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9/11 Commission Points to Poor Organization, Makes Suggestions
Aired July 22, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS KEAN, CHAIR, 9/11 COMMISSION: This was a failure of policy, management, capability, and above all, a failure of imagination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Past failures, future plans: a hard- hitting report from the 9/11 Commission. Will it make America safer?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now that the 9/11 report is out, the pressure is on to do something here on Capitol Hill, but there's simply not a lot of time. I'm Joe Johns. I'll have a report.
MILES O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: Does the report satisfy relatives of 9/11 victims? We'll hear from two of them this hour.
PHILLIPS: A strange episode on a commercial flight raises the question, have we really learned anything since 9/11?
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Lack of imagination, institutional failings, but no lack of concern or outright negligence. A mixed verdict on two administrations, from the independent panel that's been investigating, deconstructing, analyzing the 9/11 hijackings. After 20 months, hundreds of interviews, and millions of documents, the panel is on the record with its findings and recommendations.
CNN's Sean Callebs is on the story for us -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, you're exactly right. This commission makes it clear that they're basically good people, bad organization in place in the United States that led to the devastating attacks on September 11th.
The commission says it came as a shock, but really shouldn't have been a surprise, that the warning signs were out there. They were simply missed by legions of intelligence officers and other entities in the United States. Also says that bin Laden's message, one that he simply despised Americans and despised American policies were out there. And he was allowed to operate basically unimpeded for years in Afghanistan and build al Qaeda's machine.
Now, many of the commission members are also concerned where this is going to lead. And today, they voiced concern about the fact that -- that Americans were simply not able to think in an imaginary fashion, think out of the box, and think in a deviant way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEAN: On that September day, we were unprepared. We did not grasp the magnitude of a threat that had been gathering over a considerable period of time. As we detail in our report, this was a failure of policy, management, capability, and above all a failure of imagination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: A failure of imagination.
Now here are some of the recommendations in the 567-page report. Calls for a national counter-terrorism center to better coordinate information to head off future terrorist concerns in the United States.
It also calls for a national intelligence director. Now this would be a cabinet-level position, someone who would report to the president. And this individual would have three deputies, one responsible for foreign intelligence, one for defense intelligence, and one for homeland security intelligence.
Also, the emphasis would be on sharing information. That is one glaring weakness that the commission came to time and time again in its report.
Also, a reform of congressional oversight. The commission members -- five Republicans, five Democrats -- said that Congress simply dropped the ball in overseeing the way intelligence was gathered as well.
Also, it calls for a special career path for FBI agents who want to pursue intelligence and national security -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Sean Callebs, thank you very much. Appreciate that.
Not far from where Sean is standing, family members who lost loved ones on 9/11 talking to reporters, many of them inside the hall, listening to that announcement, as the 9/11 Commission released its report.
Let's listen to them for a moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for my wife and I, there's never going to be closure. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks a lot.
O'BRIEN: All right, we'll keep watching that location there, and as family members come out, we will bring you their reactions.
We also have some further reaction from family members who lost loved ones on 9/11 to share with you a little bit later.
We want to know what you think about all this. We invite you to send your e-mails to livefrom@cnn.com, and we'll read as many as we can on the air a little bit later.
Now just because the 10-member, bipartisan 9/11 panel came to unanimous conclusions, does not mean there is unanimous reaction from lawmakers.
CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns, joining us with that.
The idea, Joe, was to make this nonpartisan. It's kind of difficult to do that in an election year in Washington, isn't it?
JOHNS: Well, that's certainly right, Miles. On the one hand now, here on Capitol Hill, we do have a lot of bipartisan praise for the commission and the membership. That, of course, is customary.
But behind the scenes, the cherry picking has already started, as members of Congress and their aides on both sides start going through this report and picking out the passages, the things they think prove the points that they would like to make. Democrats, for example, picking out certain passages that they say seem to show inaction.
Back to you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Joe Johns. We appreciate that. We have a couple members of the commission who just walked outside of the Commerce Department building where we saw that news conference occur.
Joining us now, Fred Fielding and Richard Ben-Veniste, Republican and Democrat members of that committee. Gentlemen, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.
Mr. Fielding, let's begin with you. There was -- there was a lot of talk about nonpartisanship throughout all of this, collegiality and all of that. Do you think that remains in tact, or is this disintegrating, perhaps, into partisanship in an election year?
