Trade Center Widows Lobby for Independent Inquiry

WASHINGTON, June 11 — The widows marched through the halls of Congress today, brandishing photos of their dead and a potent brew of patriotism, grief and indignation. The four women, New Jersey homemakers whose husbands vanished in the rubble of the World Trade Center, head a group demanding an independent inquiry into the events surrounding Sept. 11.

"It's not about politics," said one of the women, Kristen Breitweiser, 31, of Middletown, as she sat in the office of Representative Tim Roemer, an Indiana Democrat who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "It's about doing the right thing. It's about the safety of the nation."
Until now, it has been a largely Democratic chorus calling for the establishment of a blue-ribbon panel, much like the commissions that dissected the attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the explosion of TWA Flight 800. President Bush has resisted the creation of an outside body, saying Congress can handle the job and suggesting that an additional investigation might interfere with national security.