Global Free Press | 9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable

Update: Kristen Breitweisers Hardball Transcript (12/18)
Update: Tom Kean is backpaddling on Nightline again
Interview with Lorie v. Auken (9/11 Widow) and Kyle Hence (9/11 Citizen's Watch) about Kean on CBS -Salon 12/19

Update: "I don't expect to have any new friends after this is done" (Kean, NJ.com 12/18)
White House refused to comment directly on the CBS interview (NY Daily News 12/18)
Tonight on ABC Nightline, 11 PM EST: "Could it Have Been Prevented?",
Kristen Breitwieser on Hardball, MSNBC, 7 PM EST
"We could have halted 9/11" NY Post (12/17)
Attack Was Preventable Fox (12/17)

(CBS) For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.

"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.

Kean promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.

Kean: 9/11 report to detail who and what failed U.S.

...In an interview with The Star-Ledger earlier this week, Kean said the commission is committed to finding the truth about the terrorist attacks. He said the 10-member bipartisan panel is determined to answer every question, make as much information public as possible and hold those in high positions accountable.

"I don't expect to have any new friends after this is done," said Kean. "And after this, some old friends may not be friendly any more."

Al Felzenberg, a spokesman for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, said the panel has not reached full conclusions and has much work to do. But he said Kean has been involved in interviewing some witnesses and reviewing thousands of documents.

What did Bush know and when did he know it?

...Kean, known for his easygoing, bipartisan style, also raised the specter that the commission might place blame on specific administration officials, including perhaps those in the intelligence community who failed to connect the many clues that came before Sept. 11 hinting at a pending attack. "There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time, because they failed," said Kean. "They simply failed." Kean didn't name the individuals in question.

..."We welcome that admission, and it's something we've wanted to hear for a long time," says Lorie Van Auken, whose husband died in the attack on the World Trade Center. "That's why we asked for an investigation, because nothing about the official story made sense."

"It's quite shocking to hear a Republican come out on a network broadcast and say the administration could have, and should have, prevented the attacks," adds Kyle Hence, co-founder of 9/11 Citzens Watch, an advocacy group that monitors investigations into the terrorist attacks. "That's a sea change for this commission."

Twelve months ago, Bush appointed Kean to head the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, created by Congress to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the worst such attacks in American history. The commission, which has battled the administration over funding issues as well as access to key documents, faces a daunting May 2004 cutoff date for its final, sprawling report. It will deal with everything from immigration policy to the nation's air defense. "I think it's a positive turn of events to hear the chairman talk about accountability," says Hence. "Commissioners had denied that was their mandate.

Their tone all along was, 'This committee isn't about placing blame, but to determine how the United States can prevent the next attack.' Nobody else has talked about placing blame and pointing the finger at people in positions of power."

Van Auken wonders if Kean has learned something new that prompted his remarks. The chairman was recently granted access to sensitive presidential daily briefings and also obtained 9/11 documents that had been subpoenaed from the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Family Steering Committee, which lobbied for the creation of the commission, is urging that any newly discovered facts should be immediately passed along to Congress, rather than held for the final report in May.

"Any new information that the Commission has learned in its investigation must be swiftly acted upon and passed into law so that any known failures can be remedied," the committee said in statement. It noted that back on Nov. 27, 2002, Bush himself stated, "I hope that the commission will act quickly ... if there's changes that need to be made, we need to know them as soon as possible, for the security of our country. The sooner we have the commission's conclusions, the sooner this administration will act on them."

Asked if he thought Kean's recent remarks signaled a more aggressive phase of the investigation, Bill Harvey, whose wife died in the World Trade Center attacks, says he is "cautiously optimistic." For months, he and other skeptics have been critical of the commission's progress, pointing to lackluster public hearings that dealt with policy issues and not the events of 9/11, as well as subpoena power that went largely unused.

"There's been a complete lack of substantive, hard-hitting hearings with witnesses actually answering questions from commissioners," Hence complains. "That's an investigation, and we haven't seen that yet." But they may soon. CBS reported that Kean promises major revelations next year.

And starting in January the commission's hearings will focus much more closely on Sept. 11 itself and will feature senior administration officials involved with intelligence and national security. "In that kind of setting people may well be sworn in to testify and the proceedings will resemble a more conventional hearing," commission spokesman Al Felzenberg, told Salon earlier this year.

"We've been waiting for a long time for these types of hearings," says Van Auken, who wants to find out why Bush sat with elementary school children on the morning of Sept. 11 for nearly 30 minutes after the second World Trade Center tower was hit. Why Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security advisor, told reporters the administration never guessed terrorists would use hijacked planes as missiles, when there were scores of instances when government agencies had suggested just such an attack might one day occur. And why it took the FAA 29 minutes to notify NORAD that American Airlines Flight 77, bound for Los Angeles, was drastically off course and heading for Washington, after two hijacked planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center. "It's been over two years, and it's time to answer these questions," Van Auken says.

