Dm B8 Team 6 Fdr- 6-27-03 Document Request To Gao 481

c Thomas H. Kean CHAIR

June 27, 2003

Lee H. Hamilton VICE CHAIR Richard Ben-Veniste Max Cleland Frederick F. Fielding

The Honorable David M. Walker Comptroller General General Accounting Office 441 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20548

Jamie S. Gorelick Slade Gorton John F. Lehman Timothy J. Roemer James R. Thompson

Philip D. Zelikow EXE-"' TIVE DIRECTOR

Dear Dave: Thank you for the gracious lunch. It was a pleasure to meet with you, and very valuable to discuss GAO's perspective on several topics of importance to the Commission. We also want to thank your staff, particularly Randall Yim, Rahul Gupta, and Cathy Berrick. They already have been very helpful to the Commission and its work. We would like to take this opportunity to follow up on some of the issues we discussed and identify some items of particular interest to us. There are several reports that GAO has already completed for which the Commission would like to obtain access to the underlying workpapers, including interview writeups and documents provided by the respective agencies. There are three such reports to date: • • •

First, your recent report on the FBI's reorganization (GAO-03-759T); Second, your April 2003 report on the Justice Department's project to interview aliens (GAO-03-459); and Finally, we would like to have access to the documentation for your October 2002 report on the visa process (GAO-13-132NI).

We understand that there is some sensitivity to our obtaining access to these materials. Please let us know what we may do to facilitate our staffs access to these valuable materials. In addition, we understand that you may be in the process of considering other projects of potential benefit to the Commission. The first is a request from Senator Schumer regarding federal agencies sharing information with local law enforcement, particularly the provision of security clearances and overcoming other obstacles to effective intelligence sharing.

301 7'1' Street SW, Room 5125 Washington, DC 20407 T 202.331.4060 F 202.296.5545 www.9-1 lcommission.gov

Page 2 Second, we understand that the Senate Banking Committee has indicated an interest in GAO work on terrorist financing. In both cases, we would welcome your commitment of people and resources to these topics, and believe you can make an important contribution. If there is anything we can do to help persuade you to undertake this work, please let us know. Finally, as we discussed, the issue of whether a separate domestic intelligence agency should be created to replace the FBI's current authority in the area of counterterrorism is a question of significant interest to the Commission. It would be of great assistance to us to know what would be involved financially, structurally, and/or legally to create such an agency. Please let us know if this is something with which GAO can help. We look forward to working closely with GAO in the months ahead. With best regards,

Thomas H. Kean Chair

Lee H. Hamilton Vice Chair