Criticism of the 9/11 Commission

The 9/11 Commission investigated the terrorist September 11 attacks on the United States. It was created on November 27, 2002, by a bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The commission was chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean.

Many people, including politicians, government officers, and private groups, criticized the 9/11 Commission. Some said the commission was not independent because its members were appointed by President George W. Bush and the United States Congress. Others felt the commission did not do enough to find out exactly what happened.

Important critics included members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee and the Jersey Girls. They helped push for the creation of the commission after facing resistance from the government. The commission itself said its goal was not to assign blame to individuals, which some victims' families felt would hide important facts. Some families also believed 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 of these members, Philip Zelikow, was said to have close ties with the White House. A book written by Philip Shenon claims that Zelikow tried to change the commission’s final report in ways that might protect the White House and support its views about Iraq.

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

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

Resistance to investigation

The leaders of the group looking into the September 11 attacks said that a big intelligence agency didn’t give them all the information they needed. They believed the agency made a choice to slow down their work. This happened after it was found out that the agency had destroyed videos that showed how they questioned two important members of a terrorist group.

Some former leaders of the intelligence agency said they always shared what they could and felt they helped a lot. They also said the group looking into 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 harshly during questioning. Some experts believed these harsh methods made the information unreliable. At least four people said they shared important details just to make the harsh 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 get the real story. 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 look at everything it should have. Families of people who died in the attacks felt the group didn’t check 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, believed that the government created the Commission in a way that made it hard to succeed. In their book, they share their experiences and list several reasons for this belief. These reasons include the Commission being started late, having a very short time to finish its work, and receiving far less money than needed. Many politicians also opposed the Commission, and some even tried to stop its work. Important government agencies, like the U.S. Department of Defense, NORAD, and the Federal Aviation Administration, did not give the Commission all the information and access 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 found that although 15 of the 19 people who carried out the September 11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia, there was no proof that the government of Saudi Arabia helped pay for the attacks. The report did say that private people and groups in Saudi Arabia were the main source of money for the group responsible for the attacks.

A former senator named Bob Graham, who helped lead an earlier look at the attacks, asked for the investigation into Saudi money to be started again. He also wanted certain secret papers made public, including 28 pages from that report. These pages were made public on July 15, 2016.