Thomas Kean

Declassified: 9/11 Commission Interviews with Bush and Cheney

The declassification and release today (November 9, 2022) of the interview with President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney conducted by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) follows recommendations long advocated by the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB). The release of the transcript addresses one of the Boards mandates, to release records and materials of extraordinary public interest.

The declassified transcript of the interview is now available at: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-163-doc-1-release-material.pdf.

“The release of this historical record regarding then President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s actions in the period leading up to and immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack is an important step towards additional public transparency. The Board thanks all members of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), who diligently participated in the declassification review and made it possible for this important historical record to be released to the public. We hope that in the coming months additional records regarding the 9/11 terrorist attacks will be declassified, consistent with President Biden’s September 2021 order. The resource intensive process required to release this record highlights the need to reform and streamline the entire declassification process,” said Chair Ezra Cohen.

Source: https://transforming-classification.blogs.archives.gov/2022/11/09/declassified-9-11-commission-interviews-with-bush-and-ch...

Randi Rhodes & Paul Thompson Discuss ABC's "The Path To 9/11" - 9/12/2006

Not posting this to start an argument.

I firmly believe this is when we were our most "powerful" as a movement. We were still being ignored for the most part, the media and "debunkers" hadn't really had a chance yet to do their best to discredit us so we were still credible in MANY peoples eyes, Paul Thompson was still "the man," and a year later I wrote an article entitled "This Is Not The Controlled Demolition Movement" when we were being defined both from without and within as the movement that thinks the buildings were brought down in a "Controlled Demolition," and a "missile hit the Pentagon." Then, it was later terrorist sympathizers, holocaust denying murderers, anti-semites, and so on.

Another point can be made that "In Their Own Words: The Untold Stories Of The 9/11 Families" was released in late 2007, and that barely got any attention, both without and within the "9/11 Truth Movement."

Call It What It Is, Treason

9/11 Family Member Lorie Van Auken holding up the JICI showing redacted pages on CNN.

Jon Gold
4/24/2016

You may have heard of the 28 redacted pages from the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11. They have been redacted for years, and the 9/11 families and others have been fighting for their release since the day it was announced they were redacted. According to people like former Senator Bob Graham, those pages talk about alleged Saudi Government support for the hijackers.

Recently, there was a short segment on 60 Minutes about the pages. This resulted in a much needed push for the release of the 28 redacted pages. When Obama first came into office, it was reported that he told 9/11 Family Member Kristen Breitweiser “that he was willing to make the pages public.” A few years later, according to 9/11 Family Member Bill Doyle, Obama told him “Bill, I will get them released.”

Many times throughout Obama’s Presidency, we have seen him protect the Saudis against the 9/11 Families who want their day in court. Right now, he is threatening to veto a bill called JASTA that would finally give the families that day in court.

The 28 pages were originally classified by the Bush Administration “for reasons of national security.” Obama said that “Jim Clapper, our director of national intelligence, has been going through to make sure that whatever it is that is released is not gonna compromise some major national security interest of the United States.”

We have heard from many people who have read them say that there is nothing in those pages that would affect national security. Rep. Walter Jones said “there's nothing in it about national security.” Former Sen. Bob Graham has said “they do not affect national security.”

Delayed publication of the Chilcot report

The 10th anniversary of the publication of the Commission report has just passed.

This message was sent to the following UK media: Daily Mail, Express, Telegraph, Guardian, Observer, The Times, The Sunday Times, Independent, Evening Standard, Channel 4 News and ITN news.

I am writing with reference to the continued delay in the publication of the Chilcot report into the invasion of Iraq.

Given Lady Butler-Sloss was forced to stand down over a perceived conflict of interest, I hope the information contained in this letter will be useful.

The mandated investigation timeframe for the enquiry is “the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009” and hence encompasses the 9.11 attack. No evidence was found to link Iraq to 9.11 and a UK report entitled “Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the United States” published in October 2001 forewarns the reader with a caveat stating “This document does not purport to provide prosecutable case against Osama Bin Laden in a court of law”. So the evidence was good enough for two illegal invasions but not for a jury.

