Wikipedia

9/11 Commission

See also:9/11 Commission Report

TheNational Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States,commonly known as the9/11 Commission,was set up on November 27, 2002, to investigate all aspects of theSeptember 11 attacks,thedeadliest terrorist attack in world history.It was created byCongressional legislation,which charged it with preparing "a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", including preparedness by theU.S. federal governmentfor the attacks, the response following the attacks, and steps that can be taken to guard against a future terrorist attack.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Seal of the 9/11 Commission
Agency overview
FormedNovember 27, 2002;21 years ago(2002-11-27)
DissolvedAugust 21, 2004;20 years ago(2004-08-21)
JurisdictionU.S. government
Agency executives
Key document
  • Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003
Website9-11commission.gov(archived)

The 9/11 Commission was chaired byThomas Kean,a two-term formergovernor of New Jerseyfrom 1982 until 1990, and included fiveDemocratsand fiveRepublicans.The legislation creating the commission was signed into law byPresidentGeorge W. Bush.

The commission's final report, known as the9/11 Commission Report,was published on July 22, 2004.[1]It is 585 pages, including the findings of the commission's extensive interviews and testimony received during its investigation. The primary conclusion in the9/11 Reportis that failures of the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) andFederal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) permitted the September 11 terrorist attacks to occur and that wiser and more aggressive actions by these agencies could potentially have prevented the attack.

After the publication of its final report, the commission closed on August 21, 2004. The commission's website was shut down, but has been archived.[2]

History

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Members of the 9/11 Commission

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was established on November 27, 2002, byPresidentGeorge W. Bushand theUnited States Congress,with former Secretary of StateHenry Kissingerinitially appointed to head the commission.[3]However, Kissinger resigned only weeks after being appointed, to avoid conflicts of interest.[4]Former U.S. SenatorGeorge Mitchellwas originally appointed as the vice chairman, but he stepped down on December 10, 2002, not wanting to sever ties to his law firm.[5]On December 15, 2002, Bush appointed formerNew JerseyGovernorTom Keanto head the commission.[6]

By the spring of 2003, the commission was off to a slow start, needing additional funding to help it meet its target day for the final report, of May 27, 2004.[7]In late March, the Bush administration agreed to provide an additional $9 million for the commission, though this was $2 million short of what the commission requested.[8]The first hearings were held from March 31 to April 1, 2003, in New York City.[9]

Members

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9/11 Commission chairmanThomas Kean

The members of the commission's staff included:

U.S. presidentGeorge W. Bushinitially appointed formerU.S. Secretary of StateandNational Security AdvisorHenry Kissingeras the commission's chairman. Following his appointment,Congressinsisted that Kissinger disclose the names of his clients atKissinger Associates,aNew York City-based consulting firm he ran. The firm has long been discreet about its clientele. Kissinger refused to provide Congress with the names of his clients, and resigned as the commission's chairman. Bush then appointedThomas Kean,a two-termgovernor of New Jerseyfrom 1982 to 1990, as Kissinger's replacement.

Testimony

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PresentU.S. federal governmentofficials who were called to testify before the 9/11 Commission included:

Former federal government officials who were called to testify before the 9/11 Commission included:

PresidentGeorge W. Bush,Vice PresidentDick Cheney,former PresidentBill Clinton,and former Vice PresidentAl Goreall gave private testimony. President Bush and Vice President Cheney insisted on testifying together and not under oath, while Clinton and Gore met with the panel separately. As National Security Advisor,Condoleezza Riceclaimed that she was not required to testify under oath because the position of national security advisor is an advisory role, independent of authority over a bureaucracy and does not require confirmation by theSenate.Legal scholars disagree on the legitimacy of her claim. Eventually, Rice testified publicly and under oath.[17]

Report

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Main article:9/11 Commission Report
The cover of the9/11 Commission Report,a 585-page report issued July 22, 2004

The commission issued its final report, the9/11 Commission Report,on July 22, 2004. After its release, 9/11 Commission chairThomas Keandeclared that bothPresidentsBill ClintonandGeorge W. Bushwere "not well served" by theFederal Bureau of Investigationand theCentral Intelligence Agency.[18]The commission interviewed over 1,200 people in 10 countries and reviewed over two and a half million pages of documents, including some closely guardedclassifiednational security documents. Before it was released by the commission, the final public report was screened for any potentially classified information and edited as necessary.

