Sk B1 Family Liaison Fdr- 5-5-03 Letter From Family Steering Commitee Re Joint Inquiry And 5-8-03 Commission Response

May 8, 2003 Thomas H. Kean CHAIR

Dear Members of the Family Steering Committee:

Lee H. Hamilton VICE CHAIR

We believe the Commission's meeting with you on May 1, 2003 was a highly productive one. We appreciated the opportunity to meet with you and to respond both to questions submitted beforehand as well as those raised in the course of our nearly two hour meeting.

Richard Ben-Veniste Max Cleland Fred F. Fielding Jamie S. Gorelick Slade Gorton John Lehman Timothy J. Roemer James R. Thompson

Philip D. ZeUkow EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

As we indicated to you, we remain available and would be pleased to meet with you again at a mutually agreeable time and place, so that we can continue to keep you informed of the Commission's work. To that end, we would like to invite you to a meeting with Tom Kean and a number of staff, from 2 - 3 PM on May 15, 2003, at Mead Hall, Drew University, in Madison, NJ. Input from the families is critically important to us. For example, copies of documents from the Hamburg trial are an immediate, significant contribution to our work. We also want to thank you for the opportunity to review minutes, as you recorded them, of the May 1,2003 meeting. While we believe that it is useful to have a sense of your questions prior to meetings, we continue to believe that it is most useful to engage directly with you in dialogue. We find the process of response to written interrogatories less helpful in fostering and continuing the positive dialogue that is so important on behalf of our shared goal: the fulfillment of the Commission's mandate. Joint Inquiry (JI) information. Commissioners are fully aware of the Commission's mandate to build upon the work of the JI. Commissioners and staff are reading the JI report and related documents as part of thenwork. All Commissioners have access to the entirety of the JI Report and all information compiled by the JI. The Commission also takes very seriously its mandate to review Congressional oversight and resource allocation. Intelligence agencies. We have reached out to key intelligence agencies and the interactions have been positive. Agencies have been responsive so far to document and access requests. We believe we will get the information we need. We have assembled extensive lists of individuals we intend to interview. Non-classified areas of investigation. We have established very good points of contact with several Federal agencies outside of the intelligence TEL (202) 331-4060 FAX (202) 296-5545 www.9-11 commission.gov

Family Steering Committee May 8, 2003 Page 2 community, and have already initiated a number of document requests. We have established points of contact with New York entities, and will soon be doing.so with the airlines. Our next hearing, May 22 - 23, will take up the topic of aviation, and several individuals both inside and outside the government will be asked to testify on aviation security issues. We believe strongly that interviews—essential to the work of the Commission—must follow careful preparation, and we expect to begin them soon. Commission structure. We are keenly aware of the importance of strong internal communication within the Commission staff. The senior managers understand it is their job to insure the staff work together with an effective, productive division of labor among the teams. We are satisfied with their progress in uniting and directing this work. We are unaware of any requirement of outside counsel for potential witnesses and interview candidates. We will work to avoid delays in our investigative work. The Commission has made no decisions about the structure of its final report. Your reference to a book must be alluding to the report itself; we know of no other planned book connected to our work. Staff names have been made available to you; please feel free to reach us through the Front Office and/or the family liaison staff that will be named soon. In closing, we thank you for your continued willingness to bring information to the attention of the Commission, your strong support, and your helpful suggestions. We hope that you will join us on May 15. Please contact Stephanie Kaplan at (202) 331-4060 or [email protected] to make the appropriate arrangements. With best regards,