FRED FIELDING, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: No, actually, I was very pleasantly surprised. The bipartisan nature of our discussions was really a valuable method for us to get to the conclusion we did.
Now, let's not say that we didn't disagree. There are very opinionated people on our -- on our commission. And we had a lot of disagreements about things initially. But it was important for all of us to work this out and to come to consensus. And I think we have accomplished that, and we hope the book will prove that.
O'BRIEN: All right. In the interest of bipartisanship, Mr. Ben- Veniste, do you agree?
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Very much so. We set out at the very beginning understanding that we would need to transcend the present political climate in Washington, and because of the need to transform our government in many ways because of what we found in our investigation was so important.
We have put aside any partisan feelings and have worked together to arrive at a unanimous report. Five Democrats, five Republicans looking at the facts and coming to conclusions, which now inform our recommendations, which are transformative in the intelligence gathering, both foreign and domestic, and in connection with congressional oversight.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Fielding, there have been many commissions of this level, and this ilk over the years that have reported on any number of -- well, whatever you want to call them, significant events, tragedies, in U.S. history. Frequently, these type of commission reports gather dust on a shelf.
Do you detect in this case a higher degree of urgency and more of a feeling that many of your recommendations might, in fact, be embraced?
FIELDING: Listen, this town is full of commissions. It's been full of commissions for years and years. When you have a problem, people create a commission to look at it, because it may be mettlesome. They want to get to the bottom of it.
The action-forcing event of this commission was phenomenal. And I think that you will find that the -- the results and the broad recommendations we made attest to that.
Listen, we had -- we had a lot of criticism of people saying, "Don't go too far. Don't ask for too much. Make sure you can make a recommendation that you're sure you're going to be able to pass."
We've looked at this, and our answer is we have to be bold. If not now, when would we make a bold statement?
O'BRIEN: Mr. Ben-Veniste?
BEN-VENISTE: I agree completely with Fred. We have determined to bring the public along, to be transparent. That's what distinguishes us from most of the other commissions who have made recommendations on important points, particularly involving national security.
We have fought for and have won the declassification of a tremendous amount of otherwise classified information. Why? So that the public will know where the problems are. And we have found systemic, serious problems in the way our intelligence community has acted over time.
We had a great deal of information that would have helped us, perhaps even so far as preventing the 9/11 attack. Yet that information was not shared within the intelligence community and presented in a way in which those who made decisions could act on it.
And so, we have taken what we have learned and have made recommendations that go far, and require agencies and individuals to give up individual power for the better of the whole, for the better safety of the United States.
And that is our purpose now that we have concluded our investigation and made our recommendations, is to get those laws changed and enacted to make us safer.
O'BRIEN: Fred Fielding, Richard Ben-Veniste, members of the blue-ribbon commission on 9/11. Thank you very much for sharing time with us today, on what is obviously a busy day for you.
FIELDING: Our pleasure.
O'BRIEN: Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We happen to be in between congressional news conferences right now.
Up next, as you saw -- or up next, rather, we're going to speak with house speaker Dennis Hastert and majority leader Tom DeLay. It's at 1:45 Eastern, about 35 minutes from now. CNN will bring that to you live.
Meanwhile, the overriding goal of this monumental investigation is to bolster homeland security, the term rarely spoken of pre- September 11. Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve checks in now from Boston -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, a member of the 9/11 Commission said during the press conference that the country is safer, but it is not safe enough. The U.S. government, the administration would want to stress the first part of that phrase: "We are safer."
They point out that 9/11 the term "homeland security" really wasn't a common one. There was no Department of Homeland Security. That was a major reorganization of government.
The administration will tell you that they have made significant strides in certain areas in particular. Aviation security, and also they point to intelligence sharing, which has improved at the federal level and also among federal, local and state officials, and with the private sector.
There are many critics who would agree with the 9/11 Commission that we are not safe enough. They point to the tremendous number of containers, for instance, that come into this country every day that are not adequately checked. They also would point to our borders, an entry/exit system, one of the things the commission pointed out was badly needed today. There has been progress there, but there are still enormous gaps.
For instance, in the Tucson sector of the Mexican border, 1,500 people a day are picked trying to cross the border. No one even knows how many they do not catch.
There are some things in this report that the administration will disagree with. One of them, this call for an intelligence czar to oversee intelligence efforts. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said yesterday he viewed that as more bureaucracy.
But there are other recommendations here that they would embrace. One of them has to do with money. The 9/11 Commission said that this money should be dispersed according to need and risk. It should not be pork barrel. It should not be revenue sharing. And the administration has pushed the Congress to make some progress in that very direction.