The commission later released several supplemental reports on the terrorists' financing, travel, and other matters.

Findings and responses

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NORAD falsehoods

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John Farmer Jr.,senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, stated that the 9/11 Commission, "discovered that... what government and military officials had told Congress, the Commission, the media, and the public about who knew what when— was almost entirely, and inexplicably, untrue. "Farmer said," At some level of the government, at some point in time, a decision was made not to tell the truth about the national response to the attacks on the morning of 9/11... The [NORAD] tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public. "[19]Thomas Kean,the head of the 9/11 Commission, concurred, saying, "We to this day don't know why NORAD told us what they told us, it was just so far from the truth."[20]

CIA withheld information

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Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) directorGeorge Tenetmisled the commission and was "obviously not forthcoming" in his testimony to the commission, according to commission chairThomas Kean.AnFBIagent named Doug Miller had been working insideBin Laden Issue Station,a unit of the CIA dedicated to tracking the activities ofOsama bin Ladenand his associates. By the spring of 2000, the Bin Laden Issue Station learned thatKhalid al-Mihdhar,aSaudinational who was anal-Qaedamember, andNawaf al-Hazmi,another Saudi who at that time was a suspected al-Qaeda operative, had entered the U.S. and were living under their own names insouthern California.

Miller wanted to inform the FBI of their entry and presence in the U.S., but the CIA blocked Miller's efforts to do so. Miller's contemporaneous draft cable to the FBI reporting on this, which the CIA prevented Miller from sending at the time, was found much later. Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were both hijackers ofAmerican Airlines Flight 77.The CIA then failed to reveal to the Commission that over a year before the attack, it had been tracking the two hijackers' entry into and whereabouts inside the United States.[21][22]Co-chair Kean believes the CIA's failure to be forthcoming with this information to the commission was deliberate, not a mistake, saying: "Oh, it wasn't careless oversight. It was purposeful. No question about that in my mind... In the DNA of these organizations was secrecy. "[21]

Criticism

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Main article:Criticism of the 9/11 Commission

The commission was criticized for alleged conflicts of interest on the part of commissioners and staff, including those ofPhilip D. Zelikow,the commission's executive director who co-authored a book withCondoleezza Rice.[23][24]The commission's final report, the9/11 Commission Report,has been the subject of criticism by both commissioners themselves and by others.[25][26]

Legacy

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Months after the commission had officially issued its report and ceased its functions,Thomas Kean,the commission's chair, and other commissioners toured the country to draw attention to the recommendations of the commission for reducing the terror risk, claiming that some of their recommendations were being ignored. Kean and vice-chairLee Hamiltonwrote a book about the constraints they faced as commissioners, titledWithout Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.

The book was released on August 15, 2006, and chronicles the work of Kean and Hamilton on the commission. In the book, Kean and Hamilton charge that the 9/11 Commission was "set up to fail,"and write that the commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by officials fromThe Pentagonand theFederal Aviation Administrationduring the investigation that it considered a separate investigation into possible obstruction of justice by Pentagon and FAA officials.[27]

