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Thursday 10 February 2005
Democratic Congressmen Call For New 9-11 Hearings
By Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Request for Hearings by House Members. Submitted by Ranking Democrat on House Committee on
Government Reform
The Honorable Tom Davis
Chairman
Committee on
Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We are writing to request that our Committee hold
hearings to investigate two extremely serious questions raised by an article
that appeared in this morning's New York Times. The first question is whether
the Administration misused the classification process to withhold, for political
reasons, official 9-11 Commission staff findings detailing how federal aviation
officials received multiple intelligence reports warning of airline hijackings
and suicide attacks before September 11. The second question relates to the
veracity of statements, briefings, and testimony by then-National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice regarding this issue.
Background
This morning's New York Times reported that in "the
months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens
of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of
which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations." [1] The article explained that the Federal Aviation
Administration "received 52 intelligence reports" that mentioned Osama bin Laden
or Al Qaeda prior to September 11, 2001, and that the FAA warned airports that
if "the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to
commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably
be preferable."
This information was included in a staff report by
the 9-11 Commission dated August 26, 2004. The 9-11 Commission report found that
there was "intelligence that indicated a real and growing threat leading up to
9-11," but that this intelligence "did not stimulate significant increases in
security procedures." Although the report did not find that the government had
advance information about the specific September 11, 2001, attacks, it reported
that the FAA took various measures to warn airport security officials about "the
possibility of a suicide hijacking."
Declassification Process
The first question Committee hearings should address
is whether the Bush Administration abused the classification process to
improperly withhold the 9-11 Commission findings from Congress and the public
until after the November elections and the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as
Secretary of State. Although the 9-11 Commission staff completed its report on
August 26, 2004, the Bush Administration refused to declassify the findings
until January 28, 2005, less than 48 hours after Ms. Rice was confirmed as
Secretary of State. [2] At that time, the Department of
Justice delivered both a classified version and an unclassified version to the
National Archives, the agency charged with collecting and retaining all 9-11
Commission documents.
During the period between August 26 and January 28,
the Administration was reportedly reviewing the Commission's report to determine
whether it contained any information that should be classified in the interest
of national security. Problems with this process had been raised previously by
the 9-11 Commission. [3]
The Committee should investigate the process by which
the Administration handled the declassification, redaction, and release of this
9-11 Commission report. Specifically, the Committee should investigate the
following questions:
(1) What was the process for declassifying, redacting, and releasing
this report, and who specifically was responsible for these actions?
(2) Were there political considerations behind the declassification,
redaction, or timing of the release of the report?
(3) What were the specific rationales for each redaction in the report? Were
these redactions appropriate?
On December 2, 2004, we joined with Rep. Christopher
Shays, Chairman of the National Security Subcommittee, and 23 other members in a
letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft specifically requesting the 9-11
Commission report at issue. [4] We noted that "there
have been a number of calls for its release, to no avail," and we expressed
concern that "politics may be playing a role in its release." This specific
congressional request was apparently ignored by the Administration. When the
staff report was declassified on January 28 and sent to the National Archives,
no notice was provided to us.
Statements by Ms. Rice
The Committee should also examine the process by
which Ms. Rice investigated and researched intelligence reports regarding
airline suicide attacks prior to making public statements regarding this issue,
testifying before the 9-11 Commission on April 8, 2004, and advising President
Bush.
During her tenure as President Bush's National
Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice made several categorical statements asserting
that there were never any warnings that terrorists might use airplanes in
suicide attacks. On May 16, 2002, for example, Ms. Rice made the following
statement at a White House press briefing:
I don't think anybody could have predicted that these
people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take
another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an
airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile. [5]
When Ms. Rice testified under oath before the 9-11
Commission on April 8, 2004, the Chairman of the 9-11 Commission, Thomas Kean,
asked her about her knowledge of a possible suicide attack using airplanes.
