The "Smoking Gun" Of 9/11

by Erik Larson | September 24, 2008 at 12:34 pm

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*Note: I'm flagging this entry as "Opinion" due to Jon Gold's personal commentary on the import of the revelations in Philip Shenon's book; however, the reason for the entry is the factual reporting done by Shenon

In his book "The Commission", Philip Shenon reports that, among many other conflicts, 9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow and Senior Advisor Ernest May had already written an outline for the 9/11 Commission report in early 2003, before the Commission had even begun its investigation. Kean, Hamilton and Zelikow decided to keep this a secret from most of the Commission's investigative staff. The staff did learn of this outline and finally saw it in 2004, confirming concerns about Bush insider Zelkow's attempts to spin the 9/11 Commission Report, and prompting internal jokes comparing it to the Warren Commission Report. Jon Gold posts a short write up concerning these revelations and quotes relevant text from Shenon's book.

Recently, Kevin Fenton posted an update to the timeline available at www.historycommons.org entitled, "United 93, 9/11 Commission – Additions to the 9/11 Timeline as of September 21, 2008." In it, he stated that "as the commission was just beginning its work in early 2003, Executive Director Philip Zelikow had already completed an outline of its final report." When I read that entry, I was floored. As you'll read below, Kean, Hamilton, and Zelikow decided to keep this outline a secret from the 9/11 Commission staffers because it might be seen that they, "had predetermined the report's outcome." Now why on Earth would they think something ridiculous like that?

Below is a quote from the entry by Kevin Fenton posted at 911Blogger, that Gold references above. Fenton's blog entry concerns recent updates made to the Complete 9/11 Timline at HistoryCommons.org; I've quoted the portion related to entries made concerning the 9/11 Commission:

There are also a number of entries regarding the 9/11 Commission. Most importantly, as the commission was just beginning its work in early 2003, Executive Director Philip Zelikow had already completed an outline of its final report. Also early on in the inquiry, the commission decided it would not bother with subpoenas, which left Commissioner Max Cleland disappointed. Later on, CIA Director George Tenet heard a false rumor the commission was to call for his firing, and got White House Chief of Staff Andy Card to plead with the commissioners for his job.

Meanwhile, Zelikow awarded the contract to distribute the commission's final report to his own publisher, which could keep the profits, and had passages about Saudi government support for the hijackers deleted from the final report. Passages critical of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were also deleted, with the help of a top Democratic staffer. Just before the report was completed, a consultant to the commission complained it was "indulgent" of senior officials, and a staff member cornered Commissioner Jamie Gorelick in the ladies room to complain about the report's lenient treatment of the FBI. Finally, the final report was savaged in a joint Harvard/MIT journal.