The Commission

by Philip Shenon

  Chapter 24. K Street Offices of the 9/11 Commission

  Cleland provided much of this material in interviews. The material on the commission’s relationship with Cleland and his resignation from the commission is drawn from interviews with Kean, Hamilton, Roemer, and Gorton, among others. The transcript of Kean’s December 8, 2003, news conference, in which he discussed Cleland’s departure, can be found on the commission’s website. Cleland’s description of Republican election tactics as “pure evil” was reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in an article on September 14, 2004; the article, titled “Kerry Should Take Cue from Cleland,” was written by reporter John L. Smith. The description of the accident in which Cleland’s Cadillac was destroyed was reported by The Washington Post in an article on July 3, 2002, titled “Political Veteran: Max Cleland Survived His Vietnam War Wounds. But He Has Yet to Recover From His Last Campaign Battle”; the article was written by Peter Carlson. The article revealing Bob Kerrey’s involvement in the Vietnam massacre was published in The New York Times Magazine on April 29, 2001; written by reporter Gregory Vistica, the piece is titled “What Happened in Thanh Phong.”

  Chapter 25. Home of Lorie Van Auken

  Lorie Van Auken, Kristen Breitweiser, and other family advocates were the source of much of the information about the deliberations that led to the call for Zelikow’s ouster. In her book, Wake-Up Call, Breitweiser described her confrontation with Zelikow in the Washington coffee shop. In interviews, Kean and Zelikow described Zelikow’s strained relationship with the family advocates. The article in the Newark Star Ledger about the confrontation between Kean and the families was published on February 12, 2004 (“Kean Feels the Wrath of Irate 9/11 Families’’) and was written by Bob Braun. Marcus, Zelikow, and other staff members described the sworn testimony taken by the commission from Zelikow. Marcus confirmed his conversation with Karen Heitkotter about Zelikow’s phone logs.

  Chapter 26. Office of Political Affairs

  The description and size of Rove’s office comes from a floor map and article published in The Washington Post on June 6, 2005. Rove’s degree of interest in the 9/11 commission and its investigation was described to me in interviews with Card, other White House officials, and John Lehman. The relationship between the White House and Kean and Hamilton was described in interviews with Card, Kean, and Hamilton, among others. In an interview, Lehman described his dealings with the White House over allegations of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Lehman described his showdown with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover in his memoir, Command of the Seas, which was published by Scribner.

  Chapter 27. Offices of the Director of Central Intelligence

  Kean and Hamilton describe the meeting with Tenet in Without Precedent and provided additional details about the encounter in interviews with me. The description of Dieter Snell comes from Kean, Hamilton, and other commissioners and staff members. Former senior CIA officials described Tenet’s positions on the issue of the commission’s access to terrorist detainees. The best timeline of the commission’s negotiations over the detainees is contained in Without Precedent. The investigation by Michael Jacobson into the connections between two of the 9/11 hijackers and a group of Arab men in southern California was described by Senator Bob Graham in his book Intelligence Matters. Several staff members of the commission also described Jacobson’s work on the issue. In an interview, Gorelick confirmed that she had gone to FBI Director Mueller to complain about the FBI’s failures to cooperate with the investigation. In an interview, Lehman described his detailed concerns about the Saudi government and its possible connections to the 9/11 plot.

  Chapter 28. K Street Offices of the 9/11 Commission

  Michael Scheuer provided much of the material for this chapter through interviews and in e-mails. Several staff members described the nature of the commission’s interviews with Scheuer. Clarke’s comments about Scheuer were made in an article published in Vanity Fair magazine in a richly reported November 2004 article, titled “The Path to 9/11: Lost Warnings and Fatal Errors”; the article was written by Ned Zeman, David Wise, David Rose, and Brian Burrough.

  Chapter 29. The Capitol

  Much of this material is drawn from interviews with Roemer, Clarke, and Dan Marcus, the commission’s general counsel. The description of Clarke’s encounter with President Bush on September 12, 2001, is drawn from Clarke’s book Against All Enemies.