After acknowledging that her previous statement generated "concern about what I
might have known or we might have known," she stated as follows:
I said no one could have imagined them taking a
plane, slamming it into the Pentagon - I'm paraphrasing now - into the World
Trade Center, using planes as a missile. As I said to you in the private
session, I probably should have said "I" could not have imagined, because within
two days, people started to come to me and say, "Oh, but there were these
reports in 1998 and 1999, the intelligence community did look at information
about this."
To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Chairman, this kind
of analysis about the use of airplanes as weapons actually was never briefed to
us. I cannot tell you that there might not have been a report here or a report
there that reached somebody in our midst. All that I can tell you is that it was
not in the August 6th memo, using planes as a weapon, and I do not remember any
reports to us, a kind of strategic warning that planes might be used as a
weapon. In fact, there were some reports done in '98 and '99. I think I was - I
was certainly not aware of them at the time that I spoke. [6]
The President, who was advised by Ms. Rice about
national security matters, also repeatedly made definitive statements claiming
absolute ignorance regarding the possibility of terrorists using airplanes in
suicide missions. For example, President Bush stated on national television:
Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes
to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset,
every power of this government to protect the American people. [7]
One possibility raised by these facts is that Ms.
Rice was unaware of the FAA warnings when she appeared before the press and
testified before the 9-11 Commission. This would raise serious questions about
her preparation and competency. Another possibility is that Ms. Rice knew about
the FAA warnings but provided misleading information to the public and the
Commission. Neither of these possibilities would reflect well on Ms. Rice.
Perhaps there are other more innocent explanations for these seeming
inconsistencies.
Given the gravity of these questions and significance
of the new disclosures, the Committee should investigate what Ms. Rice knew,
when she knew it, and why she testified as she did. The public has the right to
expect that senior Administration officials will be candid on matters of
national security, especially when they involve the tragic events of September
11. An investigation is needed to determine whether this standard was met in
this instance.
Document Request
Finally, we request that the Committee obtain from
the Administration the following documents identified in the New York Times
article this morning:
(1) A full, unredacted copy of the classified version of the 9-11
Commission report on FAA intelligence warnings delivered to the National
Archives;
(2) Full and unredacted copies of the 52 intelligence reports received by the
FAA;
(3) Full and unredacted copies of the CD-ROM presentation distributed to
airlines and airports in 2001; and
(4) Full and unredacted copies of slides, reports, or other documents used in
classified briefings for security officials at 19 airports in
mid-2001.
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Ranking
Minority Member
Carolyn B. Maloney
Member
of Congress
The above Congressional request for hearings was first published by Truthout.org, who also provided the following notes:
[1] "9-11 Report Cites Many
Warnings about Hijackings," New York Times (Feb. 10, 2005).
[2] "Rice Is Confirmed Amid
Criticism," Washington Post (Jan. 27, 2005).
[3] See, e.g., "9-11
Commission Says U.S. Agencies Slow Its Inquiry," New York Times (July 9, 2003);
"Bush Weighing Decision on Release of Classified Documents to Sept. 11," New York
Times (Oct. 28, 2003).
[4] Letter from Rep. Carolyn
B. Maloney et al. to Attorney General John Ashcroft (Dec. 2, 2004).
[5] "Condoleezza Rice Holds
News Briefing on Pre-9-11 Intelligence Information," FDCH Political Transcripts
(May 16, 2002).
[6] "Hearing of the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States" (Apr. 8, 2004) (online as a PDF file at
www.9-11commission.gov.
[7] Inside Politics, Cable
News Network (Mar. 25, 2004). See also "George W. Bush Delivers Remarks and
Presents the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy," FDCH Political Transcripts (May 17,
2002) ("Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that
fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the
American people"); Wolf Blitzer Reports, CNN (Apr. 5, 2004) ("Make no mistake
about it, if we had known that the enemy was going to fly airplanes into our
buildings, we would have done everything in our power to stop it"); Secretary of
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld Interview with Rush Limbaugh (As Released by the
Pentagon), FDCH Political Transcripts (May 16, 2002) ("Well I guess I'd begin by
saying it's really much ado about nothing. To my knowledge there was no warning,
no alert as to suicide attackers in airplanes").
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