Sd B2 Homeland Security Fdr- 9-2-03 Letter From Dhs-cpb Customs And Border Protection Re Document Request 775

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U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION Department of Homeland Security / 300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington. D.C. 20229 SEP

2 2003

Deputy Commissioner

Daniel Marcus General Counsel National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States 301 7th Street, SW Room 5125

Washington, DC 20407 Re: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Document Production Dear Mr. Marcus: Pursuant to your electronic message of July 23, 2003, please find enclosed responses on behalf of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The enclosed indices indicate which documents respond to which questions. Classified material and unclassified material maintained by our Office of Intelligence that is responsive to your request is scheduled to be provided separately to comply with procedures for the transfer of classified material. Records relating to legal advice provided by the Office of Chief Counsel is being withheld subject to attorney-client privilege; however, the final policies, agreements, or other matters on which counsel has advised are provided by the respective client offices as applicable. The documents provided are for the 9/11 Commission's official use only and may not be used for any other purpose. While the documents provided under this cover are not classified, some items are law enforcement sensitive in that their disclosure would he'p enable persons to evade detection by law enforcement. Other documents may contain personally identifiable information about law enforcement officers (e.g., Social Security Numbers) that ordinarily would be withheld from public disclosure. Therefore, these documents are being released to you on condition that they may not be disclosed to the public without prior written authorization of this agency. Pursuant to instruction from the Department of Justice liaison to the 9/11 Commission, we also provide any third agency or classified documents previously

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provided to the Joint Inquiry Staff without further coordination or approval of the originating agencies. As you are aware, several weeks ago, CBP and the 9/11 Commission, scheduled at the 9/11 Commission's request, the week of September 8,2003, for CBP to make documents available to the 9/11 Commission, This arrangement is similar to arrangements CBP (then Customs) had made with the Joint Inquiry Staff, and would have minimized the Commission's document review burden. CBP has made every effort to fully comply with the 9/11 Commission's request and the rescheduled deadline. Any question or concern about the completeness of this response results from the accelerated deadline and not the commitment of CBP to provide the Commission with the documents and information requested. If you have any questions regarding this production of documents, or have any supplemental requests, please coordinate them through the Department of Homeland Security point of contact, John Mitnick, or his designee.

Sincerely,

72*0^^—-^ Douglas Browning f\ Deputy Commissioner/ / Enclosures

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