Kean still spins "incompetence theory" and discredits individual investigations

..."We are tracking down every conspiracy theory and a lot of questions raised by family groups," said Kean, now the president of Drew University in Madison. "From our research, we have found some things and are coming to some conclusions, but we still have a lot of work to do."

In the "Nightline" interview, Kean said it would be the commission's job to judge whether changes in security and intelligence procedures since 9/11 have been adequate to prevent a future attack. Asked whether he personally believes the nation is now safe from similar terrorism, Kean said, "No.

September 11 investigation assures dramatic findings
ABC Online, Australia - Dec 18, 2003
... RAFAEL EPSTEIN: One year ago, President George W. Bush named former New Jersey
Governor Thomas Kean to replace Henry Kissinger as head of the panel ...

9/11 preventable: report
The Age, Australia - 12 hours ago
His full report is not due to be published before May, but the comments by the
commission's chairman, Thomas Kean, suggest its conclusions are likely to be ...

Capture of Saddam doesn't change a thing
WorldNetDaily - 18 hours ago
... Republican Gov. Thomas Kean – told CBS News that he believes the
terrorist attacks could have and should have been prevented. ...

Terror alerts bring alarm to US
The Times (subscription), UK - 1 hour ago
... properly. Thomas Kean said investigators were still studying whether
senior figures in the Bush Administration should share the blame.

Kean on 9/11: 'Not something that had to happen'
Newark Star Ledger, NJ - Dec 17, 2003
... have been done. I mean, this was not something that had to happen,"
said Thomas Kean during an interview on the CBS Evening News. ...

9/11 Commission Set to Blame Bush, Clinton Gets a Pass
NewsMax.com - Dec 17, 2003
... Thomas Kean, has yet to examine key evidence indicating that President Clinton
knew Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, but failed to take ...

Kristen Breitweisers Hardball Transcript (12/18)

(NEWS BREAK)

MATTHEWS: The HARDBALL "Debate" tonight: Could 9/11 have been prevented?

The head of the independent commission investigating the terror attacks is now saying, the plot could have been thwarted.

HARDBALL's David Shuster has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SHUSTER, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two years after 9/11, the Republican chairman of the commission investigating the attacks is now saying they could have and should have been prevented. Tom Kean, appointed by President Bush, has told CBS News -- quote -- "I do not believe it had to happen. There were people certainly, if I was doing the job, who would certainly not be in the position that they were in at that time, because they failed. They simply failed."

Kean has not yet named names. But some 9/11 families are pointing to the president's national security adviser and her take on al Qaeda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MAY 16, 2002)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUSTER: But FBI documents in the 1990s stated specifically that al Qaeda was considering using airplanes as weapons.

Meanwhile, the president and his national security team have been battling with the 9/11 Commission over top-secret briefing papers.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We don't know why the president is not giving information to the Kean commission. I think that is supposed to be invested by -- investigated by Congress. I think it's a serious matter. I agree with Wes Clark. The president is not fighting terrorism. And we need to know what went wrong before 9/11.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain and I created the September 11 Commission to find out the full truth about that. George Bush has been dragging his feet. And his White House has failed to adequately cooperate.

The commission, in addition to seeking White House documents, has been examining intelligence agency reports and has been reviewing warnings about student pilots from FBI field offices.

DANA DILLON, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Even if there were people who did stupid things or overlooked stupid things, there were so many institutional problems already in place that it is not going to be a surprise that they are going to find problems with the pre-9/11 stance of the government.

SHUSTER (on camera): The 9/11 Commission will be offering possibly dramatic testimony to Congress next month. The question is, is politics at work here or could 9/11 really have been prevented?

I'm David Shuster for HARDBALL in Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEWS: Kristen Breitweiser is a 9/11 widow who fought for the creation of the independent commission on the 9/11 attacks. And Raymond Tanter is a former National Security Council member in the Reagan administration.

Kristen, thanks for coming back. The same topic as always: Could this have been prevented? What do you know now, thanks to what Tom Kean had to say?

KRISTEN BREITWEISER, WIDOW OF 9/11 VICTIM: Well, I think it doesn't come as a surprise that he stated that 9/11 could have been prevented.

I think what is a surprise is that he did in fact come out and acknowledge that people should be held accountable. And I think that, in order for us to make sure as a country that 9/11 will never happen again, we need to make sure that the individuals who are responsible for the failures are held accountable. And the way we do that is by Governor Kean and the rest of the commissioners producing a comprehensive, definitive report that will indeed hold people accountable for their failures on that morning.

MATTHEWS: Let me go to Raymond Tanter.

Your thought about why Tom Kean, a former governor of New Jersey, a moderate Republican, maybe too independent a Republican by some people's standards, has said something so inflammatory, as to say it could have been prevented at this point.