  Chapter 30. Offices of the 9/11 Commission

  John Farmer’s description of his frustrations with the investigation is drawn from interviews with Farmer and other members of his team, including John Azzarello. Miles Kara, a member of the team, provided a detailed chronology of the portion of the investigation involving the FAA and NORAD. Kean and Hamilton’s Without Precedent also offer a valuable description of the work of Farmer’s team. In interviews, Hamilton and Gorton described their meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. They and Kean described how the vote was taken on the NORAD subpoena.

  Chapter 31. CIA Headquarters

  Valuable descriptions of the president’s daily brief (the PDB) and its preparation are provided in both Kean and Hamilton’s Without Precedent and in George Tenet’s 2007 memoir, At the Center of the Storm. In several interviews, Kean described his thinking with regard to the PDBs. The CBS News story that revealed the existence of the August 6, 2001, PDB was reported by the network’s national security correspondent, David Martin, on May 15, 2002. The “BUSH KNEW” headline was published by the New York Post on May 16, 2002. The article by Bob Woodward and Dan Eggen about the same PDB was published in The Washington Post on May 18, 2002 (“Aug. Memo Focused on Attacks in U.S.; Lack of Fresh Information Frustrated Bush”). The description of the commission’s strategy in requesting the PDBs is offered in detail in Without Precedent and was confirmed in separate interviews with Kean, Hamilton, Zelikow, Marcus, and others from the commission. My article about Kean’s threat to subpoena the PDBs was published in The New York Times on October 26, 2003 (“9/11 Commission Could Subpoena Oval Office Files”). The reaction by Roemer and Cleland to the commission’s final agreement with the White House over the PDBs was explained to me in interviews with both men. Kristen Breitweiser made her comment to me about Zelikow in interviews.

  Chapter 32. Room 5026

  In interviews, Kean, Gorelick, and Zelikow provided me with details of their inspection of the PDBs and other documents. In interviews, Marcus described his attitude toward the possibility of issuing subpoenas to the White House. Zelikow’s quotation about the perception of the value of the PDBs was drawn from Kirsten Lundberg’s report on the commission for Harvard’s Kennedy School. Much of the information about the detailed content of the SEIBs and of Richard Clarke’s files is found in the final report of the 9/11 commission, especially in the report’s detailed footnotes.

  Chapter 33. Office of the Speaker

  Much of the material about House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s attitude toward the 9/11 commission was offered to me by his former press spokesman, John Feehery, and other former congressional officials who worked with Hastert. In interviews, Kean and Hamilton described their difficult meeting with Hastert and other Republican congressional leaders. In interviews, Slate Gorton described his frustration with his membership on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

  Chapter 34. The Situation Room

  In interviews, several members of the commission and its staff described the White House meeting with then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. Dan Marcus, who conducted much of the questioning of Rice, provided an especially valuable account of the session. The comments about Rice by Kean, Lehman, Gorton, Gorelick, Kerrey, Ben-Veniste, and Roemer were provided to me in interviews. Portions of Rice’s comments to the commission in the private interview were published in the commission’s final report. Ben-Veniste’s “Jean-Paul Belmondo” quotation appeared in Newsweek’s October 4, 1976 edition (“Watergate Winners,” by Eileen Keerdoja). The comic-book character Ben Vincent appeared in The Incredibl
e Hulk issues 176–178 (Marvel Entertainment Inc.).

  Chapter 35. 26 Federal Plaza

  Much of this material was drawn from an extensive interview with former acting FBI director Thomas Pickard and from interviews with commission investigators who researched his allegations against former attorney general John Ashcroft. Portions of Pickard’s comments from his private interview with the commission are reproduced in the panel’s final report.