Philip Zelikow and Thomas Kean named co-chairs of Romney’s intelligence transition team

Posted By Josh Rogin
Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has often endorsed the idea of using "enhanced interrogation techniques" if he is elected and doesn't believe that waterboarding is "torture," but he chose the GOP's most fervent critique of such methods to be the co-chair for intelligence personnel in his transition team.

Philip Zelikow, the long-time diplomat and former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been named one of two officials in charge of planning for the intelligence side of a potential Romney administration as part of the Romney campaign's "Project Readiness," multiple sources with direct knowledge of the project confirmed to The Cable. Zelikow, who was also the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, co-chairs the intelligence team with former New Jersey Governor and 9/11 Commission co-chairman Tom Kean.

Zelikow is another GOP senior foreign-policy hand from the realist camp in the top ranks of the Romney transition team. The head of the national security team is former Deputy Secretary of State and former World Bank President Bob Zoellick, a pick that roiled neoconservatives and hawks inside the Romney campaign when it was announced in August. But there are also hawks on the transition team, including former U.N. official Rich Williamson and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman.

Thomas Kean: "aftershocks" from planes caused collapse of WTC Building 7

WeAreChange confronts Thomas Kean For The 3rd Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JrNujYrFig

Thomas Kean: “aftershocks” from planes caused collapse of WTC Building 7

On September 13th, 2011, Thomas Kean, Chair of the 9/11 Commission and Former Governor of N.J., gave a lecture for the The Drew Forum, a series of public lectures at Drew University located in Madison, New jersey. We Are Change was tipped off to the event by http://www.youtube.com/FreedumbFighter28 and attended. After the lecture, a question and answer session was opened up to the audience. When We Are Change asked Thomas Kean to address the collapse of WTC Building 7, which was not hit by a plane, and was not mentioned once in the 9/11 Commission Report, his answer was simply shocking.

Sibel Edmonds, 2004: “Why Does Your Report Exclude This Information Despite all the Evidence?”

Nor Cal Truth      Dec 10, 2011

“How can Budget Increases…Addition of ‘Intelligence Czar’ Fix the Problem?” -Sibel Edmonds

Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator, wrote this open letter to 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean in 2004. I have edited it down just slightly in hopes that more people read it, though the full text links are recommended and provided at bottom. I have added bold for emphasis of one, consistent point.

I encourage everyone to become more familiar with Sibel Edmond’s story – this is a really good starting point. – Brian @ Nor Cal Truth

————

Dear Chairman Kean:

National Archive keeps bulk of 9/11 Commission report sealed

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/08/national-archive-keeps-bulk-of-911-commission-report-sealed/

By Reuters
Thursday, September 8th, 2011

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ten years after al Qaeda's attack on the United States, the vast majority of the 9/11 Commission's investigative records remain sealed at the National Archives in Washington, even though the commission had directed the archives to make most of the material public in 2009, Reuters has learned.

The National Archives' failure to release the material presents a hurdle for historians and others seeking to plumb one of the most dramatic events in modern American history.

The 575 cubic feet of records were in large part the basis for the commission's public report, issued July 22, 2004. The commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, was established by Congress in late 2002 to investigate the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks, the pre-attack effectiveness of intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the government's emergency response.

Thomas Kean Runs From 9/11 Questions to ‘Respect the Families’

Luke Rudkowski
WeAreChange.org
September 6, 2011

Luke Rudkowski finds the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission Report Thomas Kean and won’t leave him alone until the unanswered questions about 9/11 are answered. Of course Kean run’s away, dodges questions and calls over security during the questioning when asked about Philip Zelikow’s 9/11 Commission outline, that was written before the investigation started. If this video shows anything, it shows how there was a massive cover up of the events of 9/11 by the Bush Administration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkoZjvQi8ms

Please share this video with your friends and family as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches to demand a REAL 9/11 INVESTIGATION. Sorry for the audio problems the $10 microphone we use acts up sometimes. More surprises still to come, SUBSCRIBE to the WeAreChange channel to see more in the upcoming days.

