T1A B44 FBI Correspondence Fdr- Entire Contents- FBI Letters Re Access to Personnel- Withdrawal...

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    FBI FACSIMILE

    COVER SHEET

    PRECEDENCE

    D ImmediateQ Priority

    *Q"Routine

    To:

    CLASSIFICATION

    D Top SecretD SecretD ConfidentialD Sensitive

    xQTJnclassified

    Time Transmitted:Sender'sInitials:Number ofPages:

    (includingcoversheet)

    Date:

    Name ofOffice .

    FacsimileNumber: ^ U f -

    Attn:

    From:

    Room Telephone

    N am eof Office

    Subject:

    SpecialHandlingInstructions:

    Originator'sName: Telephone:

    Originator'sFacsimileNumber:

    Approved: ___ ____^ __

    Brief Descriptionof CommunicationFaxed;

    W ARNING

    Informationattacked to the cover sheet is U.S. Government Property.If you are notth e intended recipient oft h i si n f o r m a t i o n ,disclosure,reproduction,distribution,or use of this informationis p r o h i b i t e d(18.USC, 641). Pleasen o t i f yt h eo r i g i n a t o ror thelocalFBIO f f i c eimmediatelyto arrangefo rproper disposition.

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    93 19:03 P. 02U.d. Department ui justice

    Federal Bureau of Investigation

    Office of th e Gene ra l Counsel Washington.D.C 20S3S

    September5,2003

    Daniel Marcus, General CounselNational Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United StatesSuite 3002100 K Street, N.W.Washington,D.C. 20036

    RE: Commission's Request for Documents

    Dear Mr. Marcus:

    I am responding to the letter from the Chair and Vice Chair of the Commission tothe FBI Director and also the follow up memorandum you sent me on August 26,2003.

    Based on our review of documents and the Commission's requests to the FBI todate, we are not currently aware of any responsive documents as to which we would not grantaccess as defined in the September 5,2003 letter from Dan Levin to Phil Zelikow. Because ofthe unique nature of the Commission's work, and in a spirit of accommodation, our productionhas included extraordinary access to extremely sensitive documents. We are continuing toreview documents (and you are continuing to request them) and if there are any documents forwhich we would seek some other accommodation, we would of course discuss that with youimmediately.

    The FBI has worked hard over the last two months to provide the Commissionwith the information it needs and has made some rather extraordinary efforts to achieve that goal.We have given the Commission access to over 1.6 million pages of documents. To address yourdesire to have quick search capability through these materials, the vast majority of thesedocuments are available on two computer workstations at FBIHQ which we have trained yourstaff to use. The workstations are equipped with software which enables a variety of searchtechniques.

    In addition, the FBI has provided extensive access to its employees. To date, theFBI has provided the Commission with 16 briefings from senior FBI officials, supervisors andfrontline agents working on the PENTTBOM investigation and all other aspects of ourcounterterrorism program. Many of these briefings have lasted several hours. Director Muelleralso made himself available to the Commission to review the changes he has made at the FBIover his two-year tenure and hisvision for the future.

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    j3 19=04 P.03

    With substantial assistance from the FBI, the Commission has also visited twofield offices: our Washington Field (WFO) and New York City offices (NYO). At WFO, wefacilitated the visit of your staff, which, over the course of being on site for three weeks,conducted approximately 50 interviews of FBI employees or members of the Joint TerrorismTask Force (JTTF) as well as taking tours of the WFO facilities.

    Over the last two weeks, your staff has conducted a similar visit to our NYOwhere it has completed approximately 38 interviews and plans to finish its work the week ofSeptember 15th with an additional seven interviews. Many of the interviews have lasted forseveral hours. The NYO visit also included an extensive briefing on the management of thecrime scene in New York and tours of Ground Zero and our NewYork Command Post. In bothWFO and New York, we have no t refused a single interview request.

    Moreover, to address your staffs stated desire to have a streamlined, informalmethod ofanswering questions, we have offered to make our PENTTBOM team available for aone or two daysession to go through the timeline ofevents with your staff and provide answersto their questions. In addition, we have offered to establish a weekly meeting with a

    representative of thePENTTBOM team and members of your staff to provide an ongoingvehicle fo r answering questions and providing information. We believe this representsextraordinary access to the case agents who are still fully occupied with then- investigative workand demonstrates our sincere desire to be ascooperative with the Commission as possible.

    With respect to the specific documents identified in your August 26,2003memorandum:

    1. As to Document Request 1, items 8(e) and 8(f) we have produced theresponsive documents for the five fieldoffices that yo u have indicated yo u would like to visit(Washington Field, New York, Phoenix, Miami and San Diego). As you areaware, theresponsive documents are quite numerous. To respond to other document requests which youhave indicated are of higher priority, we have no t completed production of responsive documentsfor the remaining five offices on your list which yo u have no t indicated a desire to visit at thistime. That production will continue on a rolling basis consistent with priorities you set inlight ofnew document requests that you continue to propound to the FBI.

    2. As to Document Request 5, items 2,4,5,7,8,9, and 12 - our initialproduction of documents responsive to these requests is substantially complete. We continue towork with your staff regarding additional documents responsive to item 9 in particular. As wehave discussed in recent meetings, we arepleased to continue working with them in acooperativemanner to identify additional helpful material.