Another thing that they would strongly endorse is this call for a permanent committee in both the House and Senate to deal with homeland security matters.
According to a homeland security official I spoke with a short time ago, since January of 2003 -- this is a year and a half -- the department has received more than 4,000 requests for letters from members of Congress. They have participated in 300 hearings, and they have participated in 1,100 briefings.
This has been a tremendous strain on them in terms of time and resources. They would like to see a reorganization up at Capitol Hill. They say it is up to Congress to do that. We will see if this report gives some impetus for change.
Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve there, live from Boston. Thank you.
Before we move on, reaction now from the man dubbed America's mayor for his leadership in the wake of catastrophe. When it comes to documented shortfalls in intelligence and/or security, Rudy Giuliani says election season shouldn't be an excuse for inaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Every one of the problems that needs to be fixed with intelligence can be fixed today. We don't have to wait until after the election. And many of them are on the road to being fixed.
Before George Tenet leaved, he moved the CIA in the direction of restoring human intelligence and doing more of it. Shouldn't say restoring it, but doing more human intelligence. He said it would take a long time, and he's right; it will. But he started the CIA moving in that direction. More of that has to be done.
There has to be a much greater sharing of information between and among agencies. That's going on. More of it has to be done.
The wall, that existed within the FBI where the criminal investigatory agents could not share information with the intelligence, has been broken down by the Patriot Act. That should be continued, and the Patriot Act should be renewed.
So nothing has to be on hold until the election. It hasn't been on hold up until now, so there's no reason for it to be on hold until the election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: President Bush's copy of the 9/11 report was hand delivered by the panel's chair and vice chair, whom he publicly praised for having done, quote, "a really good job."
CNN's Kathleen Koch now joins us live from the courthouse with more reaction from there -- Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afternoon, Kyra.
Well, clearly, it goes without saying that there was a great deal of concern, one could even say trepidation here at the White House about just what this final record would say.
Would it be overly critical? Would it blame President Bush for -- for missing something, missing a clue, for not preventing the attacks?
But as you said, when these two men came to the White House this morning, handed the report to the president, the president said that he was pleased. He praised the men for their good work. And he promised that, where his administration believed it needed to act on recommendations, it would.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank these two gentlemen for serving their country so well and so admirably. They've done a really good job of learning about our country, learning about what went wrong prior to September 11th and making very solid, sound recommendations about how to move forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: As this very important report was released to the nation, the president's presumptive Democratic challenger, John Kerry, was on the road, campaigning, speaking in Detroit, Michigan, to the National Urban League. And he talked about the 9/11 report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nearly three years after the terrorists have attacked our shores and murdered our loved ones, this report carries a very simple message for all of America, about the security of all Americans.
We can do better. We must do better. And there's an urgency to our doing better. We have to act now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: And in a statement that was put out just a few minutes ago by the Kerry campaign, the candidate promises that, if he is elected president in November and there has not been sufficient progress on these recommendations, that he will convene what he is calling an emergency security summit, bringing together Democrats, Republicans, members of Congress, and coming up with assessing what has been achieved, what still needs to be done. And then candidate Kerry promises we will do it.
Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kathleen, among these recommendation, James Thompson, commission member, coming forward, talking about the national counter- terrorism center. How would this proposal differ from a terrorism czar like Richard Clarke, who helped advise the president?
KOCH: Well, obviously what they're talking about now -- and you mentioned a national terrorism center. I think also perhaps what you're asking about is this national terrorism czar, intelligence czar, who would oversee all of the intelligence agencies. Because we really don't have anyone like that right now.
You know, we have a director of the CIA, director of the FBI. And at the commission press conference this afternoon, Chairman Thomas Kean said, "We asked as we conducted our investigation, 'Who is in charge?' Everyone pointed to President Bush."
But Kean said what we need is we need a quarterback for counter- terrorism, for intelligence, one single point person to go to who can pull together all this information from all these agencies. And that role, that job just simply doesn't exist right now, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, live from the White House, thanks.
O'BRIEN: It's a frightening scenario in the post-9/11 world. A couple of airline passengers report several men behaving suspiciously on a flight. What happened next scared the passengers even more. That story ahead on LIVE FROM.
An all-out search for a missing pregnant jogger. Now family members are learning some new truths about her husband. We'll have details on that.
