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Congressional negotiators reached tentative agreement Tuesday on steps to strengthen air and sea defenses against terrorists in legislation aimed at fulfilling recommendations made three years ago by the 9/11 Commission. The bill outlines plans to inspect all cargo on passenger planes within three years and screen, within five years, all U.S.-bound cargo ships for nuclear weapons before they leave foreign ports. It also realigns the formulas for distributing federal security funds so that states and cities most at risk of terrorist attack receive a larger share.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats on Monday dropped their demand for union bargaining rights for airport screeners, hoping to revive anti-terrorism legislation that had stalled because of a presidential veto threat. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada made the announcement on the Senate floor as he called for House and Senate negotiators to begin reconciling bills implementing the July 2004 recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission. The legislation has been one of the new Democratic majority's priorities, but it had stalled because of a presidential veto threat over allowing airport screeners to have collective bargaining rights. Because of the veto...

Worse than Watergate -- But Invisible in the Media By Alan Nathan FrontPageMagazine.com | January 5, 2007 President Clinton’s Former National Security Advisor was caught stealing and destroying classified documents from the National Archives (before the 9/11 Commission could read them), but his actions have garnered less media attention than a fly breaking wind. Sandy Berger illegally removed four documents, hid them under a construction trailer for later retrieval, then cut three of the four with scissors upon returning to his office. He admitted to lying about it when first questioned by their officials, according to a December 20, 2006,...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 07/02/2007 Pelosi: 'We Cannot Wait Any Longer to Pass 9/11 Commission Recommendations' Washington, D.C. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on the urgent need to pass legislation to implement the 9/11 Commission's recommendations: "As the incidents over the weekend in London and Glasgow demonstrate, we must do more protect Americans from terrorism. To make our nation safer, we must pass legislation implementing the recommendations of the independent 9/11 Commission. "When Democrats took control of Congress in January, the first bill we passed H.R. 1, which implements the...

If anyone watched the Fox News report titled, "Socks, Papers, Scissors" hosted by David Asman, the conclusion was that the Justice Department was aware that Berger stole and destroyed some of the most sensitive documents in the National Archives - and yet failed to notify the 911 Commission priof to Berger testifying. Berger was sworn in under oath - and gave his testimony to the commission who was unaware of what he did? It wasn't until much later that they were told - after the report was printed and distributed. A commission member said he was shocked to hear that...

On the heels of the Senate’s 94-2 vote to pass a bill voiding a provision in the Patriot Act that allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. Reports KDVR-Fox 31 (Denver): "Gonzales' legacy at the DOJ has been one of misplaced priorities, political miscalculation, and a failure to enforce the laws which he has sworn to uphold," he said. "I think that it is time for him to move on."Tancredo faulted several Justice Department decisions dealing with border crimes, including the prosecution of two...

The Spanish Connection What the 9/11 Commission didn't consider. The 9/11 Commission relied on information derived from two captured al Qaeda perpetrators for much of its picture of the conspiracy leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The interrogations of these men--Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or "KSM," who masterminded the plot and got Osama bin Laden to finance it, and Ramzi Binalshibh, who acted as KSM's liaison with lead suicide terrorist Mohamed Atta--were performed by the CIA at secret locations. KSM claimed that he left almost all the tactical details to Atta, and therefore could...

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board—former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board – former Democrat Rep. Lee Hamilton. True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder Samuel "Sandy" Berger. In the words of a recent House Committee report, Berger had perpetrated "a disturbing breach of trust and protocol that compromised the...

Paper Chase Did investigators turn a blind eye to the seriousness of the Sandy Berger scandal? Washington scandals are curious things. Sometimes special prosecutors are appointed and the media provide saturation coverage of their doings. An example would be the Valerie Plame episode, which led to this month's perjury trial of Scooter Libby, the former White House aide accused of lying about who first told him Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Then there are the barely noticed scandals, which prosecutors pursue quietly and professionally. Take the case of Donald Keyser, a former State Department official who last week...

Eighteen House Republicans have urged the Justice Department to proceed with a polygraph test for Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser who agreed to take the test as part of a plea of guilty of stealing documents from the National Archives.

