What are the backgrounds of the key players on the 9/11 Commission? Here's the answer...

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation...is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks...

Thomas H. Kean Chair

Thomas Kean, chair, is former governor of New Jersey (1982-1990) and, since 1990, the president of Drew University. Kean also served for ten years in the New Jersey Assembly, rising to the positions of majority leader, minority leader, and speaker. As governor, he served on the President's Education Policy Advisory Committee and as chair of the Education Commission of the States and the National Governor's Association Task Force on Teaching. While president of Drew, Kean has served on several national committees and commissions. He headed the American delegation to the UN Conference on Youth in Thailand, served as vice chairman of the American delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing; and served as a member of the President's Initiative on Race. He also served on the National Endowment for Democracy. He is chair of the Newark Alliance and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and former chair of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Educate America, and the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. Kean is on the board of a number of organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College, as well as more than 25 honorary degrees and numerous awards from environmental and educational organizations.

Lee H. Hamilton Vice Chair

Lee Hamilton, vice chair, is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Prior to becoming director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1999, Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing Indiana's Ninth District. During his tenure, he served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (now the Committee on International Relations), chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East from the early 1970s until 1993, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. Hamilton also served as chair of the Joint Economic Committee, working to promote long-term economic growth and development. As chairman of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress and a member of the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee, he was a primary draftsman of several House ethics reforms. Since leaving the House, Mr. Hamilton has served as a commissioner on the influential United States Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission), and was co-chair with former Senator Howard Baker of the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He is currently a member of the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council. Mr. Hamilton is a graduate of DePauw University and Indiana University law school, as well as the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and national awards for public service. Before his election to Congress, he practiced law in Chicago and Columbus, Indiana.

Richard Ben-Veniste Commissioner

Richard Ben-Veniste is a partner in the Washington law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. He served as assistant U.S. attorney, Southern District New York, from 1968 to 1973, which included service as chief of the Special Prosecution Section from 1971 to 1973. Mr. Ben-Veniste was chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office from 1973 to 1975 and Special Outside Counsel Senate Committee on Government Operations from 1976 to 1977. From May 1995 to June 1996, Mr. Ben-Veniste was chief counsel (minority) of the Senate Whitewater Committee. Mr. Ben-Veniste received an A.B. from Muhlenberg College in 1964, an LL.B. from Columbia University Law School in 1967, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and an LL.M. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1968 under a Ford Foundation fellowship grant. He is a member of the bars of New York and the District of Columbia.

Mr. Ben-Veniste is the co-author of Stonewall: The Real Story of the Watergate Prosecution (Simon & Schuster), and has been a guest lecturer at numerous law schools, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Georgetown and Fordham. He is a frequent commentator on current affairs involving the intersection of law and politics.

Mr. Ben-Veniste has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1975, The Best Lawyers in America since 1983, and Washingtonian Magazine's Top Lawyers in Washington, DC, since 1992, when the list first appeared.

Mr. Ben-Veniste is a Presidential appointee to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, which is mandated to review and declassify secret documents relating to World War II era war crimes.

Fred F. Fielding Commissioner

Fred Fielding is senior partner and head of Wiley, Rein, & Fielding's Government Affairs, Business & Finance, Litigation and Crisis Management/White Collar Crime Practices. From 1981-1986, he served as Counsel to the President of the United States, as deputy counsel from 1972-1974 and as Associate Counsel from 1970-1972. He also served as clearance counsel during the Bush-Cheney Presidential Transition. In addition to his public service as White House counsel, Fielding has served as the U.S.-designated arbitrator at the Tribunal on the U.S.-U.K. Air Treaty Dispute (1989-1994), as a member of the president's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform (1989) and as a member of the secretary of transportation's Task Force on Aviation Disasters, (1997-1998), as well as numerous other commissions. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania Bars, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania; the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C., Federal, First, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits; the U.S. Court of Military Appeals; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He holds an A.B., with honors, from Gettysburg College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review.

