TALKING POINTS reFAA SUBPOENA

1. Last week the Commission voted to issue its first subpoena to a Government agency
for documents. The FAA was the subject of the subpoena because our staff
discovered, in interviewing agency officials that critical documenmts that we had
requested months earlier had not been provided to the Commission.

2. While the FAA is cooperating in providing the missing documents and other
materials, the Commission decided that a subpoena was appropriate to ensure that the
document production was complete and in light of the fact that the long delay had
seriously impaired our investigation. Our staff is now busy reviewing the large
volume of documents the FAA has belatedly provided us, and the agency is
cooperating.

3. The subpoena we issued served another salutary purpose: to put other agencies on
notice that they must carefully review their responses to our document requests to
make sure that they have fully complied with them. We were gratified that Judge
Gonzales, the Counsel to the President, followed up our subpoena and press statement
with his own memorandum to heads of Executive Branch agencies, reminding them
that document requests should be treated as seriously as subpoenas, and that thjey
should fully comply.

4. We are optimistic that the FAA will comply with our subpoena, and we are hopeful
that this example will make it unnecessary for us to issue additional subpoenas to
federal agencies. But we remain prepared to do so if necessary.
As we have previously stated, the general level of cooperation by Executive Branch
agencies with the Commission has improved over the last several months, and the
Commission now has many of the documents it needs. Over the past two weeks,
however, as a result of field interviews by our staff, the Commission has learned of
serious deficiencies in one agency's production of critical documents.

On May 14, the Commission requested from the FAA all documents related to the FAA's
tracking of hijacked airliners on 9/11, including without limitation all communications
with NORAD. As of early August, the Commission was assured that the FAA's
document production was complete, and therefore scheduled interviews in New York,
Boston, Cleveland and Indianapolis. Over the course of these interviews the Commission
learned that various tapes, statements, interview reports and agency self assessments had
been inexplicably withheld from the FAA's production. Once this issue came to light -
just in the past few days — the FAA provided the Commission with dozens of boxes and
materials that they now claim satisfy our request. While the staff has not yet had the
opportunity to fully digest these materials, it is clear that the FAA's delay has
significantly impeded the progress of our investigation and undermined our confidence in
the completeness of the FAA's production.

This disturbing development at one agency has led the Commission to re-examine its
general policy of relying on document requests rather than subpoenas.

[Alternative 1 ]: We have decided to issue a subpoena to the FAA for the documents we
have already requested. This will not only underline our specific concerns about the
serious problem created for the Commission by the FAA's failure to respond fully to our
document requests, but will also put other agencies on notice that our document requests
must be taken as seriously as a subpoena, and that they should review the efforts they
have made so far to see if further steps are necessary to assure full compliance.

[Alternative 2]: We have decided that, to provide adequate assurance that we are actually
getting the documents we have requested and need, we should issue subpoenas to each of
the Executive Branch agencies on which we have previously served document requests.
This is not meant in any way to suggest that any particular additional agency has been
deficient; indeed, many have already gone the extra mile and invested great resources to
comply with our requests. But our experience with the FAA convinces us that the only
fair way of getting the assurances we need is to treat all agencies the same and issue
across-the-board subpoenas.

[If Alternative 2 is adopted:] Our negotiations with the White House regarding access to
sensitive documents are continuing and will be completed soon. The Commission has
made no decision at this time as to whether a subpoena for such documents will be
necessary or appropriate.

Finally, we want to express our growing concern about whether delays such as that we
have encountered at the FAA will prevent the Commission from completing its work and
issuing its report within the time frame set by statute. At its next meeting, the
Commission will discuss whether it will be necessary to ask the Congress to extend the
statutory deadline.