9/11 commissioner speaks,
analyzes attacks in report
Written for the UST Cauldron, published August 26, 2004.
The United States is guilty of underestimating Islamic terrorism and a failure of imagination, according to Sept. 11 Commissioner Admiral John F. Lehman, who spoke about “The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States” on Aug. 5 in Jones Hall.
The commission recently released the report, which details the events surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks to the public. “No one imagined that [the terrorists] could kill, in the blinking of an eye, 19 people fewer than an infantry platoon,” Lehman said. “[We wrote this book] primarily for the American people to read it and understand it because they will never see the world the same way after they read this book.”
The panel constructed its list of recommendations from more than 1,200 interviews, more than 2 million documents and hundreds of “man days” spent debating, thinking and analyzing the various alternative recommendations.
Among its recommendations, the commission suggested that Congress create the position of a national intelligence director who would have the authority to manage security budgets and government employees. According to Lehman, no member of the commission would support the creation of a national intelligence director without such authoritative powers.
The current Homeland Security office reports to 88 different congressional committees. According to Lehman, a single Homeland Security committee would bring order to policy-making and budget allocations.
However, Lehman said the changes in the intelligence structure were secondary to a greater shift in America’s approach to terrorism.
According to Lehman, organizational changes are not the solution to the war on terrorism. “What we are recommending is a stepping back to understand the enemy and to put together a strategy,” Lehman said. “We cannot wait until they come to us.”
In addition to the current military effort, Lehman suggested that the government look into “soft options” such as spending money to develop public schools in countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia. If parents in these countries want their children to learn to read and write, they have no option but to send their children to madrassas, schools for Muslim children, he said. These schools are almost overwhelmingly supported by Saudi Salafi extremists, who “teach nothing but the most extreme views of what Islam is and pure jihad,” Lehman said.
Other soft options include creating international broadcasting to create credible alternatives to Al-Jazeera.
“Today, there are no broadcast institutions that are providing an objective picture of what freedom means, of what democracy means, of what religious freedom means and above all, a sense of human dignity and equality,” Lehman said. “They either take the worst of our network offerings, or they have Al-Jazeera; nothing in between.”
Lehman declared that the war being fought is not a war on terrorism but a war on Islamic terrorism. “[Islamic] terrorism is a weapon, not an enemy,” Lehman said. “It’s an extremist, non-mainstream aberration of Islam, tainting and distorting the teachings of Mohammed in ways that were never practiced.”
The United States, according to Lehman, is only beginning to understand the extent of Islamic terrorism. “[Terrorism] is not tied to any one nation state, any one region of the world,” he said. “We now have to deal and understand where they are and how to deal with it. The governmental institutions that we have are totally inadequate to carry out such a strategy.”
Lehman noted that the commission prepared its report at the instigation of families of those who died on Sept. 11. UST alum Barbara Olson was killed on American Airlines Flight 77 when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. “[The victims' families] helped us all along the way, and I think our report is a monument to their turning their grief into something very positive that will make the world safer,” he said.
Lehman also emphasized how the American government, media and people were unprepared for the Sept. 11 attacks, underestimating the terrorist threat. Americans have to engage in a battle of ideas, according to Lehman. “We have been leaving the field empty,” he said. “No one has been seriously engaging in a true dialogue in the Arab world.”
Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry has strongly endorsed the commission’s 41 recommendations. Kerry announced full support of the commission’s recommendations and has called for the President to extend the commission’s deadline until all recommendations are fulfilled.
President George W. Bush, who first opposed the commission’s creation, recently announced his support for the creation of a national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center. He has yet to endorse the panel’s other recommendations.
On July 22, Bush commented on the commission’s report in a speech at the Northeastern Illinois Public Safety Training Academy in Glenview, Ill. “The commission’s recommendations are consistent with the strategy my administration is following to address these failings and to win the war on terror,” Bush said.
Lehman said that he does not expect the government to enact the recommended reforms on blind faith, and that he and the other commissioners will be available to help explain the recommendations and engage in an active dialogue.
Even though the commission is scheduled to dissolve on Aug. 26, Lehman said that the panel members’ work would continue.
“I would urge you as voters to hold their feet to the fire and see where they stand,” Lehman said.