And in medical news, saving face. Are the drugstore creams and lotions you buy just as good as expensive facials of the rich and famous? We'll check that out, after a break.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Christine Fisher became one of thousands whose lives changed forever on September 11th. Her husband, Gerald Fisher, died that day, one of 125 victims working at the Pentagon when the plane hit.
She joins us from Washington outside the Commerce Department building, along with her attorney, Keith Franz.
Clearly, today's report has both a personal and legal impact. Christine, I'd like to begin with you. Is there anything that you heard today that gave you a sense of peace?
CHRISTINE FISHER, 9/11 WIDOW: It gave me -- what I heard today gave me a sense of peace somewhat, that there -- that the issues have been dealt with and are going to be continued to be dealt with, if the commission -- if the commission's findings are acted upon.
PHILLIPS: Is there a specific...
FISHER: And I feel that the...
PHILLIPS: Is there a specific recommendation, a suggestion that you heard -- that you heard today from the commission committee members that hit you, that you thought, "That's exactly what I wanted to hear?"
FISHER: What I wanted to hear and what they did say was that the -- that they are putting into place different agendas that will, if they're passed by Congress, will enable the security system in the United States to be beefed up, to be dealt with.
And the terrorism issue will be dealt with in a straightforward way, in a way that will be considered much more important than it has been to this day, and it will be a high priority.
PHILLIPS: And knowing what you know, listening to the 9/11 hearings, interacting with so many people involved in this investigative process, did any of these recommendations seem a bit of a long shot to you?
FISHER: Not necessarily. But I think that the most important thing is they want the agencies to work together, the FBI and the CIA. And that was stated quite -- you know, quite forcefully. And that everyone needs to not be political about it, but needs to just take it as a sincere and important issue that we need to deal with and the sooner the better.
The sense of urgency was what I really came up with. Everyone felt a sense of urgency not to wait, to act as soon as possible, and not wait until something further happens, which is a very strong possibility.
PHILLIPS: And Mr. Franz, you are representing a number of victims here, lawsuits against the airlines and security companies. As you listened to this report, to these findings, does it give you any ammunition for what you're trying to retrieve -- or achieve, rather, from a legal aspect?
KEITH FRANZ, FISHER'S ATTORNEY: The commission report is very helpful in our pursuit of this claim. There's a lot of information that will be useful and will be able to be provided as evidence.
There's a considerable amount that went wrong that day. We know that. And we believe making the claim for negligence against the airlines and the security companies will be able to be accomplished. We're quite confident in the litigation.
PHILLIPS: Can you give me an example or two? What stood out -- stood out the most to you?
FRANZ: Well, the example of the Pentagon case in particular, today. Of course, we saw the video in the last few days. Clearly, when five individuals are identified before they left the airport...
PHILLIPS: You're talking about the security video from the airport? Is that right?
FRANZ: Yes, that's right.
PHILLIPS: You're talking about the security video that's been released from the airports, where we saw the hijackers coming through, being screened, but still being allowed to board an aircraft.
FRANZ: That's right. Alarms are going off and they never even identified what was the cause of the alarm.
We know they were identified before they even got to airport as being in need of a higher degree of security scrutiny. When they get there, they've got -- they paid cash for one-way tickets and arrive without luggage for a cross-country tour.
One of the five hijackers on that flight, we learned today, did not speak English and had no identification on him at all. The American Airlines ticket agent recognized this as being someone in need of additional security.
Though, when they get to the -- to the security checkpoint, well you see it on tape. They -- they were setting off alarms, but nothing was done. They never even determined what was causing the alarm to go off. They let them through. They waltzed onto the airplane.
PHILLIPS: Christine, when you saw this videotape, how did you react, when you saw it for the first time?
FISHER: I saw it for the first time last night on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, actually. And it brought me back to the day. It brought me back to the day as to what was happening, just before the Pentagon was hit and the World Trade Center was hit.
I -- I was shocked. And kind of brought back memories of three years ago.
FRANZ: All of the families...
FISHER: Painfully.
FRANZ: ... who we represent have told me that when they saw those faces and those people moving through the security checkpoint, it was -- it sent a shudder through them.
PHILLIPS: I think it sent a...
FRANZ: Very striking, very dramatic.
PHILLIPS: It sent a shudder, I think, through all of us. That is for sure. Christine Fisher, Keith Franz, thank you for your time today. We appreciate it.
