Thomas H.

Kean August 19, 2003

CHAIR

Lee H. Hamilton
VICE CHAIR
The Honorable Robert S. Mueller III
Richard Ben-Veniste Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Max Cleland
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Frederick F. Fielding Washington, DC 20535-0001
Jamie S. Gorelick
Dear Director Mueller:
Slade Gorton
Public Law 107-306 directs the Commission to investigate the facts and
John F. Lehman
circumstances surrounding the September 11,2001 terrorist attacks, including
Timothy J. Roemer the nation's preparedness for and immediate response to those attacks. We are
James R. Thompson
also mandated to identify and evaluate lessons learned and make
recommendations for the future. The statute authorizes the Commission to
secure needed information directly from any agency. The Commission has
Philip D. Zelikow
EXF^ - 'TIVE DIRECTOR
thus made numerous requests for documents and discussions with officials
from your agency. Given the extraordinary character of the 9/11 events and
our mandate, the scope and sensitivity of our requests have few, if any,
precedents.

We are therefore all the more grateful for the efforts you and your colleagues
have made so far to deal with our many, necessary requests. With so many
other issues confronting you and your staff, we do understand how hard this
can be. We try to make appropriate allowances when we know people are
doing their best. In July the Commission issued an interim report on our
progress so far. hi that report we said the coming weeks would be critical.
We promised another report in September that would appraise whetRer the
level of voluntary cooperation is sufficient so that we will be able to do the job
we are charged to do under the statute.

That time is now approaching. You are entitled to some advance notice of
what we need. To make such a decisive appraisal and properly evaluate the
Bureau's cooperation, we will assess:

1. Your policy choices—one way or another—on every access issue posed by

our pending requests.

2. Whether we actually receive the most important categories of documents

that are already overdue. We will follow up to be sure our points of
contact know which overdue documents we regard as litmus 301 7lh Street SW, Room 5125
tests for effective cooperation. Washington, DC 20407
T 202.331.4060 F 202.296.5545
www.9-1 lcommission.gov
The Honorable Robert S. Mueller III
August 19, 2003
Page 2

We understand that you and your staff may need a few more weeks to finalize
policy choices and push through delivery of key documents. Therefore we
think it is reasonable to wait and assess the situation based on positions
communicated with us and documents that have actually been delivered or
otherwise made available to us by COB on Friday, September 5, 2003.

As the second anniversary of the devastating attacks on our country

approaches, we thank you for working with us to meet the challenge of
understanding how and why America suffered such a devastating attack, and
how to prevent another.

Sincerely,

Thomas H. Kean Lee H. Hamilton

Chair Vice Chair

cc: Patrick O'Brien

 August 26,2003

Thomas HKean MEMORANDUM

CHAIR

Lee H Hamilton
VICE CHAIR. To: Pat O'Brien, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Richard Ben-Veniste
From: Daniel Marcus, General Counsel
MaxCleland

Fred F. Fielding Subj: Most Important Overdue Documents

Jamie S. Gorelick

Slade Gorton As a follow-up to the letter to Director Mueller dated August 19,2003,
here are the most important categories of documents requested by the
John Lehman
Commission that are overdue:
Timothy J. Roemer
FBI Document Request No. 1 - Items 8(e) and 8(f), to the extent not
James R Thompson
already produced
Philip D.Zelikw
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI Document Request No. 5 - Items 2,4, 5,7, 8,9, and 12, to the extent
not already produced

FBI Document Request No. 9 - Items 1, 2, 3 and 4

We look forward to the Bureau's prompt production of these overdue

items, as well as positions on access to all of the documents responsive to
all of our outstanding requests, as set forth in the August 19 letter. If you
have any questions, please give me a call.

cc: Dan Levin, DOJ

TEL (202) 331-4060

FAX (202) 296-5545
www.9-1 lcommission.gov
SEP-05-2003 19:03 P. 02
u.5. ueparuneni ui justice

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Office of the General Counsel Washington. D. C. 20S35

September 5,2003

Daniel Marcus, General Counsel

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Suite 300
2100 K Street, N.W.
Washington, B.C. 20036

RE: Commission's Request for Documents

Dear Mr. Marcus:

I am responding to the letter from the Chair and Vice Chair of the Commission to
the FBI Director and also the follow up memorandum you sent me on August 26,2003.