References

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  1. ^"The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Report)".GovInfo.gov.U.S. Government Printing Office. July 22, 2004.RetrievedJune 30,2023.
  2. ^"Home".National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.September 20, 2004.Archivedfrom the original on February 11, 2010.RetrievedFebruary 17,2010.
  3. ^"Investigating Sept. 11".NewsHour.PBS. November 27, 2002. Archived fromthe originalon February 20, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2009.
  4. ^"Kissinger resigns as head of 9/11 commission".Cable News Network.December 13, 2002. Archived fromthe originalon April 27, 2006.RetrievedAugust 7,2006.
  5. ^"Mitchell quits 9/11 probe".CNN. December 10, 2002.Archivedfrom the original on February 20, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2009.
  6. ^"Bush taps ex-New Jersey governor for 9/11 panel".CNN. December 16, 2002.Archivedfrom the original on February 20, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2009.
  7. ^Burger, Timothy J. (March 26, 2003)."Commission Funding Woes".Time Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon January 14, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2009.
  8. ^"Probe Wins Boost in Aid".New York Daily News.March 30, 2003.RetrievedJanuary 21,2009.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^Chen, David W. (April 1, 2003)."Beyond Numbers, 9/11 Panel Hears Families' Anguish".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on February 20, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2009.
  10. ^""The White House Has Played Cover-Up" –Former 9/11 Commission Member Max Cleland Blasts Bush ".Democracy Now!.March 23, 2004.Archivedfrom the original on July 16, 2009.RetrievedJuly 7,2009.
  11. ^Philip Shenon (February 5, 2008).The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.Grand Central Publishing. pp. 345–.ISBN978-0-446-51131-5.
  12. ^Tony Blankley (2009).American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century.Simon and Schuster. pp. 109–.ISBN978-1-59698-061-7.
  13. ^James R. Holbein (January 1, 2005).The 9/11 Commission: proceedings and analysis.Oceana Publications. p. xxv.ISBN978-0-379-21528-1.
  14. ^Jehl, Douglas (August 9, 2005)."Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on November 12, 2014.RetrievedJanuary 19,2015.
  15. ^abcd"9/11 commission finishes Bush, Cheney session".NBC News.April 29, 2004.Archivedfrom the original on December 14, 2013.RetrievedNovember 24,2010.
  16. ^Kill the Messenger. SBS Australia, 2007. Documentary.
  17. ^Burger, Timothy J. (December 20, 2003)."Condi and the 9/11 Commission".Time.Archived fromthe originalon December 1, 2010.RetrievedNovember 24,2010.
  18. ^Shovelan, John (July 23, 2004)."9/11 Commission finds 'deep institutional failings'".Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Archivedfrom the original on February 21, 2006.RetrievedFebruary 2,2007.
  19. ^Levins, Harry (September 6, 2009)."The Ground Truth".St. Louis Post-Dispatch.Archivedfrom the original on December 17, 2016.RetrievedSeptember 12,2009.
  20. ^Farmer, John (2009).The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11.Riverhead Books.ISBN978-1-59448-894-8.
  21. ^abSalon, 14 Oct. 2011,"Insiders Voice Doubts about CIA's 9/11 Story: Former FBI Agents Say the Agency's Bin Laden Unit Misled Them about Two Hijackers"ArchivedDecember 24, 2020, at theWayback Machine
  22. ^PBS, NOVA, 3 Feb. 2009,"The Spy Factory"ArchivedApril 11, 2014, at theWayback Machine
  23. ^Zelikow, Philip D.; Rice, Condoleezza (1995).Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft.Harvard University Press.ISBN9780674353244.
  24. ^Hope Yen (February 3, 2008)."Ties between White House, Sept 11 Chief".Chicago Tribune.Archivedfrom the original on September 5, 2019.RetrievedSeptember 5,2019.
  25. ^"9/11: Truth, Lies and Conspiracy Interview: Lee Hamilton".CBC News, Canada.August 21, 2006. Archived fromthe originalon June 23, 2008.RetrievedOctober 16,2010.
  26. ^Eggen, Dan (August 2, 2006)."9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon".The Washington Post.Archivedfrom the original on January 5, 2010.RetrievedMay 31,2009.
  27. ^Yen, Hope (August 4, 2006)."Book: Sept. 11 Panel Doubted Officials".The Washington Post.Associated Press.Archivedfrom the original on May 14, 2011.RetrievedOctober 16,2010.

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