FISHER: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break right now. Right after -- on the other side of the break, rather, we're going to check in now with business news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired July 22, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS KEAN, CHAIR, 9/11 COMMISSION: This was a failure of policy, management, capability, and above all, a failure of imagination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Past failures, future plans: a hard- hitting report from the 9/11 Commission. Will it make America safer?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now that the 9/11 report is out, the pressure is on to do something here on Capitol Hill, but there's simply not a lot of time. I'm Joe Johns. I'll have a report.
MILES O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: Does the report satisfy relatives of 9/11 victims? We'll hear from two of them this hour.
PHILLIPS: A strange episode on a commercial flight raises the question, have we really learned anything since 9/11?
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Lack of imagination, institutional failings, but no lack of concern or outright negligence. A mixed verdict on two administrations, from the independent panel that's been investigating, deconstructing, analyzing the 9/11 hijackings. After 20 months, hundreds of interviews, and millions of documents, the panel is on the record with its findings and recommendations.
CNN's Sean Callebs is on the story for us -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, you're exactly right. This commission makes it clear that they're basically good people, bad organization in place in the United States that led to the devastating attacks on September 11th.
The commission says it came as a shock, but really shouldn't have been a surprise, that the warning signs were out there. They were simply missed by legions of intelligence officers and other entities in the United States. Also says that bin Laden's message, one that he simply despised Americans and despised American policies were out there. And he was allowed to operate basically unimpeded for years in Afghanistan and build al Qaeda's machine.
Now, many of the commission members are also concerned where this is going to lead. And today, they voiced concern about the fact that -- that Americans were simply not able to think in an imaginary fashion, think out of the box, and think in a deviant way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEAN: On that September day, we were unprepared. We did not grasp the magnitude of a threat that had been gathering over a considerable period of time. As we detail in our report, this was a failure of policy, management, capability, and above all a failure of imagination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: A failure of imagination.
Now here are some of the recommendations in the 567-page report. Calls for a national counter-terrorism center to better coordinate information to head off future terrorist concerns in the United States.
It also calls for a national intelligence director. Now this would be a cabinet-level position, someone who would report to the president. And this individual would have three deputies, one responsible for foreign intelligence, one for defense intelligence, and one for homeland security intelligence.
Also, the emphasis would be on sharing information. That is one glaring weakness that the commission came to time and time again in its report.
Also, a reform of congressional oversight. The commission members -- five Republicans, five Democrats -- said that Congress simply dropped the ball in overseeing the way intelligence was gathered as well.
Also, it calls for a special career path for FBI agents who want to pursue intelligence and national security -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Sean Callebs, thank you very much. Appreciate that.
Not far from where Sean is standing, family members who lost loved ones on 9/11 talking to reporters, many of them inside the hall, listening to that announcement, as the 9/11 Commission released its report.
Let's listen to them for a moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for my wife and I, there's never going to be closure. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks a lot.
O'BRIEN: All right, we'll keep watching that location there, and as family members come out, we will bring you their reactions.
We also have some further reaction from family members who lost loved ones on 9/11 to share with you a little bit later.
We want to know what you think about all this. We invite you to send your e-mails to livefrom@cnn.com, and we'll read as many as we can on the air a little bit later.
Now just because the 10-member, bipartisan 9/11 panel came to unanimous conclusions, does not mean there is unanimous reaction from lawmakers.
CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns, joining us with that.
The idea, Joe, was to make this nonpartisan. It's kind of difficult to do that in an election year in Washington, isn't it?
JOHNS: Well, that's certainly right, Miles. On the one hand now, here on Capitol Hill, we do have a lot of bipartisan praise for the commission and the membership. That, of course, is customary.
But behind the scenes, the cherry picking has already started, as members of Congress and their aides on both sides start going through this report and picking out the passages, the things they think prove the points that they would like to make. Democrats, for example, picking out certain passages that they say seem to show inaction.
Back to you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Joe Johns. We appreciate that. We have a couple members of the commission who just walked outside of the Commerce Department building where we saw that news conference occur.
Joining us now, Fred Fielding and Richard Ben-Veniste, Republican and Democrat members of that committee. Gentlemen, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.
Mr. Fielding, let's begin with you. There was -- there was a lot of talk about nonpartisanship throughout all of this, collegiality and all of that. Do you think that remains in tact, or is this disintegrating, perhaps, into partisanship in an election year?
FRED FIELDING, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: No, actually, I was very pleasantly surprised. The bipartisan nature of our discussions was really a valuable method for us to get to the conclusion we did.
