The first meeting of an independent commission on terrorist attacks will not be open to the public. Aides to the commission’s chairman, Republican Thomas H. Kean, and vice chairman, Democrat Lee Hamilton, said the panel will convene privately in Washington on Monday. Its first public meeting will follow within a few weeks, said Hamilton’s aide, Ben Rhodes. Some relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had been prepared to travel to Washington to attend Monday’s meeting if the public was invited. In creating the commission, Congress exempted it from the Federal Advisory Commission Act, which requires that meetings be open to the public. The law creating the commission says it should hold public hearings and public meetings “to the extent appropriate.” Full Story