January 09, 2007, 6:00 a.m. 9/11 Commission DayDemocrats’ national-security trendsetter is a bust. By Andrew C. McCarthy A lack of seriousness, the chasm between frivolous campaign rhetoric and real-world governing, and the politicizing of our national security — the one subject always claimed to be above such unseemliness … right before being politicized. These all figure in the theater that is Day One of new Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “First 100 Hours” blitz: The day when House Democrats undertake to make good — sort of — on their electoral pledge to enact the yet unfulfilled aspirations of the 9/11 Commission....

Did the 9/11 Commission receive all the documents it requested? Davis Releases Berger Report January 9, 2007 By David Marin (202)225-5074 Washington, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) released the following statement today on a committee report that sheds important new light on Sandy Berger’s theft of classified documents from the National Archives. The report makes it clear that the full extent of Mr. Berger’s document removal can never be known, and consequently the Department of Justice could not assure the 9/11 Commission that it received all responsive documents to which Mr. Berger had...

<p>Did the 9/11 Commission receive all the documents it requested?</p> <p>Washington, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) released the following statement today on a committee report that sheds important new light on Sandy Berger’s theft of classified documents from the National Archives. The report makes it clear that the full extent of Mr. Berger’s document removal can never be known, and consequently the Department of Justice could not assure the 9/11 Commission that it received all responsive documents to which Mr. Berger had access.</p>

Josh Gerstein covers some of the incredible details in the National Archives Inspector General's report on Sandy Berger's theft and destruction of classified documents from the National Archives in this New York Sun story. Regarding Berger's hiding of the documents underneath a construction trailer oustide the National Archives, Gerstein quotes Steven Aftergood: leading authority on classification policy, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, said Mr. Berger's behavior was reminiscent of a "dead drop," when spies leave records in a park or under a mailbox to be retrieved by a handler. "It seems deliberate and calculated," Mr. Aftergood said....

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft this week became the only Cabinet-level Bush official to attack the Sept. 11 Commission, writing in his memoirs it "seemed obsessed with trying to lay the blame for the terrorist attacks at the feet of the Bush administration, while virtually absolving the previous administration of responsibility." Ashcroft also writes that the commission's hearings "were not so much about discovering the truth as they were about assessing blame and grandstanding," adding that they "degenerated into show trials."

Products Site Content Five Years Later: Are We Any Safer? John Lehman Proceedings, September 2006 Discuss in the eForum. Timeline: Major Islamic Extremist Attacks A former secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission identifies the real enemy in the current war and assesses progress. GREG E. MATHIESON According to the author (left)-here, with fellow 9/11 commissioner, Washington attorney Richard Ben-Veniste (right)-the commission's report on the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and its recommendations for what the United States should do to prevent such attacks from happening again have been largely ignored. Are we winning the war? The...

Paul Pillar Speaks, Again The latest CIA attack on the Bush administration is nothing new. by Stephen F. Hayes 02/10/2006 4:15:00 PM IN A BREATHLESS front-page, above-the-fold article in today's Washington Post, Walter Pincus reports that a former senior CIA official named Paul Pillar accuses the Bush administration of "misusing" intelligence to take the country to war in Iraq. According to the Post account, Pillar uses a forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs to claim that the Bush administration "politicized" the intelligence on Iraq. Bush administration policymakers did this subtly, Pillar says, by repeatedly asking the CIA questions about Iraq, its...

October 1, 2006 9/11 Panel Members Weren’t Told of Meeting By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action. Details of the previously undisclosed meeting on July 10, 2001, two months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, were first reported...

HILLARY'S FECKLESS 'DEFENSE' OF BILL WILL DAMAGE BOTH CLINTONSTHE CHRIS WALLACE INTERVIEW BLOWBACK by Mia T, 9.27.06 I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks. All you have to do is read the 9/11 Commission [Report] to know what he and his administration did to protect Americans and prevent terrorist attacks against our country. hillary clinton, 9.26.06 hat was it exactly that impelled missus clinton to rush to her husband's 'defense' within hours of the broadcast of his now infamous interview by Chris Wallace? 1 Was it the...