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May 8, 2003H. Kean

HamiltonC H A I RBen-Veniste

Gorelick

J. RoemerR. Thompson

D. ZeUkowD I R E C T O R

Dear Members of the Family Steering Committee:We believe the Com mission's meeting w ith you on M ay 1, 2003 was ahighly productive one. W e appreciated the opportunity to meet with youand to respond both to questions submitted beforehand as well as thoseraised in the course of our nearly tw o hour meeting.As we indicated to you , we remain available and w ould be pleased tomeet with you again at a mu tually agreeable time and place, so that wecan continue to keep you informed of the Commission's work. To thate n d , we wo uld like to invite you to a meeting with Tom Kean and anumber of staff, from 2 - 3 PM on May 15, 2003, at Mead Hall, DrewUniversity, in Madison, NJ.Input from the families is critically important to us. For example, copiesof documents from the Ham burg trial are an immediate, significantcontribution to our work. W e also wan t to thank you for the opportunityto review min utes, as you recorded them, of the M ay 1,2003 meeting.While we believe that it is useful to have a sense of your questions priorto meetings, we continue to believe that it is most useful to engagedirectly with you in dialogue. We find the process of response to writteninterrogatories less helpful in fostering an d continuing the positivedialogue that is so important on behalf of our shared goal: the fulfillmentof the Com mission's mandate.Joint Inquiry ( J I ) information. Commissioners are fully aware of theCommission's m and ate to build upon the work of the JI. Comm issionersand staff are reading the JI report and related documents as part of then-work. All C om missio ners have access to the entirety of the JI Report andall information compiled by the JI. The Commission also takes veryseriously its mandate to review Congressional oversight an d resourceallocation.Intelligence agencies. W e have reached out to key intelligence agenciesand the inte rac tion s have been positive. Agencies hav e been responsiveso far to document an d access requests. We believe we will get theinformation we need. We have assembled extensive lists of individualswe intend to interview.Non-classified areas of investigation. We have established very goodpoints of contact with several Federal agencies outside of the intelligence

TEL (202) 331-4060F A X (202) 296-5545

www.9-11 commission.gov

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Family Steering CommitteeM ay 8, 2003Page 2

communi ty , and hav e already initiated a number of document requests.We have established points of contact with New York entities, and willsoon be doing.so with the airlines. Ournext hearing, May 22 - 23, willtake up the topic of aviation, and several individuals both inside an doutside th e governm ent will be asked to testify on aviation securityissues. W e believe stro ngly that interviewsessential to the work of theCommissionmust follow careful preparation, and we expect to beginthem soon.Com mission structure. We are keenly aware of the importance ofstrong internal communication within the Commission staff. The seniormanagers understand it is their job to insure th e staff work together withan effective, productive division of labor among the teams. We aresatisfied w ith their progress in uniting and directing this work.We are unaw are of any requirement of outside counsel for potentialwitnesses an d interview candidates. W e will work to avoid delays in ourinvestigative work.The Commission has made no decisions about th e structure of its finalreport. Yo ur reference to a book must be alluding to the report itself; weknow of no other planned book connected to our work.Staff names have been made available to you; please feel free to reach usthrough the Front Office and/or the family liaison staff that will be namedsoon.In closing, we thank you for your continued w illingness to bringinformation to the attention of the Commission, your strong support, andyour helpful suggestions. W e hope that yo u will join us on May 15.Please c ontac t Stephanie Kaplan at (202) 331-4060 or skaplan@9-l lcommiss ion.gov to make the appropriate arrangements.