Based on our review of documents and the Commission's requests to the FBI to
date, we are not currently aware of any responsive documents as to which we would not grant
access as defined in the September 5,2003 letter from Dan Levin to Phil Zelikow. Because of
the unique nature of the Commission's work, and in a spirit of accommodation, our production
has included extraordinary access to extremely sensitive documents. We are continuing to
review documents (and you are continuing to request them) and if there are any documents for
which we would seek some other accommodation, we would of course discuss that with you
immediately.

The FBI has worked hard over the last two months to provide the Commission
with the information it needs and has made some rather extraordinary efforts to achieve that goal.
We have given the Commission access to over 1.6 million pages of documents. To address your
desire to have quick search capability through these materials, the vast majority of these
documents are available on two computer workstations at FBIHQ which we have trained your
staff to use. The workstations are equipped with software which enables a variety of search
techniques.

In addition, the FBI has provided extensive access to its employees. To date, the
FBI has provided the Commission with 16 briefings from senior FBI officials, supervisors and
frontline agents working on the PENTTBOM investigation and all other aspects of our
counterterrorism program. Many of these briefings have lasted several hours. Director Mueller
also made himself available to the Commission to review the changes he has made at the FBI
over his two-year tenure and his vision for the future.
SEP-05-2003 19:04 P.03

With substantial assistance from the FBI, the Commission has also visited two
field offices: our Washington Field (WFO) and New York City offices (NYO). At WFO, we
facilitated the visit of your staff, which, over the course of being on site for three weeks,
conducted approximately 50 interviews of FBI employees or members of the Joint Terrorism
Task Force (JTTF) as well as taking tours of the WFO facilities.

Over the last two weeks, your staff has conducted a similar visit to our NYO
where it has completed approximately 38 interviews and plans to finish its work the week of
September 15th with an additional seven interviews. Many of the interviews have lasted for
several hours. The NYO visit also included an extensive briefing on the management of the
crime scene in New York and tours of Ground Zero and our New York Command Post. In both
WFO and New York, we have not refused a single interview request.

Moreover, to address your staffs stated desire to have a streamlined, informal

method of answering questions, we have offered to make our PENTTBOM team available for a
one or two day session to go through the timeline of events with your staff and provide answers
to their questions. In addition, we have offered to establish a weekly meeting with a
representative of the PENTTBOM team and members of your staff to provide an ongoing
vehicle for answering questions and providing information. We believe this represents
extraordinary access to the case agents who are still fully occupied with their investigative work
and demonstrates our sincere desire to be as cooperative with the Commission as possible.

With respect to the specific documents identified in your August 26, 2003
memorandum:

1. As to Document Request 1, items 8(e) and 8(f) — we have produced the

responsive documents for the five field offices that you have indicated you would like to visit
(Washington Field, New York, Phoenix, Miami and San Diego). As you are aware, the
responsive documents are quite numerous. To respond to other document requests which you
have indicated are of higher priority, we have not completed production of responsive documents
for the remaining five offices on your list which you have not indicated a desire to visit at this
time. That production will continue on a rolling basis consistent with priorities you set in light of
new document requests that you continue to propound to the FBI.

2. As to Document Request 5, items 2,4,5,7,8,9, and 12 - our initial

production of documents responsive to these requests is substantially complete. We continue to
work with your staff regarding additional documents responsive to item 9 in particular. As we
have discussed in recent meetings, we are pleased to continue working with them in a
cooperative manner to identify additional helpful material.

3. As to Document Request 9, items 1,2,3, and 4 - our production with respect

to these items is mostly complete. We produced a number of documents responsive to items 1,3
and 4. Despite a thorough search process and discussions with relevant current and former
officials, we have not located any materials responsive to item #2, and believe we do not possess
such documents. We are working with your staff to have them review a sample of former
SEP-05-2003 19:04 P. 04

Director Freeh's calendars to determine if you are interested in those materials. We also
anticipate reviewing the remaining few archived materials as they become available. We expect
to complete that process by September 30.

The FBI is committed to cooperating with the Commission as it continues its

important work. Please do not hesitate to call me to discuss any concerns you may have.

Sincerely,

TOTAL P.04