Now, let's not say that we didn't disagree. There are very opinionated people on our -- on our commission. And we had a lot of disagreements about things initially. But it was important for all of us to work this out and to come to consensus. And I think we have accomplished that, and we hope the book will prove that.
O'BRIEN: All right. In the interest of bipartisanship, Mr. Ben- Veniste, do you agree?
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Very much so. We set out at the very beginning understanding that we would need to transcend the present political climate in Washington, and because of the need to transform our government in many ways because of what we found in our investigation was so important.
We have put aside any partisan feelings and have worked together to arrive at a unanimous report. Five Democrats, five Republicans looking at the facts and coming to conclusions, which now inform our recommendations, which are transformative in the intelligence gathering, both foreign and domestic, and in connection with congressional oversight.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Fielding, there have been many commissions of this level, and this ilk over the years that have reported on any number of -- well, whatever you want to call them, significant events, tragedies, in U.S. history. Frequently, these type of commission reports gather dust on a shelf.
Do you detect in this case a higher degree of urgency and more of a feeling that many of your recommendations might, in fact, be embraced?
FIELDING: Listen, this town is full of commissions. It's been full of commissions for years and years. When you have a problem, people create a commission to look at it, because it may be mettlesome. They want to get to the bottom of it.
The action-forcing event of this commission was phenomenal. And I think that you will find that the -- the results and the broad recommendations we made attest to that.
Listen, we had -- we had a lot of criticism of people saying, "Don't go too far. Don't ask for too much. Make sure you can make a recommendation that you're sure you're going to be able to pass."
We've looked at this, and our answer is we have to be bold. If not now, when would we make a bold statement?
O'BRIEN: Mr. Ben-Veniste?
BEN-VENISTE: I agree completely with Fred. We have determined to bring the public along, to be transparent. That's what distinguishes us from most of the other commissions who have made recommendations on important points, particularly involving national security.
We have fought for and have won the declassification of a tremendous amount of otherwise classified information. Why? So that the public will know where the problems are. And we have found systemic, serious problems in the way our intelligence community has acted over time.
We had a great deal of information that would have helped us, perhaps even so far as preventing the 9/11 attack. Yet that information was not shared within the intelligence community and presented in a way in which those who made decisions could act on it.
And so, we have taken what we have learned and have made recommendations that go far, and require agencies and individuals to give up individual power for the better of the whole, for the better safety of the United States.
And that is our purpose now that we have concluded our investigation and made our recommendations, is to get those laws changed and enacted to make us safer.
O'BRIEN: Fred Fielding, Richard Ben-Veniste, members of the blue-ribbon commission on 9/11. Thank you very much for sharing time with us today, on what is obviously a busy day for you.
FIELDING: Our pleasure.
O'BRIEN: Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We happen to be in between congressional news conferences right now.
Up next, as you saw -- or up next, rather, we're going to speak with house speaker Dennis Hastert and majority leader Tom DeLay. It's at 1:45 Eastern, about 35 minutes from now. CNN will bring that to you live.
Meanwhile, the overriding goal of this monumental investigation is to bolster homeland security, the term rarely spoken of pre- September 11. Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve checks in now from Boston -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, a member of the 9/11 Commission said during the press conference that the country is safer, but it is not safe enough. The U.S. government, the administration would want to stress the first part of that phrase: "We are safer."
They point out that 9/11 the term "homeland security" really wasn't a common one. There was no Department of Homeland Security. That was a major reorganization of government.
The administration will tell you that they have made significant strides in certain areas in particular. Aviation security, and also they point to intelligence sharing, which has improved at the federal level and also among federal, local and state officials, and with the private sector.
There are many critics who would agree with the 9/11 Commission that we are not safe enough. They point to the tremendous number of containers, for instance, that come into this country every day that are not adequately checked. They also would point to our borders, an entry/exit system, one of the things the commission pointed out was badly needed today. There has been progress there, but there are still enormous gaps.
For instance, in the Tucson sector of the Mexican border, 1,500 people a day are picked trying to cross the border. No one even knows how many they do not catch.
There are some things in this report that the administration will disagree with. One of them, this call for an intelligence czar to oversee intelligence efforts. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said yesterday he viewed that as more bureaucracy.
But there are other recommendations here that they would embrace. One of them has to do with money. The 9/11 Commission said that this money should be dispersed according to need and risk. It should not be pork barrel. It should not be revenue sharing. And the administration has pushed the Congress to make some progress in that very direction.
