The executive director of a panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is at the center of an escalating fight between the commission and some relatives of attack victims, who have demanded that he remove himself from a broad part of the inquiry because of his ties to key national security officials. The families wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to the Sept. 11 commission that executive director Philip D. Zelikow should recuse himself “from any aspect of national security and executive branch negotiations and investigations” because of his past connections to the National Security Council and to key Bush administration officials. If not, the letter said, Zelikow should resign because of the “danger these conflicts pose to [the commission’s] credibility.” Full Story