  Chapter 36. K Street Offices of the 9/11 Commission

  The description of former national security adviser Samuel Berger’s private interview with the 9/11 commission is drawn from interviews with several commissioners and staff members. Portions of Berger’s comments in the interview are cited by the commission in its final report. Much of the detail of Berger’s thefts at the National Archives and the discovery of the thefts is documented in the reports of the inspector general of the National Archives and of the staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

  Chapter 37. Offices of the Director of Central Intelligence

  The CIA’s Rudy Rousseau gave me an extensive interview, which is responsible for much of the material in this chapter. Additional material was drawn from an interview with John Moseman, Tenet’s former chief of staff at the CIA. The descriptions of the commission’s initial private interviews with Tenet were drawn from interviews with Zelikow, Ben-Veniste, and several other commissioners and staff members. Zelikow’s comment that “we just didn’t believe” Tenet was first published in The New Yorker magazine, in a profile of a senior FBI counterterrorism official, published on November 8, 2004. The article, titled “Learning to Spy: Can Maureen Baginski Save the F.B.I.?” was written by Elsa Walsh. Former senior CIA officials provided me with an account of Tenet’s attitude toward the commission and his conduct in the private interviews.

  Chapter 38. Studios of NBC News

  The comparison of Meet the Press with a confessional is from an October 31, 2005, profile of NBC News Washington Bureau chief Tim Russert by Todd Purdum, then of The New York Times, now of Vanity Fair magazine; the article is titled “TV Newsman Is His Own News in the Leak Case.” The transcripts of the appearances of Kean and Hamilton, and of Vice President Cheney, on Meet the Press are available on the NBC News website: www.msnbc.msn.com. The description of the commission’s investigation into the September 11, 2001, order to shoot down commercial planes was described in interviews with Dan Marcus, the general counsel; John Farmer, the leader of the team who led that part of the inquiry; and several other members of the commission’s staff. The description of the White House logs that recorded communications on the day of the attacks is found in the commission’s final report, especially in its footnotes.

  Chapter 39. Federal Bureau of Investigation

  Much of this material is drawn from interviews with the commission’s staff investigators, including members of Team 6, which was responsible for studying the FBI’s performance. Some of the most frightening details about the FBI’s outdated technology were published in Amy Zegart’s extraordinary book Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI and the Origins of 9/11. Former FBI acting director Thomas Pickard’s comments about the FBI’s technology are drawn from his public testimony to the commission on April 13, 2004. Kean’s and Zelikow’s comments about the FBI were made to me in interviews. Freeh’s best defense against the attacks on his tenure at the FBI on counterterrorism was made in his 2005 book, My FBI, and in his public testimony to the commission. Much of the material about Ashcroft’s performance in 2001 was drawn from interviews with former senior Justice Department officials, including Mark Corallo, Ashcroft’s former spokesman.

  Chapter 40. K Street Offices of the 9/11 Commission

  The description of the reaction of the commission’s staff to Richard Clarke’s book Against All Enemies was provided to me in interviews with Dan Marcus, the general counsel; Zelikow; and other members of the staff. Clarke told me in an interview about his decision to bar Zelikow from reading an advance copy of the book and about his reaction to the White House attacks. A partial transcript of Clarke’s interview with CBS News for 60 Minutes is available on the CBS News website, www.cbsnews.com. Rice made the comments about Clarke in interviews with ABC News and CNN. In an interview, Card described the White House reaction to Clarke’s appearance on 60 Minutes. The transcript of Cheney’s interview with Rush Limbaugh is available on the White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/200403225.html. The columnist Robert Novak made his comment about Clarke on the CNN program Crossfire on March 25, 2004; a transcript is available on the CNN website at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/25/cf.00.html. The description of Clarke as a “drama queen” was made by commentator Laura Ingraham on the radio program Imus in the Morning on March 23, 2004.

