amigocabal

9/11 director gave evidence to own inquiry
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Published 1/15/2004 7:16 PM
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The panel set up to investigate why the United
States failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, faced
angry questions Thursday after revelations that two of its own senior
officials were so closely involved in the events under investigation that
they have been interviewed as part of the inquiry.

Philip Zelikow, the commission's executive director, worked on the
Bush-Cheney transition team as the new administration took power, advising
his longtime associate and former boss, national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice, on the incoming National Security Council.

"He came forward (to answer questions) in case he might have useful
information," said Al Felzenberg, the commission spokesman.

The news was greeted with dismay by many of the relatives of the victims who
campaigned for the commission to be set up.

"This is beginning to look like a whitewash," Kristen Breitweizer, who lost
her husband Ron in tower two of the World Trade Center, told United Press
International.

Jamie S. Gorelick, one of the 10 members of the commission itself, and the
other official who has answered investigators' questions, was deputy
attorney general in Janet Reno's Justice Department during the Clinton
administration.

"She was a very senior person," said Felzenberg. "She had an interesting
perspective."

The families have said for many months that they are not happy with
Zelikow's role, which they argue creates at least an appearance of a
conflict of interest. They were furious Thursday that they learned from the
newspapers he had given evidence.

"Did he interview himself about his own role in the failures that left us
defenseless?" asked Lori Van Auken, the widow of Kenneth. "This is bizarre."

Zelikow -- an historian based at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the
University of Virginia -- has also come under fire from some critics for his
close ties to senior administration officials. He has had a longstanding
relationship with Rice, who hired him to work for her when she was a White

More recently, some relatives have accused him of being in touch with White
House political supreme Karl Rove -- the man widely believed to be the most
powerful figure in the administration.

Zelikow was not available to answer questions Thursday, but Felzenberg did
not deny the allegation.

"He has not spoken with Karl Rove about commission business," he said. "Like
many others on the commission, he has a job he hopes to go back to
afterwards. The Miller Center is dedicated to the study of the presidency,
and (Zelikow) has contacts with a wide range of people from all recent
administrations."

Zelikow, who the commission says has withdrawn himself from those parts of
its investigation directly connected with the transition -- a process known
as recusal -- was also appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board in October 2001.

The board provides the White House with advice about the quality, adequacy
and legality of the whole spectrum of intelligence activities.

"Zelikow resigned (from the PFIAB) as soon as he signed the contract to be
director of the commission," said Felzenberg. "He's recused himself from the
relevant parts of the inquiry.

"Frankly, we don't see what the fuss is about."

"If (Zelikow and Gorelick) had not been commission officials, we would
probably have interviewed them anyway. We've interviewed hundreds of
people."

The question of the transition is a significant one, because critics of
President Bush contend that the incoming administration "dropped the ball"
on the fight against Osama bin Laden, which had been ramping up under
President Clinton, especially after a suicide attack by his al-Qaida network
nearly destroyed the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.

According to one former Bush White House official, the incoming
administration downgraded the interagency committee that handles the
nation's counter-terrorism policy and operations on a day-to-day basis.

The Counter-Terrorism Security Group had, under Clinton, reported directly
to the so-called Principles' Committee, the meeting of Cabinet-level
officials that sets policy for presidential consideration.

"They stopped it reporting directly," the former official told UPI on
condition of anonymity. "It had to report to deputies. ... It slowed down
consideration of policy initiatives quite a bit."

Under Clinton, the former official added, the chairman of the counter-terror
group, Richard Clarke, had been a member of the Principles' Committee,
sitting with the secretaries of Defense and State and the national security
adviser.

"They eliminated that ... It meant that the CSG didn't have that
spokesperson to represent them and put the issue in front of (the
principles) over and over again," the former official said.

Moreover, the deputies' committee, to which Clarke was now reporting, didn't
meet properly until April, and -- partly as a result of these changes --
there was no Principles' Committee meeting on how to deal with the al-Qaida
threat until Sept. 4.

Bush's supporters, for their part, say Clinton's failure to capture or kill
bin Laden after his network destroyed two U.S. embassies in east Africa
emboldened the extremists to attack America on Sept. 11.

Relatives say the news about Gorelick and Zelikow is a particularly sharp
blow to the commission's credibility because they are the two officials to
whom the White House has granted the greatest access to the most secret and
sensitive national security documents, the presidential daily briefings.

Last year, officials acknowledged that one such briefing in August 2001,
more than a month prior to the attacks, warned that al-Qaida was determined
to strike in the United States. Some reports suggested that hijacking -- and
even the use of airplanes as missiles -- was mentioned as the mode of
assault.

"We want the whole issue of who has access to the briefings revisited," said
Breitweizer, "the entire commission has to have access to them."

A delegation of relatives traveled to Washington Thursday for an evening
meeting with commission staff, which was expected to be stormy.