Another thing that they would strongly endorse is this call for a permanent committee in both the House and Senate to deal with homeland security matters.
According to a homeland security official I spoke with a short time ago, since January of 2003 -- this is a year and a half -- the department has received more than 4,000 requests for letters from members of Congress. They have participated in 300 hearings, and they have participated in 1,100 briefings.
This has been a tremendous strain on them in terms of time and resources. They would like to see a reorganization up at Capitol Hill. They say it is up to Congress to do that. We will see if this report gives some impetus for change.
Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve there, live from Boston. Thank you.
Before we move on, reaction now from the man dubbed America's mayor for his leadership in the wake of catastrophe. When it comes to documented shortfalls in intelligence and/or security, Rudy Giuliani says election season shouldn't be an excuse for inaction.
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RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Every one of the problems that needs to be fixed with intelligence can be fixed today. We don't have to wait until after the election. And many of them are on the road to being fixed.
Before George Tenet leaved, he moved the CIA in the direction of restoring human intelligence and doing more of it. Shouldn't say restoring it, but doing more human intelligence. He said it would take a long time, and he's right; it will. But he started the CIA moving in that direction. More of that has to be done.
There has to be a much greater sharing of information between and among agencies. That's going on. More of it has to be done.
The wall, that existed within the FBI where the criminal investigatory agents could not share information with the intelligence, has been broken down by the Patriot Act. That should be continued, and the Patriot Act should be renewed.
So nothing has to be on hold until the election. It hasn't been on hold up until now, so there's no reason for it to be on hold until the election.
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PHILLIPS: President Bush's copy of the 9/11 report was hand delivered by the panel's chair and vice chair, whom he publicly praised for having done, quote, "a really good job."
CNN's Kathleen Koch now joins us live from the courthouse with more reaction from there -- Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afternoon, Kyra.
Well, clearly, it goes without saying that there was a great deal of concern, one could even say trepidation here at the White House about just what this final record would say.
Would it be overly critical? Would it blame President Bush for -- for missing something, missing a clue, for not preventing the attacks?
But as you said, when these two men came to the White House this morning, handed the report to the president, the president said that he was pleased. He praised the men for their good work. And he promised that, where his administration believed it needed to act on recommendations, it would.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank these two gentlemen for serving their country so well and so admirably. They've done a really good job of learning about our country, learning about what went wrong prior to September 11th and making very solid, sound recommendations about how to move forward.
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KOCH: As this very important report was released to the nation, the president's presumptive Democratic challenger, John Kerry, was on the road, campaigning, speaking in Detroit, Michigan, to the National Urban League. And he talked about the 9/11 report.
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SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nearly three years after the terrorists have attacked our shores and murdered our loved ones, this report carries a very simple message for all of America, about the security of all Americans.
We can do better. We must do better. And there's an urgency to our doing better. We have to act now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: And in a statement that was put out just a few minutes ago by the Kerry campaign, the candidate promises that, if he is elected president in November and there has not been sufficient progress on these recommendations, that he will convene what he is calling an emergency security summit, bringing together Democrats, Republicans, members of Congress, and coming up with assessing what has been achieved, what still needs to be done. And then candidate Kerry promises we will do it.
Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kathleen, among these recommendation, James Thompson, commission member, coming forward, talking about the national counter- terrorism center. How would this proposal differ from a terrorism czar like Richard Clarke, who helped advise the president?
KOCH: Well, obviously what they're talking about now -- and you mentioned a national terrorism center. I think also perhaps what you're asking about is this national terrorism czar, intelligence czar, who would oversee all of the intelligence agencies. Because we really don't have anyone like that right now.
You know, we have a director of the CIA, director of the FBI. And at the commission press conference this afternoon, Chairman Thomas Kean said, "We asked as we conducted our investigation, 'Who is in charge?' Everyone pointed to President Bush."
But Kean said what we need is we need a quarterback for counter- terrorism, for intelligence, one single point person to go to who can pull together all this information from all these agencies. And that role, that job just simply doesn't exist right now, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, live from the White House, thanks.
O'BRIEN: It's a frightening scenario in the post-9/11 world. A couple of airline passengers report several men behaving suspiciously on a flight. What happened next scared the passengers even more. That story ahead on LIVE FROM.
An all-out search for a missing pregnant jogger. Now family members are learning some new truths about her husband. We'll have details on that.
