[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 63 (Thursday, May 16, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4453-S4454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INVESTIGATE 9-11
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise today out of respect for and to
speak on behalf of the people I represent in New York. I am especially
mindful today of the memory of those whom we lost on September 11,
their family members and their loved ones who, until this very minute,
grieve for those who were sacrificed in the terrible attacks we
suffered on September 11.
We have learned something today that raises a number of serious
questions. We have learned that President Bush had been informed last
year, before September 11, of a possible plot by those associated with
Osama bin Laden to hijack a U.S. airliner. The White House says the
President took all appropriate steps in reaction to that warning. The
White House further says that the warning did not include any specific
information, such as which airline, which date, or the fact that a
hijacked plane would be used as a missile. Those are all very important
issues, worthy of exploration by the relevant committees of Congress.
The goal of such an examination should not be to assign blame but to
find out all of the facts.
I also support the effort by Senators Lieberman and McCain to
establish an independent national commission on terrorist attacks upon
the United States. That was reported out of the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee in March. Such a panel can help assure the people of
New York and America that every facet of this national tragedy will be
fully examined in hopes that the lessons we learn can prevent disasters
in the future.
I very much appreciated the remarks by Senator Lieberman in the
Chamber earlier today, indicating his desire to offer this proposal
that he and Senator McCain have put forth as an amendment at the
earliest possible time.
Because we must do all we can to learn the hard lessons of experience
from our past and apply them to safeguard our future, I also support
the call by the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Daschle, for the
release of the Phoenix FBI memorandum and the August intelligence
briefing to congressional investigators, because, as Senator Daschle
said this morning, the American people need to get the facts.
I do know some things about the unique challenges faced by the person
who assumes the mantle of Commander in Chief. I do not for a minute
doubt that any individual who holds that responsibility is the only
person who can truly know the full scope of the burdens of that office.
Just the other day there was a survey about the most difficult job in
America, the most stressful position. It should not come as any
surprise that President of the United States ranked at the top.
I have had the privilege of witnessing history up close, and I know
there is never any shortage of second guessers and Monday morning
quarterbacks, ready to dismantle any comment or critique any action
taken or not taken. Having experienced that from the other end of
Pennsylvania Avenue, I for one will not play that game, especially in
these circumstances. I am simply here today on the floor of this
hallowed Chamber to seek answers to the questions being asked by my
constituents, questions raised by one of our newspapers in New York
with the headline ``Bush Knew.''
The President knew what? My constituents would like to know the
answer to that and many other questions, not to blame the President or
any other American but just to know, to learn from experience, to do
all we can today to ensure that a 9-11 never happens again.
If we look back, we know that the Phoenix FBI memorandum in early
July raised very specific issues about certain people of Arab heritage
who were taking flying lessons. For what purpose? To do what?
We know that shortly after there was at least the news report of the
Attorney General sending a directive that people of the Justice
Department should no longer fly commercially. In fact, the Attorney
General took a chartered plane for his own vacation.
We know that in August additional information came forward, including
what we learned today about the intelligence briefing provided to the
President.
The pain of 9-11 is revisited in thousands of homes in New York and
around our country every time that terrible scene of those planes going
into those towers and then their collapse appears on television. It is
revisited in our minds every time we see a picture of the cleanup at
Ground Zero. It is revisited every time the remains of a fallen hero
are recovered, as they were yesterday for Deputy Chief Downey. And it
is revisited today with the
[[Page S4454]]
questions about what might have been had the pieces of the puzzle been
put together in a different way before that sad and tragic day in
September.
I cannot answer the questions my constituents are asking. I cannot
answer the concerns raised by the families of the victims. As agonizing
as it is even to think that there was intelligence suggesting the
possibility of the tragedy that occurred, particularly for the family
members who lost their husband, their wife, their son, their daughter,
their niece, their nephew, their mother, their father, it is a subject
we are absolutely required to explore.
As for the President, he may not be in a position at this time to
respond to all of those concerns, but he is in a position to answer
some of them, including the question of why we know today, May 16,
about the warning he received. Why did we not know this on April 16 or
March 16 or February or January 16 or August 16 of last year?
I do hope and trust that the President will assume the duty that we
know he is capable of fulfilling, exercise the leadership that we know
he has, and come before the American people, at the earliest possible
time, to answer the questions so many New Yorkers and Americans are
asking. That will be a very great help to all of us.
I know my constituents want those answers, particularly the families
who still today wonder why their loved one went to work that beautiful
September morning and did not come home from the World Trade Center or
the Pentagon or those airplane flights. After all, in the grieving
process, it is often the not knowing that hurts the most.
I hope the President will address these issues, will do so as soon as
possible, and will also authorize the release of any other information
that New Yorkers and Americans have a right to know. I certainly look
forward to learning of and being able to share that information with
the people I represent.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bayh). The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I have some remarks on another subject I
would like to make. I commend our colleague and friend from New York
for her comments. I associate myself with her remarks. I think all
Americans would.
Obviously, it is critically important we know all that we possibly
can of what occurred. If there was, in fact, information that should
have been acted on, it is critically important we know about it, what
happened, and why actions were not taken, so we minimize the
possibility of the events of September 11 from occurring again.
We all realize, as our colleague and friend from New York has pointed
out, it is a difficult job being the Chief Executive Officer of this
country, the Commander in Chief. And there is a voluminous amount of
material that arrives every day from our national security agencies and
services. But when you get information this specific, this detailed,
arriving from a variety of different sources, then someone should have
taken better action, in my view.
So I am hopeful we will get a response. It is critically important
for the healing process and for understanding exactly what occurred. So
I commend the Senator for her remarks and associate myself with them.
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