[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H6692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    9/11 COMMISSION REPORT FINDINGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hensarling). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, let me just note that I do not believe 
that anyone has had a chance, including my colleague that was just down 
on the floor, to read the entire testimony or the entire 9/11 
Commission's report. I have just read the executive summary and not the 
entire book, as I find it almost impossible that anyone has, 
considering the fact that it was just distributed today at 11:30 in the 
morning.
  But let me note that there is every reason in the world to be 
concerned about Sandy Berger, and for my colleague to cast any type of 
aspersions on anyone in this body for serious concerns that Mr. Berger, 
who was the National Security Adviser to President Clinton, has in some 
ways been guilty of a crime that goes right to the heart of the 
investigation of 9/11.
  Mr. Berger is accused, now he may be innocent, and I am not saying 
that he is guilty, but he is being accused of taking documents out of 
the archives of the United States that go directly to the issues that 
my colleague was just addressing on the floor.
  The fact that our colleague would be downplaying the importance of 
the accusation against Mr. Berger is mind boggling, and I hope that the 
public looks very carefully at who is really serious about the security 
of the United States of America. Anyone who downplays the potential 
damage that Mr. Berger was doing by taking documents out of the 
Archives, which we do not know which documents, and perhaps 
inadvertently losing some of them supposedly, this is a very serious 
charge.
  Let me note, my colleague over and over again was talking about the 
lack of cooperation among the intelligence agencies both domestic and 
foreign. It was during the Clinton administration under Mr. Berger that 
the directives were written and the orders were given that the 
intelligence agencies that investigate overseas, the CIA, et cetera, 
would not talk to those agencies. Those law enforcement agencies in the 
United States, FBI, it was there where that policy was made, and Mr. 
Berger was well aware of that policy. It came into being under his 
watch during the Clinton administration, and perhaps those documents 
that are now missing because what Mr. Berger has done could shed some 
light on this whole issue.
  No, this is very serious. It goes to the heart of the matter. Those 
people are downplaying the potential of what this, the potential 
atrocity that has been committed against the public's right to know by 
Mr. Berger's alleged actions. This is really not something that should 
be just discarded and not looked at as a very serious issue.
  Let me note that what I have seen in the 9/11 Commission report, 
there are some good suggestions in here; but by and large this has been 
an attempt to whitewash those specific individuals and the specific 
policies that caused 9/11. What we have got here are people on both 
sides of the aisle, and that is correct, working together to make sure 
we do not hold people specifically accountable. That is one of the 
problems in this town, why problems never get solved. That is why we 
never seem to make things better because we do not hold people 
accountable and we do not go back and say the policies, like I just 
mentioned, the policy during the Clinton administration, which was by 
the way written and put into practice by Ms. Gorelick, who is on the 9/
11 Commission.
  Republicans suggest that Ms. Gorelick, who was the one who wrote down 
this directive, that there should not be cooperation that my colleague 
was just talking about, Republicans suggested maybe she is a little 
biased and should not be on the 9/11 Commission. No, we were called 
partisan by suggesting that she was biased and this should be a very 
responsible account rather than an account that is being drafted by 
someone who is guilty of the very charges that my colleague has just 
made.
  So I would think there is a lot more discussion we need on the issue 
of 9/11, why it happened. I would suggest that we need to go back at 
least to the Clinton administration, although I will have to admit that 
some of the things done during the Reagan years during the war against 
the Soviet's occupation of Afghanistan made some contribution, but it 
was the Clinton's administration support for the Taliban and their 
agreement with the Saudis and the Pakistanis and all along their 
unwillingness to call the Taliban to task and to join with those 
against the Taliban that that led to 9/11 and this horrible attack and 
this war that we are in today.

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