Families Demand Exec. Director of 9/11 Commission Resign!

[JackRiddler]

The Sept. 11 Family Steering Committee has reacted to the news that Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission, attended a Clinton-Bush transition meeting for White House national security staff (on the Bush side with his co-author, Condoleeza Rice). Terrorism and the effort to capture Osama bin Laden were among the topics discussed at this meeting. Zelikow is thus hopelessly compromised as the head of an investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. Yet the executive director has controlled the entire flow of evidence presented to the members of the Kean Commission! Under the Commission's agreement with the White House Zelikow is one of only two allowed to read the presidential daily briefs predating Sept. 11 (the other is Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, a former Clinton administration member).

The FSC now demands Zelikow's immediate resignation. Next week should bring some very interesting developments. The Kean Commission is meeting, apparently with Rumsfeld and Tenet as witnesses. Clinton just made a big self-exonerating statement yesterday, claiming his administration told the incoming Bush people everything they needed to know in the effort to dismantle the Bin Laden terror network. Time magazine this week published a Joe Klein article on the ongoing controversies and the Family Steering Committee's list of 23 questions to Bush.

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Statement of the Family Steering Committee for
The 9/11 Independent Commission
March 20, 2004

From http://www.911independentcommission.org

The Family Steering Committee is deeply disturbed to learn about Executive Staff Director Phillip Zelikow’s participation in urgent post election briefings, December 2000, and January 2001, with Sandy Berger and Condoleezza Rice. In this particular meeting the Senior Clinton Administration official clearly warned that Al Qaeda posed the worst Security threat facing the nation.

It is apparent that Dr. Zelikow should never have been appointed to be Executive Staff Director of the Commission. As Executive Staff Director his job has been to determine the focus and direction of the Commission’s investigation, an investigation whose mandate includes understanding why the Bush Administrations failed to prioritize the Al Qaeda threat. It is abundantly clear that Dr. Zelikow’s conflicts go beyond just the transition period.

It is extremely distressing to learn this information at this late date. This new information clearly calls into question the integrity of this Commission’s investigation. The Family Steering Committee repeatedly expressed concerns over all members’ conflicts requesting that the commission be forthcoming so as not to taint the validity of the report. The Family Steering Committee was unaware of Dr. Zelikow’s participation in this intelligence briefing until today.

As such, the Family Steering Committee is calling for:

1. Dr. Zelikow’s immediate resignation.

2. Dr. Zelikow’s testimony in public and under oath.

3. Subpoena of Dr. Zelikow's notes from the intelligence briefings he attended with Richard Clarke

4. The Commission to apologize to the 9/11 families and America for this massive appearance of impropriety.

The Family Steering Committee (FSC) is an independent, nonpartisan group of individuals who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The FSC does not receive financial or other support from any outside organizations.


(Letter from the Family Steering Committee to the 9/11 Commission chairs)

March 20, 2004

Dear Chairman Kean, Vice-Chair Hamilton, and Commissioners:

Very disturbing information has surfaced regarding Philip Zelikow's participation in the failure to heed warnings about al Qaeda and imminent attacks on America in the months prior to September 11th.

It is clear that Dr. Zelikow should never have been permitted to be a member of the Commission, since it is the mandate of the Commission to identify the source of 9/11 failures. Dr. Zelikow has a conflict of interest that extends beyond just the transition. It is now apparent why there has been so little effort to assign individual culpability. We now can see that trail would lead directly to the staff director himself.

What little time the Commission has left must be spent without the taint of Dr. Zelikow's influence. We demand his immediate resignation.

Sincerely,

The Family Steering Committee

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COMMENT by 911truth.org:

Is there a pattern here?

- The director of the 2002 congressional joint inquiry into 9/11, Brit Snider, was a former CIA official. He was fired after apparently obstructing the investigation.

- Before that inquiry got much further, in Summer 2002 the FBI (a subject of the investigation) made the unprecedented demand that the Senators on the panel themselves take lie-detector tests to "trace a leak" that had greatly angered Dick Cheney. It later turned out that the leak apparently originated with Cheney's office, but by then it was no longer worth investigating.

- The White House only acceded to family demands for an independent Commission fourteen months after the attack, although such a commission would have normally been approved on Sept. 12, 2001. Bush attempted to appoint Henry Kissinger to head it.

These are just three examples out of a legion in the now 2 1/2-year history of obstruction and stonewalling. (NL)

[EdGy]

1. "Dr. Zelikow’s testimony in public and under oath"

This demand is SO important. The Democrats should pick up on it and stress it. They should DEMAND that Zelikow and others testify publicly and under oath.

If they refuse, then the Dems should crank up the pressure, using tv ads to ask, "what are they afraid of? what are they trying to hide", which is what the Republicans always trumpet when Dems are trying to defend civil liberties...

[JackRiddler]

2. great idea! n/t

[Jade Fox]

3. Wow, this needs a kick!

[TruthIsAll]

4. They asked for this last October.

9-11 Panel Director May Have Conflict of Interest

By SHAUN WATERMAN
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Oct 6, 2003, 02:53
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The families of some of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings are calling for the staff director of the commission set up to investigate the attacks to be removed from a large part of the inquiry.
They say he has a conflict of interest in investigating the National Security Council, because of his previous relationship with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"We believe staff director (Philip) Zelikow should remove himself from any and all portions of the investigation addressing the NSC," the Family Steering Committee wrote in a letter sent to the commission Friday.

The families say that Zelikow, who was a part of the Bush transition team, drafted a memo for Rice on reorganizing the NSC. Finding out why that body failed to anticipate or defend against the Sept. 11 attacks is a major part of the commission's mandate.

"Really, if he's looking at the NSC, he's investigating himself," said Lorie Van Auken, , whose her husband died in the attack on the World Trade Center and one of the authors of the letter.

Zelikow did not return calls Sunday.

"We knew he was on the transition team," said one commission member, who declined to be named. "I don't know about this memo, but we'll be looking into it."

Zelikow worked with Rice in the NSC during the first Bush administration, and subsequently collaborated with her on a book. In October 2001, he was appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a group of private citizens who advise the White House on intelligence matters.

All of this was known to the families. "We didn't want to nitpick," Van Auken told United Press International. And Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband also died in the Sept. 11 attacks, added that they felt it would have been churlish to raise the issue of his prior relationship with Rice.

But they felt that his work on the transition -- and in particular on restructuring the NSC -- fell into a different category, and they were angry that they had not been told about it.

The commission member said that this issue had arisen with a number of commission members and staff.

[ThirdWheelLegend]

5. giving this a front page boost

KICK

TWL

[Festivito]

6. Could explain why the commission has been so sloooooooow.

Or, just another reason of many.