Bob Kerrey Reviews “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation” by Philip Shenon

By Bob Kerrey

The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation
Philip Shenon
Twelve (an imprint of Grand Central Publishing)

Philip Shenon’s “The Commission” is a well-researched and written account of the deliberations of the “9/11 Commission” which investigated the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Mr. Shenon was a reporter who covered the deliberations of the commission from its creation on November 27, 2002, through the August 21, 2004, expiration of the federal law that gave the commission the legal authority to do its work. He had a front-row seat on the political process that created the commission, the firestorms that often surrounded it, and the largely favorable response to the commission’s report, which was released on July 21, 2004.

I was a member of the commission. Reading Mr. Shenon’s book was both illuminating, because I discovered things I did not know, and disconcerting, because his view of our performance is not always favorable. I always find it much easier to feel good when somebody else’s work is criticized than I do when it is mine being examined.

In spite of this discomfort this book is a very worthwhile read for those who wonder if the commission’s version of the conspiracy is accurate or who wonder if we were as thorough or fair as possible. To the first question Mr. Shenon answers emphatically yes. To the second, my reading is that his answer is somewhere between a qualified yes and a qualified no.

I do not want to nitpick Mr. Shenon’s facts. Commissioners and staff will no doubt see many of things that he gets wrong. For example, in my case he states that it is well known I do not like former President Clinton. Just the opposite is the case. He cites a derogatory statement I made about the president but attributes it to our presidential primary campaign of 1992. I actually said it in December 1994 after the president told a wealthy Texas audience: “It may surprise you to know that I didn’t want to raise your taxes; Congress made me do it.” Since the Democrats in the Senate had just gone from 57 to 47 in part because we voted for his tax increase, this speech upset me a little and produced the most famous quote of my life: a declaration that Bill Clinton is an “unusually good liar.”

Mr. Shenon raises legitimate questions about the impartiality and fairness of the commission’s Executive Director Philip Zelikow. There is some basis in doubting whether Mr. Zelikow could be impartial. In December 2003, after Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle asked me if I would serve as the replacement for Sen. Max Cleland, I thought seriously about turning down the offer because I did not know if I could devote the time needed to do the job well. Prior to meeting Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton for lunch to discuss the matter, I went to the commission’s offices to read several documents, including Mr. Zelikow’s memorandum, for the record. This memorandum detailed the important role he had in 2001 in drafting many of the new administration’s national security directives. His friendship with Condoleezza Rice, among other things, appeared to me to pose a fatal conflict of interest.

Had I been on the commission from the beginning and known his work history, I would not have hired him. Coupled with Mr. Zelikow’s strong, forceful and occasionally offensive personality, it seemed to me that there must have been better choices. However, I overcame my doubt and joined the commission. Over the next eight months Mr. Zelikow’s overall performance persuaded me that Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton had made the right choice.

Mr. Zelikow assembled the most talented, experienced and patriotic team of staff that I have ever had the pleasure to be associated with in or out of government. I have been on many government commissions and I have never experienced a group like the men and women he hired. They worked longer hours, protected highly classified secrets without a single leak, kept their word and their egos in check, and served the cause of truth in an admirable and heroic fashion. He could have assembled a team of Bush partisans, but he didn't. If he were trying to protect either himself or his friends in the White House, he would have hired much, much differently than he did.

Mr. Shenon makes it clear that Mr. Zelikow was not a White House mole. He was not on the list of people the White House preferred. On several occasions, detailed clearly in this book, Mr. Zelikow took positions that were at odds with the best political interests of the president. Still, in politics perception becomes reality, and though Mr. Shenon tries to be a fair critic, reading this book adds to the perception that Mr. Zelikow’s bias hindered more than it helped.

Three facts about the conditions under which this commission operated add to this perception. The first is the external political rancor that existed through the commission’s life. The heat from outside was as intense as any I have experienced in 16 years of public service. We were being whipped from the left and the right for being a bunch of grandstanding partisans. Daily efforts were made to discredit us before we got close to a final report. Partisans for and against Presidents Clinton and Bush were on alert for any statement they regarded as detrimental to their cause.

No doubt Karl Rove wanted to do all he could to make certain the report did as little damage to his boss as possible. No doubt he called Mr. Zelikow just as the Democratic majority leader in the Senate called me from time to time. No doubt Mr. Zelikow and I both returned the calls. Mr. Rove and Sen. Daschle were only doing their jobs. The test of whether this outside pressure affected our judgment is whether or not the commission’s final report was unfairly critical or lenient in our commentary of the actions of any responsible party.

The second fact about this commission is the language of the federal law that created it. Those who believe the commission failed because we did not identify by name or names individuals we felt were responsible for permitting the attack to occur should read the statute. Such an investigation was outside of our scope. Furthermore, the first qualification mentioned in the law for selecting commissioners was our political party not our expertise. Philip Zelikow did not write the law. He had to operate within the boundaries of the law and serve the needs of those who were selected to be commissioners.

The third fact is that it was the decision of the commissioners, not Mr. Zelikow, to make the decision not to file dissenting views or minority opinions. Mr. Shenon is absolutely correct in asserting Mr. Zelikow’s central role in writing this report. However, each section of the report was intensely debated by commissioners before it was assembled into a final report. The commissioners went line by line through the final product making significant changes and alterations.

We decided to achieve a unity of purpose that no commission I have served on has ever done. This enabled us to produce a narrative of the history of a 20-year-old conspiracy—as well as the web of mistakes and negligence—which allowed this attack on the United States to be a success. The details of our report allow a careful reader to blame quite a large number of people. It also allows a biased reader to blame a smaller number. And it allows a very biased reader to blame one or two people.

Mr. Shenon quotes our general counsel as saying that the report re-elected President Bush. Nonsense. If Sen. John Kerry had read and used the narrative we provided, there were plenty of facts to use against President Bush. Instead he chose to quickly embrace every recommendation we made and not to cite any of the details in any of his debates, including this statement: “In spite of repeated warnings in the summer of 2001 that al-Qaida was going to attack the United States, the government of the United States did nothing to make an attack less likely.”

Bookmark/Search this post with:

Delicious  •   Digg  •   StumbleUpon  •   Propeller  •   Reddit  •   Magnoliacom  •   Newsvine  •   Furl  •   Facebook  •   Google  •   Yahoo  •   Technorati  •   Icerocket