    3. As to Document Request 9, items 1,2,3, and 4 -- o urproduction with respectto these items is mostly complete. We produced a number of documents responsive to items 1, 3and 4. Despite a thorough search process and discussions with relevant current and formerofficials,we have no t located any materials responsive to item #2, andbelieve we do notpossesssuch documents. We are working with your staff to have them review a sample of former

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    Director Freeh's calendars to determine if you are interested in those materials. We alsoanticipate reviewing the remaining few archived materials as they become available. We expectto complete that process by September 30 .

    The FBI is committed to cooperating with the Commission as it continues itsimportantwork. Please do not hesitate to call me to discuss any concerns you may have.

    Sincerely,

    TOTflL P.04

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    r r o r nrr .JUL-25-2003 1 2 =11 F B I O G CU.S. Department of Justice

    Federal Bureau of Investigation

    Office of the General Counsel Washington,D.C. 20535

    July 25, 2003

    Daniel Marcus, General CounselNationalCommission on TerroristAttacks Upon the United StatesSuite 3002100KStreet,N.W.Washington, D.C. 20036

    RE: Commission's Requests fo rDocuments

    Dear Mr. Marcus:

    Please be advised that the FBI has established two workstations equipped withConcordancesoftware at FBIHQ fo r immediate use by theCommission. Th e stations have beenloaded with approximately 162,000 FB I 302's from the PENTTBOM file as well asapproximately2,000 pages of FBI labreports. While th e vast majorityof the materials have not been redacted,approximately 12,818 FBI 302's have been redacted to protect sources and methods. Thesedocuments were also produced to theMoussaoujdefense in redacted format Should yo u have anyspecific concerns regarding individual redactions taken, we would be happy to discuss them. Ofcourse, all ofthis material is Moussaoui-related and is covered by the terms of thenon-disclosureagreementexecuted between th e Commission and theDepartment of Justice.

    The material is electronically searchable. Members and staff of the Commission arefree to use theworkstations to review an d search the materials as they wish. We would be happy toprovide your staff training on how to use the Concordance software. To this end, we would propose a1 hour training session for allinterested Commission personnel th e week of July 28 th . Please contactm e to make these arrangements.

    If members or staff wish to have paper copies of any of the imaged documents, wewould be pleased to provide copies for paper production to the Commission after proper bates-stampingto ensure an accurate record of what was produced.

    We believe th e workstations will provide th e Commission with th e ability andopportunity toconduct its own searches of substantialamounts of PENTTBOM material. We remainwilling to discuss with yo u methods to conduct additional searches of relevant materials on behalf ofthe Commission.

    -Sincerely,

    Robert S. SintonAssistant General Counsel

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    JUL-11-2003 11=38 202 616 0762 202 616 0762 P.01

    U.S. Department of Justice

    Criminal Division

    Washington. D.C. 20530

    July 11, 2003

    Philip ZelikowExecutive DirectorDanielMarcusGeneral Counsel301 7th Street SW, Room 5125Washington, D.C. 20407

    Gentlemen:

    This sets forth our agreement withthe Commission concerningthe treatment ofdocuments, information and witnesses relating to the investigation and prosecution of ZacariasMoussaoui, who is presently charged in federal courtin the Eastern District of Virginia withparticipating in the conspiracies that resultedin the attacks of September 11, 2001 (docketnumber Ol-Cr.-455-A). This agreement does not pertain to documents created or obtained duringthe Justice Department's"PENTTBOM" investigation thatthe Department determinesareunrelated to the investigation and prosecution of M r. M oussaoui. Please confirm theCommission's agreementby signing in the space provided at the end ofthis letter and returning itto me.

    Documentsand Information

    With the exception of the C omm ission's final report, the Com mission and itsstaff willno t publicly discloseany documents or information relatingto the investigation or prosecution ofM r. M oussaoui priorto the completionof his trial in the Eastern District of Virginia withouttheDepartment's prior consent.If the Moussaoui trialis not completed at the time the Commissionneeds to submit its final report, the Com mission and the Department will consult about theCommission'splans, if any, to include Moussaoui-related informa tionin the report and whether itis necessary or prudent for the Departmentand/or the Com mission to seek any court ruling priorto disclosure of such informationin the report.

    Interviews

    1. The Department will providethe Commission witha list by specific categoryof non-government employees relatedto the Moussaoui trialas to whom it requests notificationbeforeany interviews.

    2. No later than five business days before the Commission interviews any individual inone of the categories on this list, it will advise the Department of the ind ividual's identity. If

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    J'UL-11-2003 11 = 39 202 616 0762 202 616 0762 P.02

    requested,the Commissionwill permita Department lawyerto be present at the interviewandwill notvideo or audio recordor otherwiseverbatimtranscribethe interview.

    W e appreciatethe spirit of accommodation inwhichyou and Steve Dunne h ave w orkedto resolve this importantissue.

    Sincerely,

    On behalfof theNational Commissionon theTerrorist Attacksof September 11,2001,1 agree tothe non-disclosure agreementset forth above.

    DateName

    Title

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