amie S. Gorelick Commissioner

Jamie Gorelick is a partner at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr . Prior to joining Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr in July 2003, Gorelick was vice chair of Fannie Mae. As part of the four-person Office of the Chairman, she shared responsibility for overall management of the company, directed its efforts to reach underserved markets and oversaw Fannie Mae's external relationships, legal and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Fannie Mae in May 1997, Gorelick was deputy attorney general of the United States, a position she assumed in March 1994. From May 1993 until she joined the Justice Department, Gorelick served as general counsel of the Department of Defense. From 1979 to 1980 she was assistant to the secretary and counselor to the deputy secretary of energy. In the private sector, from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1993, Gorelick was a litigator in Washington, D.C., representing major U.S. companies on a broad range of legal and business matters. She served as president of the District of Columbia Bar from 1992 to 1993. Gorelick is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She also serves on several boards, including the Fannie Mae Foundation, United Technologies Corporation, Schlumberger, Limited, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Harvard College Board of Overseers, America's Promise, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and The National Park Foundation. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Law Institute. Gorelick co-chaired, with Senator Sam Nunn, the Advisory Committee of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, and currently serves on the Central Intelligence Agency's National Security Advisory Panel as well as the President's Review of Intelligence.

Slade Gorton Commissioner

Slade Gorton is of counsel at Preston Gates & Ellis LLP. Prior to joining the firm, he represented Washington State in the United States Senate for 18 years, from 1982-2000. While in the Senate, Gorton served on the Appropriations, Budget, Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Energy and Natural Resources Committees. He served as chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee (1995-2001), the Commerce Subcommittees on Consumer Affairs (1995-99), and Aviation (1999-2000). He was also a member of the Republican leadership as counsel to the Majority Leader (1996-2000). Gorton began his political career in 1958 as a Washington state representative; he went on to serve as State House majority leader. In 1968, he was elected attorney general of Washington state, where he argued 14 cases before the Supreme Court. Gorton also served on the president's consumer Advisory Council (1975-77) and on the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (1969-1981). He was chairman of the Washington State Law & Justice Commission (1969-76), served as an instructor in Constitutional law to public administration graduate students at the University of Puget Sound (1977), and has served on the Board of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center since 1987. In 2001, Gorton served on the National Commission on Federal Election Reform.

Bob Kerrey Commissioner

Bob Kerrey is President of New School University in New York City. For twelve years prior to becoming President of New School University, Bob Kerrey represented the State of Nebraska in the United States Senate. Before that he served as Nebraska's Governor for four years.

Educated in pharmacy at the University of Nebraska, Bob Kerrey served three years in the United States Navy. After his military service, he started a chain of restaurants and health clubs in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.

Bob Kerrey entered the race for Governor of Nebraska with no prior political experience and was elected as a Democrat in a heavily Republican State. After serving a single four-year term, he returned to business. Upon the death of Nebraska's senior United States Senator, Kerrey became a candidate for the U.S. Senate. He was elected in 1988 and re-elected in 1994. He chose not to run for re-election a third time because of the offer to be President of New School University and his desire to return to private life.

As a Senator, Bob Kerrey acquired a reputation as someone willing to take a stand on issues even in the face of public opposition. He was a defender of free speech and the separation of Church and State as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Kerrey opposed taking away the right of a woman to make her own reproductive decisions, supported extending civil rights protection in the workplace and in housing to gays and lesbians, and voted for reasonable gun control legislation. He also put his name behind Social Security reform and universal health insurance. In Nebraska, these were not traditionally popular positions.

From his first days as Governor to his last days in the Senate, Bob Kerrey has been involved with all levels of education in Nebraska and around the country. For the past 20 years, he has given his strong support both to increased funding and the need for significant reform. He headed the bipartisan Congressional Web-Based Education Commission which in 2001 produced an influential report entitled "The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice."

Bob Kerrey is the author of When I Was A Young Man: A Memoir, published by Harcourt Books (May 2002).

He is married to Sarah Paley. The couple have a young son, Henry, who was born on September 10, 2001. His children from a prior marriage are named Ben and Lindsey.

