The 9/11 Investigation

A joint House and Senate Intelligence Committee has embarked on an unprecedented and extremely important investigation into the events preceding the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States.

Though our staff began work many months ago, this week marked the official start of that inquiry, which will entail many months of hearings, document review, and questioning of witnesses to produce a broad and thorough examination of shortfalls in our intelligence community that contributed to our vulnerability to the hijackers who attacked us on September 11, 2001.

Our purpose is to learn from past mistakes in order to improve our intelligence-gathering capabilities in the future. We are collecting pieces of a puzzle that can be analyzed once the entire picture is assembled. Ultimately, this may mean that some people will lose their jobs. Or it may reveal lapses in judgment or behavior that might have made a difference before September 11. It will also probably reveal some encouraging activities that need to be replicated in the future.

Some of our meetings will be open to the public, so that Americans can be informed as much as possible about their government’s actions. Others will be closed to protect classified information, encourage candor, and avoid spectacle.

This need for secrecy is a disappointment to some. But it is a matter of the utmost importance to our security. This investigation is being conducted during a time of war. We must be careful about careless disclosure of information that could be used by terrorists. And we should avoid placing unnecessary demands on our intelligence community at the same time that we are asking them to fight on the front line in our war on terror.

Two weeks ago, FBI Director Mueller spent more than 11 hours meeting with Senators about pre-September 11 events. This is time that took him away from protecting Americans. Should another attack occur, we will no doubt hear criticisms that officials spent too much time testifying to Congressional committees than doing their jobs properly. Yet many of these once and future critics are the most vocal in demanding that these same officials come before countless committees to defend their past actions. This is why one committee with a background in intelligence-gathering is preferable to multiple investigations of our government during a time of war.

Members of the media are anxious to pounce on bits and pieces of leaked memos so that they can point fingers at one agency or another, or create a sensational story. They need to act much more responsibly.

While leaked information sometimes can be helpful in pushing government to enact reforms, leaks also can be very dangerous. They can compromise sources that we need to track down terrorists still in the United States. The so-called Phoenix memo, pointing out that a number of Arab men were enrolled in area aviation schools, is a perfect example. It can be assumed that the Phoenix investigation was made much more difficult once those under investigation read about it in the newspapers.

Leaks can also mislead the public, as pundits jump to conclusions often without benefit of all the facts. For weeks, media commentary has given many Americans – including families of people killed in the World Trade Center – the false impression that there were all sorts of specific and obvious warnings about the suicide hijackings. That was not the case. And it is wrong and hurtful to the families to suggest otherwise.

Our joint investigative committee, which is bipartisan and bicameral, recognizes the importance of working in a responsible manner. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I can report that our early meetings have been conducted in an extremely promising atmosphere of frankness and cooperation. We understand the gravity of our responsibilities. We must offer concrete recommendations to improve our ability to fight a different kind of war, during which the lives of thousands of Americans have already been lost. And we realize the duty we owe to the victims’ families to give a full accounting of what went wrong and what must be done to stop this from happening again.

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