Criticism of the 9/11 Commission

The 9/11 Commission looked into the September 11 attacks in the United States. It started on November 27, 2002, after a law was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. The commission was led by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean.

Many people, such as politicians, government workers, and private groups, criticized the 9/11 Commission. Some thought the commission was not independent because its members were chosen by President George W. Bush and the United States Congress. Others felt the commission did not try hard enough to learn exactly what happened.

Important critics included members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee and the Jersey Girls. They helped create the commission after facing challenges from the government. The commission said its goal was not to point fingers at individuals, which some victims' families felt would keep important facts hidden. Some families also thought the commission had a conflict of interest.

Conflicts of interest

Some people thought the members of the 9/11 Commission had conflicts of interest. One member, Philip Zelikow, was said to have close ties with the White House. A book claims that Zelikow tried to change the report to support the White House and its views about Iraq.

The book also says Zelikow talked often with people in the White House and tried to stop the commission from saying leaders made big mistakes. Another member, Jamie Gorelick, had made a policy that stopped different parts of the government from sharing important information.

The White House wanted to choose who would lead the commission. First, they chose Henry Kissinger, but some people thought he had hidden things before. Even after he stepped down, the White House made it hard for the commission to get information. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney agreed to talk to the commission only together, without being recorded or taking an oath. The commission agreed to these conditions.

Resistance to investigation

The leaders of the group studying the September 11 attacks said that a big intelligence agency did not give them all the information they needed. They thought the agency chose to slow down their work. This happened after it was found that the agency had destroyed videos from questioning two important members of a terrorist group.

Some former leaders of the intelligence agency said they shared what they could and felt they helped a lot. They also said the group studying the attacks never directly asked for those videos.

Unreliable evidence

In January 2008, a report by NBC News showed that the 9/11 Commission used information from people who were treated very badly during questioning. Some experts thought this made the information unreliable. At least four people said they shared details just to make the treatment stop.

Officials from North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave wrong information for over two years about how they responded to the airplane hijackings. The 9/11 Commission found that NORAD never saw any of the hijacked planes and even chased a plane that had already crashed into the World Trade Center. The Commission had to ask for evidence like recordings to learn what really happened. Some people on the Commission felt that officials were trying to hide the truth about the September 11 attacks.

Limited scope

Some people thought the group looking into the September 11 attacks didn’t check everything it should have. Families of people who died in the attacks felt the group didn’t see if the government made mistakes.

There was talk about a secret project called Able Danger that might have found clues about the attacks before they happened. Some people said the group didn’t listen to this information or didn’t think it was important. Others said there was no real proof to support these claims.

"Set up" to fail

The leaders of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, thought the government made it hard for the Commission to do its job well. In their book, they share their story and give reasons why they felt this way. The Commission started late, had very little time to finish its work, and did not get enough money. Many politicians did not support the Commission, and some even tried to stop it. Important government groups, like the U.S. Department of Defense, NORAD, and the Federal Aviation Administration, did not give the Commission all the information it needed.

Denying support from Saudi Arabia

See also: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 § Redacted sections

The 9/11 Commission Report said that 15 of the 19 people who did the September 11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia. But the report did not show that the Saudi Arabia government helped pay for the attacks. It did say that private people and groups in Saudi Arabia gave most of the money to the group behind the attacks.

A former senator named Bob Graham asked to restart the look into Saudi money. He also wanted some secret papers made public, including 28 pages from that report. These pages became public on July 15, 2016.