Some 9/11 Commission records will be released on 1/14/09

[noise]

On January 14th at 9 AM EST, Memoranda for the Record (summaries of 709 interviews conducted by the Commission), series descriptions, and folder title lists will be available online . These records include information on the terrorists, past terrorist events, al Qaeda in general, and related subjects. The records also include information concerning the emergency responses to the attacks in New York City and Washington, DC.

...

The records that will open on January 14th represent 35% of the Commission’s archived textual records. Review and processing focused on the portion of the collection that contains unique documents created by the Commission and those that reveal the most about the scope of the investigation and the internal workings of the Commission and its staff. The arrangement of the records reflects the organization of the Commission with series consisting of front office files, team files, and files of individual staff members. Due to the collection’s volume and the large percentage of national security classified files, the National Archives staff was unable to process the entire collection by January 2009. The National Archives will continue to process materials.

National Archives to Open 9/11 Commission Textual Materials

[noise]

1. Expect a defensive op-ed from Tenet

tomorrow. Or maybe Hayden will tell us the CIA has moved on. Or Black will say the records prove he was right--CIA didn't have the funding.

The good news is that CYA never comes into play in regards to classification decisions. Thus, we can be confident that all classification decisions are truly for reasons of protecting national security.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. Just coming to post this. n/t

[Bryan Sacks]

3. anyone recall seeing details on the following?

These records have been screened for personal privacy and national security. Summaries of the interviews with New York City First Responders are closed under an agreement reached between New York City and the Commission.

When was this reached? Who negotiated it? what does 'First Responder' mean precisely in this agreement?

Thx.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. why are th einterviews closed?

[Bryan Sacks]

4. urls for materials

http://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/9-11/commission-memoranda.html

http://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/9-11/commission-series.html

The second grouping, which includes documents from the eight Commission 'teams', does not appear to have been digitized. Digitized YET, I hope. Materials at the first url can be viewed online.

[noise]

5. It appears most of the key CIA and FBI

interviews are classified for reasons of national security.

[Bolo Boffin]

6. remains classified right now

The work of declassification continues.

[Bolo Boffin]

7. Put Options

http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00139.pdf

[Bolo Boffin]

8. Why Atta's Luggage Didn't Get On Flight 11

http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00038.pdf

[sofa king]

10. Yeah, I like the one about the luggage.

The luggage was covertly marked as belonging to a potential security threat and nobody noticed until it was conveniently lost and found after the fact. And the Commission doesn't seem to want to know who flagged Atta, and when and why, but rather how the bags came to the attention of... an actual baggage handler.

But they didn't even care about that enough to actually find out.

With the typical Straussian opacity by which the final report is written, the Commission is dancing around something. I suspect I know the particular issue very, very well: the fact that at the time airlines routinely flagged "scary-looking" people as security risks based entirely upon appearance. I know this because I used to have long hair, was routinely selected for "special attention" on most flights, and had my baggage lost roughly a third of the times I flew until I stopped checking bags entirely. (In 1998, I lived for two weeks in New Zealand out of a carry-on bag, because by then I was familiar with the routine. The airline "lost" the bags of the scary-looking Asian guy I was traveling with, instead. And yes, I warned him.)

Notice also that the harassment of Atta didn't actually help the security situation at all, nor did the Commission question why it didn't help, which reinforces the explanation I used to give to those who asked me about my own troubles: "I think they're just fucking with me."

[Bolo Boffin]

9. All Phone Calls From 93 and 175

93: http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00217.pdf

175: http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00216.pdf

[noise]

12. Evidently the interviews of gate agents haven't been released

If privacy was a concern the names could easily have been redacted (as they are in most of the MFR's).

This account suggests these interviews could be quite important:

A United Airlines manager finds that a gate agent has already singled out boarding passes belonging to four suspicious passengers who were on Flight 93. Terri Rizzuto is the United Airlines station manager at Newark Airport, from where Flight 93 departed. Some time after hearing that this plane has crashed, she speaks on the phone with the FBI, which is requesting the plane’s manifest and its Passenger Name Record (PNR). After arranging permission to release these, she goes to Gate 17, from where she knows Flight 93 departed, wanting to talk to her staff there. When she arrives, a supervisor hands her four boarding passes. The supervisor tells her they are “The men, who did this maybe,” and points her toward one of the gate agents who had boarded the passengers onto the flight. When Rizzuto asks the gate agent, “How do you know?” he replies: “They were too well-dressed. Too well-dressed for that early in the morning. And their muscles rippled below their suits.… nd their eyes.” However, this report of men with rippling muscles contradicts the 9/11 Commission’s description of the so-called “muscle” hijackers (i.e. the non-pilot hijackers) on the four targeted planes: They “were not physically imposing,” with the majority of them being “slender in build.”

Flight 93 gate agent account

[noise]

13. A relevant book

that discusses the overwhelming secrecy post 9/11 is Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life by Ted Gup. I highly recommend his book as he demonstrates how the government abuses secrecy to conceal embarrassing and/or criminal conduct from the public. Thus the secrecy is so extensive that the public doesn't have a clue WTF happened in the lead up to 9/11. This works out great for the political/intel community as they can use propaganda to convince the public that fascism is indeed patriotic.