John F. Lehman Commissioner

John Lehman is chairman of J.F. Lehman & Company, a private equity investment firm. He is also chairman of OAO Technology Solutions, director of Ball Corporation, Insurance Services Office, SDI Inc., Elgar Inc., and Racal Instruments, Inc., and a member of the Advisory Board of Paribas Affaires Industrielles. Lehman was formerly an investment banker with Paine Webber Inc. He was president of Abington Corporation between 1977 and 1981. He served 25 years in the naval reserve. Lehman was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Reagan in 1981 and served until 1987. During his tenure as Secretary of the Navy, Lehman was responsible for building a 600 ship Navy, establishing a strategy of maritime supremacy, and reforming ship and aircraft procurement. He has served as staff member to Henry Kissinger on the National Security Council, as delegate to the Force Reductions Negotiations in Vienna and as deputy director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Lehman holds a B.S. from St. Joseph's University, a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University. Lehman is the author of numerous books, including Command of the Seas, Making War, and On Seas of Glory. He serves as Chairman of the Princess Grace Foundation USA, a director of OpSail Foundation, a member of the Board of Overseers of the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a trustee of LaSalle College High School.

Timothy J. Roemer Commissioner

Tim Roemer is president of the Center for National Policy (CNP) and a distinguished scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a non-profit research and educational institution dedicated to improving public policy outcomes. Prior to joining CNP, Roemer was a partner at Johnston and Associates. From 1991-2003, Roemer represented the Third District of Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Science. Before running for Congress, he served on the staffs of John Brademas of Indiana (1978-1979) and Senator Dennis DeConcini of Arizona (1985-1989). He holds a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego, Calif., and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Notre Dame University. While he was in Congress Roemer was recognized for his successful leadership on bipartisan legislation to balance the budget, reform welfare, improve the affordability of higher education, and reform elementary and secondary education for school children. He was appointed to the Intelligence Committee's Task Force on Homeland Security and Terrorism and served on the bipartisan Joint Inquiry which issued a report on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was the key author of the legislation in the House of Representatives to establish the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

James R. Thompson Commissioner

James Thompson, Illinois' longest-serving governor (1977-1991), is chairman of the law firm of Winston & Strawn, headquartered in Chicago. He first joined Winston & Strawn in 1975 and then rejoined the firm as a partner when he left the governor's office in 1991. From 1959 to 1964, he served in the Cook County state's attorney's office, where he argued criminal civil rights cases before the Illinois and US Supreme Courts. He then taught at the Northwestern Law School. In 1971, he became U.S. Attorney for the Northern District, where he established a solid reputation for prosecuting corrupt public officials. He is a member of the Illinois Bar. Thompson is also a director of FMC Corporation, FMC Technologies, Inc., the Chicago Board of Trade, Hollinger International (publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times), Prime Retail Inc., Prime Group Realty Trust, Navigant Consulting Group, Public Review Board HEREIU, Japan Society (New York), and MAXIMUS, Inc. He served on the American Bar Association Commission on Separation of Powers and Judicial Independence from 1996-1997. Thompson was educated at the University of Illinois and Washington University, and received his law degree from Northwestern University Law School.

Philip D. Zelikow Executive Director

Philip Zelikow is the executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the "9/11 Commission." He is also the director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs and White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia. After serving in government with the Navy, the State Department, and the National Security Council, he taught at Harvard before assuming his present post in Virginia to direct the nation's largest research center on the American presidency. He was a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and served as executive director of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former Presidents Carter and Ford, as well as the executive director of the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Zelikow's books include The Kennedy Tapes (with Ernest May), Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (with Condoleezza Rice), and the rewritten Essence of Decision (with Graham Allison). Zelikow has also been the director of the Aspen Strategy Group, a policy program of the Aspen Institute.

Christopher Kojm Deputy Executive Director Christopher Kojm served from 1998 until February, 2003 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence Policy and Coordination in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He served previously in the Congress on the staff of the House International Relations Committee, under Ranking Member Lee Hamilton as Deputy Director of the Democratic staff (1997-98), as Coordinator for Regional Issues (1993-1997) and under Chairman Hamilton on the Europe and Middle East subcommittee staff (1984-92). From 1979-1984, he was a writer and editor with the Foreign Policy Association in New York City. He has a Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (1979) and an A.B. from Harvard College (1977).

Daniel Marcus General Counsel Daniel Marcus, General Counsel of the Commission, was for many years a partner in the Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, serving on the firm's Management Committee from 1995 to 1998. During the Carter Administration Mr. Marcus was Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture. He returned to Government service in 1998 as Senior Counsel in the White House Counsel's office. From 1999 to 2001 he held several senior positions at the Department of Justice, including Associate Attorney General. Last year he was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Marcus is a graduate of Brandeis University and Yale Law School, and was a law clerk for Judge Harold Leventhal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

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