With best regards,

Thomas H. Kean Lee H. HamiltonChair Vice Chair

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May 5, 2003Dear Governor Kean, Congressman H amilton, Comm issioners and Staff,Thank you for meeting with us last Thursday afternoon and for taking the time to respondto the questions we had submitted earlier.As a result of our meeting, however, additional questions have been raised. We wouldappreciate a response to these ad ditional concerns:Joint Inquiry Information

1. How m any Commissioners have read the classified Joint Inquiry Report in itsentirety? How many Staff members have read the classified Joint Inquiry Reportin 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 independentcommission's mandate is to "build upon" the Joint Inquiry's worknotunnecessarily duplicate it).2. How many Com missioners have read the 150 interview reports supplied by theJoint Inqu iry 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 roadmap s from either theclassified Joint Inquiry R eport or the 150 interview reports? Have those leadsbeen acted upo n?5. Regarding the 500,000 pages of documents from the Joint Inquiry, when will yourequest each agency's log of wh at documents w ere either reviewed or submittedto the Joint Inquiry? Isn't each ag ency required to maintain a log of all documentsproduced for the JIC?6. W hat is the commission's position with regard to assertions of congressionalprivilege on the part of any congressman, staffer, and/or committee made inresponse to an inq uiry by the Commission? Congressional oversight is an integralpart of the Comm ission's mandate and must be addressed thoroughly andexpeditiously.7. The FSC continues to be concerned about the precedent created by allowing thesubmission of redacted documents to the JIC. All commissioners have topsecurity clearances and are tasked w ith using the JIC's work as a starting point.Without full and open disclosure by the JIC, one is made to wonder what is beinghidden and wh at message this sends to other congressional committees of whomsimilar requests will be made by the Comm ission in the future.

Intelligence Age ncies1. Ha ve you reached out to each intelligence agency and provided them w ith lists ofinformation and docu m ents needed? W hat agencies have replied? What agencies

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have met any of your requests? If agencies do not meet your requests, what doyou plan to do?2. Have yo u 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 soyet? If not, why not?Non-classified/Non-privileged areas of investigation

1. Regarding areas of non-classified information and/or areas that the Joint Inquirydid not investigate (therefore, areas that are not being held up by congressionalprivilege or executive privilege), what work has been done? For example, haveyou served interrogatories to the FAA, INS, Port Authority, City of NY,Department of Transportation, or the airlines? Have you submitted any depositionrequests to those agencies? Have yo u conducted an y interviews? Have yo urequested an y 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 doyou have in place to ensure that the investigation itself does no t suffer fromfragmentation? For example, how can each staff member see the overall picture ofthe failures on 9/11 (a necessary component to conduct a thorough and effectiveinvestigation) if they are only allowed to read certain fragments of the JointInquiry's final report? What safeguards are in place to ensure the "dots" of yourinvestigation areconnected?2. Have you spoken to the White House to gain their acquiescence to expedite allrequests fo r clearances for outside attorneys who may have to representindividuals who are requested by you to testify, answer interrogatories, or bedeposed? Clearances can take upwards of 6 months, we want to ensure thatanyone whom the commission wants to testify, depose or answer interrogatoriescan 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 theinvestigation 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 an d Commissioner assignments.Additionally, we would like to have staff contact phone numbers an d emailaddresses. We have received numerous requests from the public about forwardingspecific information to the commission, and we would like to be able to satisfythese 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 toconduct our own research on these individuals, formulate our own list ofquestions an d concerns, an d then share this information with you, so as to ensurethat a comprehensive examination is done.

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6. Reg arding the investigatio n, we respectfully suggest that you not completelyfocus on the top-level individualsof agencies and institutions (Director of theCIA, Se cretary of Transportation, Secretary of D efense, Mayor of NY C). Lower-level employees (field agents, air traffic controllers, air force lieutenants, NYFDlieutenants, etc.) can yield fruitful information. Recall the Phoenix Memo and theMoussouai case. Valuable information can be obtained from field operatives, staffan d mid-level managers. Information they provide can then be used to questionhigher-level individuals. In this w ay, accountability can be more accuratelyassigned.

We continue to be frustrated w ith the slow progress of this Comm ission. Although w eacknowledge that the start-up for any commission can be a slow process, we also knowthe Joint Intelligence Com mittee faced problems due to time constraints and in fact wereunable to complete the ir work. Thus, there is an urgent need begin requesting documentsand conducting interviews. One of our greatest concerns is that the commission will runout of time.W e look forward to you r collective response.Very truly yours,The Family Steering Committee