WASHINGTON—In capital shorthand, they are known as PDBs, and they may hold the key to one of the great unanswered questions of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Tim Roemer, a panel member who was also denied White House documentation when he sat on a congressional committee studying 9/11, says more hurdles put up this week by Bush may mean the world will never really know what the president knew.

Did U.S. President George W. Bush receive — and ignore — advance warning of a plan by Al Qaeda to hijack passenger planes and fly them into buildings in the United States?

A commission studying the causes of America's worst terrorist attack is closer to finding that answer today, but families of the victims and at least one member of the 10-person tribunal say they aren't close enough.

Tim Roemer, a panel member who was also denied White House documentation when he sat on a congressional committee studying 9/11, says more hurdles put up this week by Bush may mean the world will never really know what the president knew.

The White House and the bipartisan commission, headed by former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, a Republican personally chosen by Bush, have struck a compromise on the commission's demand that they have access to the Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs), the highly classified intelligence documents made available to only Bush and his innermost circle.

Neither side is officially releasing the terms of the compromise but Roemer says the access will be restricted to a handful of commission members and the documents will be truncated.

"Some of us will see portions of the briefs, a couple of paragraphs which lack context and won't tell you whether the information jumps out at you," he said in an interview.

Some of the 10 members, likely including Roemer, will not actually see anything under the deal. Only four can see PDBs, and then only portions the White House deems relevant — and even then, the members' comments about the top-secret briefings will be vetted by the White House.

Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick, N.J., whose husband Kenneth was killed at the World Trade Center, said she could not understand the secrecy.

"It's not a game," she said.

A group representing relatives of victims of the attacks, the Family Steering Committee, said it wanted the "full, official" text of the agreement between the two parties released so the decision can be scrutinized.

Although the commission is seeking the briefs provided each day by the FBI and the CIA to Bush and his predecessor Bill Clinton, much of its report could turn on an Aug. 6, 2001, written brief provided to Bush at his Texas ranch. Bush, unlike some of his predecessors, prefers his daily report on threats facing the U.S. in writing.

His national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, has acknowledged the brief provided a warning that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might try to hijack U.S. aircraft. But Rice said the report was general and more of an analysis than a warning.

"What I find surprising," Roemer said, "is that there are two things which can most help the Bush administration and they won't co-operate.

"This report could prove there was no warning; there was no smoking gun provided to the president. It could also prove that the intelligence community did not do a proper job of putting the position to him.

"And he won't provide access to these things."

Bush, at his most recent news conference, said he felt it was important those who provide the daily briefs feel comfortable that what they are providing will not be publicized or used for partisan political purposes.

Kean and his committee last week voted against issuing a subpoena to the White House to obtain the documents, fearing a long, drawn-out legal battle.

Critics say Bush has already imposed an unrealistic deadline of May 27 on the commission because he wants the final report to be delivered well in advance of the final sprint to the November, 2004, election.

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