RAYMOND TANTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBER: Chris, Governor Kean is engaged in Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Do you know why it is easier to do quarterbacking on Monday morning? Because you know what the outcome is. It is simply not fair to think that, after the fact, you know what happened, you could have known before the fact occurred.

Think about the famous revolutions in history, the Russian Revolution, French Revolution, the Iranian Revolution. No one predicted any of these humongous events in history. Iraq crosses the border into Kuwait. Who predicted that one? Israel attacks Syria and Egypt. No one predicted that.

MATTHEWS: But you can turn on -- but you can

(CROSSTALK)

BREITWEISER: Respectfully...

MATTHEWS: Go ahead. Go ahead, Kristen.

BREITWEISER: Respectfully, if I could just jump in, I don't think it is Monday-morning quarterbacking. I think that the historical record is replete with instances of al Qaeda looking into using planes as weapons.

The hijackers were training in U.S. military flight schools. The FBI had 13 open files on individuals with connections to the hijackers. We had money transfers coming from overseas from individuals with contacts with Osama bin Laden to the hijackers, increments above $10,000, which should have been picked up by our intelligence agencies. We have Pentagon reports stating that planes could be used as weapons.

You know, this is not Monday-morning -- Monday-morning quarterbacking. This should have been known. And we need to find out why our national security adviser came out and stated that she had no idea planes could be used as weapons. She should have known. And we need to find out why she did not know.

TANTER: Well, with all due respect, I think you can hold people accountable, but you have to know what is knowable.

First of all, many studies are done in the U.S. government, some of which say that you can do all kinds of things. The national security adviser sits at the top of a pyramid. And, at the bottom, you have all of these studies being done. She didn't have a study in front of her with respect to the contingency that you would have planes knocking down buildings. So I think that it's unfair...

BREITWEISER: You don't need a study when you had Egypt Air in 1989, which was your first example of a suicide hijacking. You don't need studies when you have John Deutch, in 1996, giving a statement that there is a Center For Terrorism, a CTC, between the FBI and the CIA which sole job is to coordinate information from overseas and from the U.S. intelligence agencies, the DIA, the NSA, the State Department, to put that information together.

TANTER: In fact...

(CROSSTALK)

BREITWEISER: We already had TTIC back in 1996. And what we need to find out is why that didn't work on the morning of 9/11.

TANTER: In fact, I think you are on the right track now, because you are looking toward the future.

There is something called stovepiping in the intelligence business. Stovepiping says that you have a bit of evidence coming in through, say, the FBI and some evidence coming through the CIA. It goes up the stovepipe and then out into the atmosphere. You don't have that now. You have cross-fertilization. You have people talking to one another.

BREITWEISER: According to John Deutch

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Let him finish.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Kristen, you got to let him finish. Let him finish.

BREITWEISER: Sorry.

MATTHEWS: And then point out.

TANTER: I doubt whether you have the kind of catastrophic intelligence failure in -- of the type -- of the type of 9/11 as a result of the fact that stovepiping no longer exists, Chris.

BREITWEISER: In 1996, John Deutch, who was DCI, stated to a group of individuals at Georgetown University -- he was extolling the virtues of the intel community in their attempts to fight counterterrorism, groups like al Qaeda.

Stovepiping is an unacceptable excuse, because we had the procedure. We had the interagency communications. We had the infiltration of these terrorist groups

(CROSSTALK)

BREITWEISER: And why didn't it work on the morning of 9/11?

MATTHEWS: OK, Kristen, Kristen, if you were president of the United States the morning or the day before September 11, 2001, knowing all that you know now, do some Monday-morning quarterbacking. What would you have done to prevent this from happening? If you didn't know what airport and you didn't know how it was going to fit together, but you had some knowledge of what it might look, how would you have prevented it?

BREITWEISER: Undoubtedly, I think that I would have told the public. I would have told people like my husband and the 3,000 others that worked in New York City and that decided to fly on planes that day that we were a nation under an imminent threat, that the airlines were a target.

And after the first building in New York City, then you know what? People like my husband in the second building would have immediately fled. They would have immediately evacuated that second tower, because they wouldn't have thought it was an accident.

People like Donald Rumsfeld may not have sat at his desk for 45 minutes until the Pentagon was hit. People like the president wouldn't have sat there for 25 minutes in front of a group of children.

(CROSSTALK)

BREITWEISER: They would have acted more decisively. Lives would have been saved. I would have informed the public.

MATTHEWS: It sounds like the problem is at the top.

BREITWEISER: It does.

MATTHEWS: OK, thank you. It is great having you both on again. Thank you very much.

BREITWEISER: Thank you.

MATTHEWS: Kristen Breitweiser.

And my new pal, Raymond Tanter. Thank you for coming on.