H Kean

CHAIR
Date:
'H Hamilton
VICE CHAIR

bard Ben- Veniste

TO: TEAM
cOeland

IF. Fielding
FROM: Dianna Campagna

ie S. Gorelick

« Gorton The attached correspondence from /x » c, J ~ - p & I t

i Lehman is being forwarded to you for information and consideration. A copy has
othyJ. Roemer
also heen sent to Team(s) ^~^*~' for their information. If you
» R. Thompson
have any questions, please call me on 33 1 -4082. Thank you.
pD. Zelikow
XmVE DIRECTOR

TEL (202) 331-4060

FAX (202) 296-5545
www.9-llcommission.gov
I hope that you have or plan to interview the persons named in this article.
appears that they contributed to the failure to stop the attack of September
11th.

Dominic Ippolito
The Warning Kerry ignorea
If he'd listened to expert pleas, Yet the warnings apparently
did stick in Kerry's mind: In the
days after 9/11, Kerry told the
Twin Towers might still stand Boston Globe that he'd triggered
an undercover probe of Logan
investigation at Logan that Sulli- security by the General Account-
^M^^^^^^^^^^^^ van and another retired agent
helped set up. In nine of 10 tries,
ing Office in June 2001.
But he wrote Sullivan no such
l--'? PAUL thing in his July letter, stating
a crew got knives and other
JEJL SPERRY weapons through security only that he passed his warning
^jPHKS* PMHMBL
checkpoints — including the and tape on to Transportation,
EN. John Kerry boasts how very ones the 9/11 hijackers not GAO. And GAO, though it is

S he "sounded the alarm on would later exploit.

terrorism years before 9/ The next day, Sullivan fired off
11," referring to his 1997 a two-page letter to Kerry high-
book "The New War." Too bad lighting the systemic failures.
he didn't blast it when it really "With the concept of jihad, do
the investigative arm of Con-
gress, didn't seem to know what
the senator was talking about.
The agency had tested security
at two airports before 9/11, but
neither one was Logan. And
counted — four months before you think it would be difficult Kerry confessed he didn't know
the hijackings, when he was on for a determined terrorist to get
the outcome of the probe he says
hand-delivered evidence of seri- and a allplane and destroy himself
other passengers?" he he triggered.
ous security breaches at Logan warned. "Think what the result Some follow-up, senator.
International Airport, with spe- would be of a coordinated attack Sullivan and Elson, joined by
cific warnings that terrorists which took down several domes- aviation-security experts David
could exploit them. tic flights on the same day. With No security: Specific information that terrorists could target planes like Forbes and Andrew Thomas,
Former FAA security officials our current screening, this is this one taking off from Boston's Logan Airport, was disregarded. EPA want to see Kerry hauled before
say the Massachusetts senator more than possible. It is almost the 9/11 Commission to answer
had the power to prevent at likely." The toll from such an at- overseer of the FAA," he told Logan and other major airports. questions about what he knew
least the Boston hijackings and tack would be economic, as well Kerry. Sullivan suggested he But a Kerry aide said not to about Logan's lapses, and specif-
save the World Trade Center as human, he predicted with show the tape to peers on com- bother. "You're not a constitu- ically what he did about them,
and thousands of lives, yet he chilling accuracy. mittees with FAA oversight. He ent," Elson was told just a few before that fateful day. It's a rea-
failed to take effective action Sullivan followed up by having even volunteered to testify be- weeks before the hijackings. He sonable request — especially
after they gave him a prophetic the undercover videotape hand- fore them. went ballistic, warning that if since Kerry has complained that
warning that his state's main air- delivered to Kerry's office. But he never heard from Kerry Kerry didn't act soon he'd risk President Bush will only give the
port was vulnerable to multiple More than 11 weeks later, again. the lives of planeloads of his ac- panel an hour of his time.
hijackings. Kerry finally replied to his well- At that point, Steve Elson, the tual constituents. That warning Where was Kerry's sense of
"He just did the Pontius Pilate informed and anxious constitu- other agent who'd teamed up on now looks like prophecy: At urgency? Where was his leader-
thing and passed the buck" on ent. "I have forwarded your tape the TV sting, decided to take a least 82 Kerry constituents were, ship? These are fair questions to
back through the federal bu- to the Department of Transpor- crack at the junior senator. murdered aboard American Air- ask of someone vying for Bush's
reaucracy, said Brian Sullivan, a tation's Office of Inspector Gen- A fiery ex-Navy Seal, Elson lines Flight 11 and United Air- job.
retired FAA special agent from eral [DOT DIG]," he said in a spent three years as part of an lines Flight 175. "We don't have to wait for a
the Boston area who in May 2001 brief July 24, 2001, letter, a copy elite FAA unit called the Red "Enhanced security would tragedy to occur to act," Sullivan
personally warned Kerry that of which I've obtained. Team, which did covert testing have prevented the hijackings, urged Kerry hi his letter. But
Logan was ripe for a "jihad" sui- Yet Sullivan had made it clear of airport security across the virtually without question," tragically, that's exactly what
cide operation possibly involv- in his letter that going to his old country, before retiring as a Elson now insists. If nothing happened — at both ends of
ing "a coordinated attack." agency was a dead end. He and field agent in Houston. He of- else, it might have discouraged Pennsylvania Avenue, and on
Rewind to May 6, 2001. That other agents had complained fered to fly to Washington at his ringleader Mohamed Atta, who both sides of the aisle.
night, a Boston TV station (Fox- about security lapses for years own expense to give Kerry a monitored security procedures Paul Sperry is a Washington in-
25) aired reporter Deborah Sher- and got nowhere. "The DOT document-backed presentation at Logan weeks before the hi- vestigative reporter and author of
man's story on an undercover OIG has become an ineffective about the "facade of security" at jackings. "Crude Politics."