Thomas H. Kean Chair

Lee H. Hamilton Vice Chair

May 5, 2003 Dear Governor Kean, Congressman Hamilton, Commissioners and Staff, Thank you for meeting with us last Thursday afternoon and for taking the time to respond to the questions we had submitted earlier. As a result of our meeting, however, additional questions have been raised. We would appreciate a response to these additional concerns: Joint Inquiry Information 1. How many Commissioners have read the classified Joint Inquiry Report in its entirety? How many Staff members have read the classified Joint Inquiry Report in its entirety? (Prior to reading all 500,000 pages of the Joint Inquiry documents, it seems logical to read the Joint Inquiry's full report since the independent commission's mandate is to "build upon" the Joint Inquiry's work—not unnecessarily duplicate it). 2. How many Commissioners have read the 150 interview reports supplied by the Joint Inquiry in their entirety? 3. How many Staff members have read the 150 interview reports in their entirety? 4. Have you formulated any leads or investigative roadmaps from either the classified Joint Inquiry Report or the 150 interview reports? Have those leads been acted upon? 5. Regarding the 500,000 pages of documents from the Joint Inquiry, when will you request each agency's log of what documents were either reviewed or submitted to the Joint Inquiry? Isn't each agency required to maintain a log of all documents produced for the JIC? 6. What is the commission's position with regard to assertions of congressional privilege on the part of any congressman, staffer, and/or committee made in response to an inquiry by the Commission? Congressional oversight is an integral part of the Commission's mandate and must be addressed thoroughly and expeditiously. 7. The FSC continues to be concerned about the precedent created by allowing the submission of redacted documents to the JIC. All commissioners have top security clearances and are tasked with using the JIC's work as a starting point. Without full and open disclosure by the JIC, one is made to wonder what is being hidden and what message this sends to other congressional committees of whom similar requests will be made by the Commission in the future. Intelligence Agencies 1. Have you reached out to each intelligence agency and provided them with lists of information and documents needed? What agencies have replied? What agencies

have met any of your requests? If agencies do not meet your requests, what do you plan to do? 2. Have you determined a list of witnesses to testify from the intelligence agencies? Are you planning to issue any requests for depositions? If so, have you done so yet? If not, why not? Non-classified/Non-privileged areas of investigation 1. Regarding areas of non-classified information and/or areas that the Joint Inquiry did not investigate (therefore, areas that are not being held up by congressional privilege or executive privilege), what work has been done? For example, have you served interrogatories to the FAA, INS, Port Authority, City of NY, Department of Transportation, or the airlines? Have you submitted any deposition requests to those agencies? Have you conducted any interviews? Have you requested any individual's attendance for a future hearing? If not, why not?

Commission's Structure/ Misc. 1. Because the commission staff has varying levels of clearance, what mechanism do you have in place to ensure that the investigation itself does not suffer from fragmentation? For example, how can each staff member see the overall picture of the failures on 9/11 (a necessary component to conduct a thorough and effective investigation) if they are only allowed to read certain fragments of the Joint Inquiry's final report? What safeguards are in place to ensure the "dots" of your investigation are connected? 2. Have you spoken to the White House to gain their acquiescence to expedite all requests for clearances for outside attorneys who may have to represent individuals who are requested by you to testify, answer interrogatories, or be deposed? Clearances can take upwards of 6 months, we want to ensure that anyone whom the commission wants to testify, depose or answer interrogatories can do so in a timely manner. What have you done to plan for this possible delay? 3. We have read in the press that the Commission will be publishing a book after the investigation is complete. Is this true? If so, what is the purpose of this book? Does this pose a possible conflict of interest for Commission members? 4. We would like to receive a list of all staff and Commissioner assignments. Additionally, we would like to have staff contact phone numbers and email addresses. We have received numerous requests from the public about forwarding specific information to the commission, and we would like to be able to satisfy these requests. 5. We would like to receive a list of all individuals who will testify, be deposed, or be served with interrogatories. In providing this list to us, we will be able to conduct our own research on these individuals, formulate our own list of questions and concerns, and then share this information with you, so as to ensure that a comprehensive examination is done.

6. Regarding the investigation, we respectfully suggest that you not completely focus on the top-level individuals of agencies and institutions (Director of the CIA, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Defense, Mayor of NYC). Lowerlevel employees (field agents, air traffic controllers, air force lieutenants, NYFD lieutenants, etc.) can yield fruitful information. Recall the Phoenix Memo and the Moussouai case. Valuable information can be obtained from field operatives, staff and mid-level managers. Information they provide can then be used to question higher-level individuals. In this way, accountability can be more accurately assigned. We continue to be frustrated with the slow progress of this Commission. Although we acknowledge that the start-up for any commission can be a slow process, we also know the Joint Intelligence Committee faced problems due to time constraints and in fact were unable to complete their work. Thus, there is an urgent need begin requesting documents and conducting interviews. One of our greatest concerns is that the commission will run out of time.

We look forward to your collective response. Very truly yours, The Family Steering Committee