And in medical news, saving face. Are the drugstore creams and lotions you buy just as good as expensive facials of the rich and famous? We'll check that out, after a break.
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PHILLIPS: Christine Fisher became one of thousands whose lives changed forever on September 11th. Her husband, Gerald Fisher, died that day, one of 125 victims working at the Pentagon when the plane hit.
She joins us from Washington outside the Commerce Department building, along with her attorney, Keith Franz.
Clearly, today's report has both a personal and legal impact. Christine, I'd like to begin with you. Is there anything that you heard today that gave you a sense of peace?
CHRISTINE FISHER, 9/11 WIDOW: It gave me -- what I heard today gave me a sense of peace somewhat, that there -- that the issues have been dealt with and are going to be continued to be dealt with, if the commission -- if the commission's findings are acted upon.
PHILLIPS: Is there a specific...
FISHER: And I feel that the...
PHILLIPS: Is there a specific recommendation, a suggestion that you heard -- that you heard today from the commission committee members that hit you, that you thought, "That's exactly what I wanted to hear?"
FISHER: What I wanted to hear and what they did say was that the -- that they are putting into place different agendas that will, if they're passed by Congress, will enable the security system in the United States to be beefed up, to be dealt with.
And the terrorism issue will be dealt with in a straightforward way, in a way that will be considered much more important than it has been to this day, and it will be a high priority.
PHILLIPS: And knowing what you know, listening to the 9/11 hearings, interacting with so many people involved in this investigative process, did any of these recommendations seem a bit of a long shot to you?
FISHER: Not necessarily. But I think that the most important thing is they want the agencies to work together, the FBI and the CIA. And that was stated quite -- you know, quite forcefully. And that everyone needs to not be political about it, but needs to just take it as a sincere and important issue that we need to deal with and the sooner the better.
The sense of urgency was what I really came up with. Everyone felt a sense of urgency not to wait, to act as soon as possible, and not wait until something further happens, which is a very strong possibility.
PHILLIPS: And Mr. Franz, you are representing a number of victims here, lawsuits against the airlines and security companies. As you listened to this report, to these findings, does it give you any ammunition for what you're trying to retrieve -- or achieve, rather, from a legal aspect?
KEITH FRANZ, FISHER'S ATTORNEY: The commission report is very helpful in our pursuit of this claim. There's a lot of information that will be useful and will be able to be provided as evidence.
There's a considerable amount that went wrong that day. We know that. And we believe making the claim for negligence against the airlines and the security companies will be able to be accomplished. We're quite confident in the litigation.
PHILLIPS: Can you give me an example or two? What stood out -- stood out the most to you?
FRANZ: Well, the example of the Pentagon case in particular, today. Of course, we saw the video in the last few days. Clearly, when five individuals are identified before they left the airport...
PHILLIPS: You're talking about the security video from the airport? Is that right?
FRANZ: Yes, that's right.
PHILLIPS: You're talking about the security video that's been released from the airports, where we saw the hijackers coming through, being screened, but still being allowed to board an aircraft.
FRANZ: That's right. Alarms are going off and they never even identified what was the cause of the alarm.
We know they were identified before they even got to airport as being in need of a higher degree of security scrutiny. When they get there, they've got -- they paid cash for one-way tickets and arrive without luggage for a cross-country tour.
One of the five hijackers on that flight, we learned today, did not speak English and had no identification on him at all. The American Airlines ticket agent recognized this as being someone in need of additional security.
Though, when they get to the -- to the security checkpoint, well you see it on tape. They -- they were setting off alarms, but nothing was done. They never even determined what was causing the alarm to go off. They let them through. They waltzed onto the airplane.
PHILLIPS: Christine, when you saw this videotape, how did you react, when you saw it for the first time?
FISHER: I saw it for the first time last night on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, actually. And it brought me back to the day. It brought me back to the day as to what was happening, just before the Pentagon was hit and the World Trade Center was hit.
I -- I was shocked. And kind of brought back memories of three years ago.
FRANZ: All of the families...
FISHER: Painfully.
FRANZ: ... who we represent have told me that when they saw those faces and those people moving through the security checkpoint, it was -- it sent a shudder through them.
PHILLIPS: I think it sent a...
FRANZ: Very striking, very dramatic.
PHILLIPS: It sent a shudder, I think, through all of us. That is for sure. Christine Fisher, Keith Franz, thank you for your time today. We appreciate it.
FISHER: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break right now. Right after -- on the other side of the break, rather, we're going to check in now with business news.
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