Special Thanks to Bob McIlvaine for being an amazing human being and Dustin D editor
http://rememberbuilding7.org/10/

Thomas Kean and John Farmer: "How 12/25 Was Like 9/11"

January 6, 2010
Op-Ed Contributors
How 12/25 Was Like 9/11
By THOMAS H. KEAN and JOHN FARMER Jr.

IN the days since the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing, many officials, including the White House’s counterterrorism director, John Brennan, have insisted that the Detroit incident was “not like 9/11.” In many respects, we agree. But the government’s handling of the intelligence leading up to the attack was eerily reminiscent of one of the most shocking — and relatively underreported — revelations to come out of the 9/11 commission’s hearings.

Former N.J. Gov. Thomas Kean opposes trial in N.Y.C. for alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/former_nj_gov_thomas_kean_says.html

Former N.J. Gov. Thomas Kean opposes trial in N.Y.C. for alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks By Brian Donohue/The Star-Ledger
November 17, 2009, 10:59AM

NEW YORK -- Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the commission that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, today criticized the decision by the Obama administration to try the alleged mastermind of the attacks in federal court in New York.

In what he described as his first interview since the decision by United States Attorney General Eric Holder last week, Kean told WNYC radio he feared an open trial in Manhattan federal court would make the suspect, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a "martyr" and "hero" among al Qaeda sympathizers around the world.

Thomas H. Kean, former New Jersey governor and chairman of the 9/11 Commission, and Co-Chair Lee H. Hamilton confer during a news conference in 2005 in Washington, D.C.

Kean's comments came in a radio interview with Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

Kean, a Republican who is also former governor of New Jersey, appeared on the program with fellow 9/11 commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democrat.

Kean Says Forming Organization With 9/11 Families To Present "Unfinished Business" Regarding 9/11 To New President

He's probably referring to the 9/11 Commission's "recommendations." - Jon

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION: Tom Kean disappointed neither convention addressed 9/11

Source: nj.com

by Bob Braun/ The Star-Ledger
Monday September 01, 2008, 12:34 PM

Former Gov. Tom Kean, best known outside the state as chairman of the 9-11 Commission, says he is disappointed that neither party's convention devoted time to the work of his panel.

"But I'm not surprised,'' says Kean. "We're very easily distracted. This is an issue that has gone off the radar.''

He says he has not been asked to speak about the 9-11 commission at Republican any convention or caucus, including New Jersey's. When Bill Baroni, the delegation chairman, introduced Kean, he did mention the commission-- but Kean himself didn't.

In an interview, Kean said he is working with 9-11 family groups to form an organization that will present the new president with "the unfinished business" of the commission.

In Their Own Words: Admissions from the people who wrote the 9/11 Commission Report that it was compromised

Quotations from Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 911 Commission, by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton

"We were set up to fail" (14).

"The chief obstacle was the White House, which argued that the congressional inquiry was continuing, and that an independent investigation would distract the government from waging the ongoing war on terrorism" (17).

"The two sides decided to split the difference, allowing eighteen months for the inquiry—a period of time that proved insufficient" (20).

"The White House also suggested some candidates for executive director for our staff. The importance of this position cannot be overstated" (22).

"…we seriously only considered one candidate: Philip Zelikow…. Zelikow was a controversial choice. In the 1990s, as an academic, he had co-authored, with Condoleezza Rice, a book about German unification, and he later assisted Stephen Hadley in running the National Security Council transition for the incoming Bush administration in 2000-2001" (28).

"…our office space and employees had to be cleared by the FBI and CIA to handle top-secret information…" (34)

Stonewalled by the C.I.A. - Kean and Hamilton Op-Ed - New York Times

January 2, 2008
Op-Ed Contributors
Stonewalled by the C.I.A.
By THOMAS H. KEAN and LEE H. HAMILTON

Washington

MORE than five years ago, Congress and President Bush created the 9/11 commission. The goal was to provide the American people with the fullest possible account of the “facts and circumstances relating to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001” — and to offer recommendations to prevent future attacks. Soon after its creation, the president’s chief of staff directed all executive branch agencies to cooperate with the commission.

The commission’s mandate was sweeping and it explicitly included the intelligence agencies. But the recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those videotapes — and did not tell us about them — obstructed our investigation.

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