WASHINGTON, 12 August 2005 — The Bush Administration is ignoring requests made by members of the 9/11 Commission on what the government is doing to prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack, say former members of the group. They say they are concerned that the Bush Administration and Congress have chosen not to follow through on several of their recommendations.
According to the New York Times, the 9/11 members say the Bush Administration’s lack of cooperation is hindering a project that was otherwise nearly complete.
An assistant to Lee Hamilton, who co-chaired the 9/11 Commission with Thomas Kean, told Arab News that the members plan to release a “comprehensive statement” later on the subject. After completing a series of hearings this summer, a new report is scheduled for release next month, close to the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Kean, who led the bipartisan September 11 Commission, told journalists recently of his surprise and disappointment that the White House, Pentagon, State Department, CIA, FBI and several other executive branch agencies had all ignored their requests, filed over two months ago, for undated information on anti-terrorism programs.
The requests did not come directly from the disbanded commission, but from its shadow group, which the members call the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which says it will continue to lobby for its recommendations to be implemented. The Public Discourse Project group did not respond to interview requests made by this correspondent.
But Kean did tell reporters earlier this week that the group had sent detailed letters on June 16 to Andrew Card, the president’s chief of staff, and to the leaders of the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA, the FBI and the other agencies with responsibility for counter terrorism programs.
The letters requested interviews and updated information on the agencies’ efforts to deal with terrorism, asking that all of the information be provided by Aug. 15. But Kean said Card and the others had failed to respond to the letters or even to acknowledge their receipt.
Members of the former 9/11 Commission have said that several of the major recommendations made in the commission’s report last year have been put into effect, including the creation of the job of director of national intelligence, a post now held by John D. Negroponte.
But other recommended actions have not been completed, including the commission’s call for a restructuring of Congressional oversight of the nation’s spy agencies and for a major expansion of the government’s nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
