9/11 Commission Says U.S. Agencies Slow Its Inquiry
The New York Times
July 9, 2003
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, July 8 — The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks
said today that its work was being hampered
by the failure of executive branch agencies,
especially the Pentagon and the
Justice Department, to respond quickly
to requests for
documents and testimony.
The panel also said the failure of the Bush
administration to allow officials to be
interviewed without the presence
of government colleagues
could impede its investigation,
with the commission's chairman
suggesting today that the
situation amounted to "intimidation" of the
witnesses.
In what they acknowledged was
an effort to bring public pressure on the White House
to meet the panel's demands for classified information,
the commission's Republican chairman and Democratic vice chairman released a statement,
declaring that they had received only a small
part of the millions of sensitive government documents they have requested from the executive branch.
While praising President Bush and top
aides for their personal commitment
to the panel's work, the commission's
leaders — the chairman, Thomas H. Kean,
the former Republican governor of New Jersey,
and Lee H. Hamilton, the former Democratic member of the House from Indiana — said that federal
agencies under Mr. Bush's control
were not cooperating quickly or fully.
"The administration underestimated the scale of the commission's work and the full
breadth of support required," they said.
"The coming weeks will determine whether
we will be able to do our job within
the time allotted. The task in front
of us is monumental."
Claire Buchan, a White House spokeswoman,
said today in response to the statement
from the panel, known formally as the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon
the United States: "The president
is committed to ensuring that the
commission has all the
information it needs. The
president has directed federal agencies
to cooperate and to do so quickly."
Under the law creating the bipartisan,
10-member panel last year, the commission,
which met for the first time in January, is required to
complete its investigation by next May. "While thousands of documents are flowing in — some in boxes
and some digitized — most of the
documents we need are still to come,"
the statement said. "Time is slipping by."
The criticism today from Mr. Kean
and Mr. Hamilton clearly took senior
administration officials by surprise
and brought a fresh round of
attacks on the White House from
Congressional Democrats who have
said that the administration
is trying to stonewall a politically damaging
inquiry.
Although the White House had initially
opposed the creation of an independent commission to investigate intelligence and law-enforcement
failures before the 2001 terrorist strikes, the administration eventually came around to support the move, and it has repeatedly pledged full
cooperation.
The White House chose Mr. Kean
to lead the investigation after its first
choice, Henry A. Kissinger, the former
secretary of state, resigned
from the post rather than release
a list of clients of his consulting firm.
Mr. Hamilton was named vice chairman
by Congressional Democrats
after their first choice, George J. Mitchell,
the former Senate Democratic majority leader,
resigned when questions were raised about similar
conflicts of interest.
In their statement, Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton
said that the "problems that have arisen so far with the Department of Defense are becoming
particularly serious." They noted
that the Pentagon had not responded
to a series of requests for evidence
from several Defense Department
agencies, including the Joint Chiefs
of Staff and the North American
Aerospace Defense Command, which
is responsible for guarding
American airspace from terrorist attack.
"Delays are lengthening and agency
points of contact have so far been unable
to resolve them," the statement said.
"In the last few days, we
have been assured that the
department's leaders will address
these concerns. We look forward
to seeing the results."
Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton suggested
that the Justice Department was behind
a directive barring intelligence
officials from being interviewed
by the panel without the presence
of agency colleagues.
At a news conference, Mr. Kean described
the presence of "minders" at the interviews
as a form of intimidation. "I think the
commission feels unanimously that
it's some intimidation to have somebody
sitting behind you all the time
who you either work for or works
for your agency," he said. "You might
get less testimony than you would."
"We would rather interview these people
without minders or without agency
people there," he said.
In their written statement, the panel's
leaders said that the Justice Department
had been "unable to resolve important issues
related" to the commission's access
to evidence and testimony
from the case of Zacarias Moussaoui,
the only person facing trial
in an American court for
conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks.
A Defense Department spokeswoman
said tonight that the department
would have no immediate response to the criticism.
A Justice Department spokesman, Mark Corallo,
said that his department remained
"committed to assisting the commission's important
work on behalf of the United States."
Mr. Corallo added, however,
that "assembling the enormous amount
of information requested takes
significant manpower and time to accomplish."
He defended the administration's requirement
that witnesses be present when some executive branch officials are interviewed by the panel.
"In any investigation in which federal employees are interviewed, it is standard practice to have another agency representative present for the
benefit of the witnesses and to help facilitate the investigation," he said.
Although their intent today was clearly
to create discomfort at the White House,
Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton said repeatedly that they were optimistic that the panel could complete
its work on time and that it would
offer the most complete account available
of the events that led to
the terrorist attacks.
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