts. There was an effort to cooperate in training in weapons particularly. We don't know what weapons might have been provided. We do have very strong evidence that Iraqi intelligence provided help in at least the X Gas training. There were traces of EMTA found at Osama's place. And so it's a mixed picture."

ABC's Brian Ross reported for "Good Morning America" that there's still a debate about where Flight 93 was headed but that the Capitol "seems to be the most likely target." Ross reported that in addition to the difficulties of picking out the White House from the air, Bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed viewed Congress as the source of support for Israel.

On CNN's "American Morning," 9/11 Commissioners John Lehman and Richard Ben-Veniste previewed today's hearing and discussed their finding that al Qaeda had no link with Saddam Hussein. Lehman said today's staff statement would discuss the communication breakdown on the morning of Sept. 11. "It's a picture of a lack of preparation between the FAA and the Air Force," Lehman said. "But would [better communication] have saved lives? Had they been better trained and organized to cooperate, it's possible that [American Airlines flight] 77 might have been intercepted, it would have been a very very close, call even under the best of cooperation."