  Chapter 41. Office of the Counsel to the President

  The description of the campaign by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and others in the White House to undermine Clarke’s credibility was described to me by former White House and Justice Department officials. The phone calls from Gonzales to Fred Fielding were first reported by The Washington Post on April 1, 2004, in an article by reporters Dana Milbank and Dan Eggen (“Bush Counsel Called 9/11 Panelist Before Clarke Testified”). The transcript of Richard Clarke’s 2002 background briefing on the Bush administration’s antiterrorism record is available on the Fox News website at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115085,00.html. News of the existence of the taped background interview with Clarke was first reported by reporter Jim Angle of Fox. The Time magazine cover story, “The Secret History,” was published in its August 4, 2002, issue and is available at the magazine’s website: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020812/story.html. The transcript of The O’Reilly Factor for March 25, 2004, the day of Clarke’s hearing, is available through Lexis-Nexis. The Pew Research Center poll on the public’s response to Clarke’s testimony was cited on National Public Radio on the program Morning Edition on March 26, 2004. Karen Hughes made her comments about the decision to allow Rice to testify to my colleague Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times for a March 31, 2004, article that she and I wrote, (“Bush Allows Rice to Testify on 9/11 in a Public Session”). The description of Ben-Veniste’s April Fool’s joke is found in Kean and Hamilton’s Without Precedent.

  Chapter 42. Room 216

  The description of the reactions of Ben-Veniste, Kean, Hamilton, and Kerrey to Rice’s testimony was provided to me in interviews with those commissioners. The encounter between Zelikow and Raj De, the staff investigator, was confirmed to me by Zelikow. Dan Rather of CBS News made his comments about Rice during a special report with live coverage of Rice’s hearing on April 8, 2004. The article by Tom Shales of The Washington Post about Rice’s performance at the hearing was published on April 9, 2004 (“Cool, Calm Condoleezza Rice”).

  Chapter 43. 301 7th Street SW

  The meeting with Clinton is detailed in Kean and Hamilton’s Without Precedent and was described in subsequent interviews with several of the commissioners who attended, including Kean, Hamilton, Lehman, Kerrey, and Gorton. The quote from Republican commissioner Fred Fielding comes from Without Precedent and was confirmed by Kean and others. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York referred to the 9/11 commission as “ghoulish” on his WABC-AM radio program on November 21, 2003.

  Chapter 44. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

  The confrontation with Fahad al-Thumairy, the Saudi diplomat, was described to me by staff members, including Raj De. The information about the Tunisian taxi driver, Qualid Benomrare, was revealed in the footnotes of the commission’s final report. The material about Doug MacEachin, the commission’s investigator, was provided to me by MacEachin and others on the commission. In interviews, Kerrey and Lehman described to me their reactions to the aftermath of the Cole bombing.

  Chapter 45. K Street Offices of the 9/11 Commission

  The material about Len Hawley is drawn from interviews with several of the commission’s staff members. Sc
ott Allan was interviewed about his staff statement and the staff debate over Zelikow’s rewriting of the statement. Zelikow’s role in the debate and his frustrations in running the investigation were explained to me in my e-mail interviews with him. The final version of “Diplomacy” staff statement is available at the commission’s website: www.9-11commission.gov.

  Chapter 46. Room 216

  This material is drawn largely from interviews with Gorelick, Kean, Gorton, and Kerrey, as well as with Mark Corallo, Attorney General John Ashcroft’s former spokesman, and other former senior Justice Department officials. My articles on Ashcroft appeared in the Times on April 6, 2004 (“9/11 Panel Plans Hard Questions About the F.B.I. and Justice Dept.”) and April 13, 2004 (“9/11 Panel Is Said to Offer Harsh Review of Ashcroft,” with my colleague Lowell Bergman). The full transcript of the public testimony by Ashcroft is available at the commission’s website: www.9-11commisison.gov.

  Chapter 47. Offices of the Law Firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering

  The death threats against Gorelick were first reported by ABC News and CNN on April 17, 2004. The next day, a report by National Public Radio on the threats included the audio from Rush Limbaugh. The background material on Gorelick is from several sources, most notably a terrific profile of her written by my colleague Eric Schmitt of the Times that was published on February 1, 1994, titled “Washington at Work: Pentagon Lawyer Quietly Gets Notice As a Rising Star in the Administration.” Gorelick’s op-ed article was published in The Washington Post on April 18, 2004 (“The Truth About ‘the Wall’”). The description of the commission’s visit to Florida on April 28, 2004, is drawn from Kean and Hamilton’s Without Precedent, as well as from interviews with Gorelick, Kean, Gorton, and Hamilton. In interviews, Card and Kean offered a similar account of their telephone call on the eve of the Oval Office meeting with Bush.