9/11 Commission Series

 

Memorandums for the Record (MFR)
During its investigation, the Commission staff conducted over 1200 fact-finding interviews-the MFRs are summaries of these interviews. This series is available online.

Front Office Files
The front office consisted of Philip Zelikow, Executive Director; Christopher A. Kohm, Deputy Executive Director; Daniel Marcus, General Counsel and Steven M. Dunne, Deputy General Counsel. The front office dealt not only with administrative issues involving the structure and personnel of the Commission, they also provided guidance to the commissioners on policy, strategy, and legal issues. The files, arranged chronologically by meeting/hearing date, contain agendas and minutes of Commission meetings, briefing books for each meeting and public hearing, team work plans, and summaries of the status of each team's progress.

Subject Files of General Counsel Daniel Marcus
These files, arranged alphabetically by subject, contain memoranda, correspondence, articles, work plans, briefs, and memoranda of understanding created and collected by Marcus in his capacity as the Commission's general counsel.

Subject Files of Deputy General Counsel Steve Dunne
These files, arranged alphabetically by subject, contain memoranda, correspondence, articles, legal research, subpoenas, and memoranda of understanding created and collected by Dunne in his capacity as the Commission's deputy general counsel.

Subject files of Special Assistant and Managing Editor Stephanie Kaplan>
These files, arranged by subject and there under roughly chronologically, contain memoranda, notes and minutes of the Commission's meetings, and drafts of the final report created and collected by Stephanie Kaplan in her capacity as the Commission's special assistant and managing editor. These files also include notes by Deputy Executive Director Christopher Kojm.

Subject Files of Counsel Dana Hyde
These files, arranged by subject, contain memoranda for the record; notes of interviews with federal government personnel; briefing slides; articles; private sector reports; the Commission's briefing book for the June 17, 2004 public hearing; copies of records from federal agencies; drafts of Staff Statement #17 "Improving a Homeland Defense;" drafts of chapter one of the Commission's final report; the Commission staff report entitled "The Story of the Financial Market Closure, September 11 - 17, 2001;" and other background materials compiled by team member Dana Hyde.

Team 1 Files
Team 1's task was to examine issues relating to international terrorism and al Qaeda. These files contain intelligence reports and cables responsive to the Commission requests to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet's "We are at war" memorandum; threat assessments; congressional briefing summaries; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 302 reports; memorandums for the record and notes of interviews conducted by Team 1 staff; draft questions for interviewees; drafts of document requests; materials used to prepare for select Commission public hearings; transcripts of the U.S. vs. Usama Bin Laden trial of 2001; transcripts of public testimony and interviews; publishes articles and monographs; copies of materials from the congressional Joint Inquiry into the events of September 11, 2001; Team 1 work plans; and other records used by Team 1 to examine issues relating to international terrorism and al Qaeda. The records are arranged by subject.

Team 1A Files
Team 1A split from Team 1 to focus on al Qaeda's role in the organization of the 9/11 Attacks. These files contain intelligence cables and reports; FBI 302s; memos and prints from the Automated Case System; handwritten notes of interviews; briefings; and foreign trips; drafts of statements and final report chapters; correspondence with agencies including document and briefing requests; memorandum for the record of interview including with FBI field office personnel and agents involved with the PENTTBOM investigation; published articles; and other records created and compiled by Team 1A during its investigation of the September 11, 2001 plot. The records are arranged by subject.

Team 2 Files
Team 2 was created to investigate intelligence collection, analysis, and management including oversight and resource allocation. These files contain memorandums for the record and notes of interviews conducted by Team 2 staff; draft questions for interviewees; printed Power Point slides sent to Commission staff by government agencies; drafts of document requests; materials used to prepare for select Commission public hearings; reports of government and private sector entities; transcripts of public testimony and interviews given by intelligence community leaders; published articles and monographs; congressional hearing transcripts; copies of materials from the congressional Joint Inquiry into the events of September 11, 2001; team work plans; team leader's notes on staff meetings; administrative memorandums relating to the Commission's office policies; and other records used by Team 2 to examine issues related to intelligence collection, analysis, management, oversight and resources. The records are arranged by subject.

Team 3 Files
Team 3 was created to investigate international counterterrorism policy, including states that harbor or harbored terrorists, or offer or offered terrorists safe havens. This series contains memorandums for the record and notes of interviews conducted by Team 3 staff; draft questions for interviewees; prints of Power Point slides from briefings received by Commission staff from agencies; drafts of document requests; materials used to prepare for select Commission public hearings; drafts and final versions of Commission staff statements and the team's sections of the Final Report; reports of government and private sector entities; transcripts of public testimony and interviews given by government officials; published articles and monographs; a study of counterterrorism strategy from 1968-1993; copies of the final report of the congressional Joint Inquiry into the events of September 11, 2001; printed e-mails; correspondence; team work plans; team leader's notes on staff meetings; administrative memorandums relating to the Commission's office policies; and other records used by Team 3 to examine issues relating to U.S. counterterrorism policy. The records are arranged by subject.

Team 4 Files
Team 4 was created to investigate terrorist financing. These records include government and private sector reports; slides of federal agency presentations given to Commission staff; documents received by the Commission from agencies; transcripts of court testimony and other court records including motions and other filings; congressional hearing transcripts; transcripts of interviews conducted by the Commission; Team 4's work plan; notes of Commission staff meetings and interviews; and published articles and monographs. The records are arranged by subject.

Team 5 Files
Team 5 was created to investigate border security and foreign visitors. These files contain memorandums for the record and notes of interviews conducted by Team 5 staff; airman files on the four September hijackers; hijacker visa and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) files; articles printed from the Internet; congressional hearing transcripts; FBI files; U.S. District Court documents from terrorist trials; and other records used by Team 5 to examine border security and foreign visitor issues. Also included are drafts of Team 5's monograph "9/11 and Terrorist Travel." The records are arranged by subject.

Team 6 Files
Team 6 was created to investigate law enforcement an intelligence collection inside the United States. This series has not been systematically processed.

Team 7 Files
Team 7 was created to investigate commercial aviation and transportation security, including an investigation into the circumstances of the four hijackings. These files contain notes of interviews conducted by Commission staff; notes on visits to sites such as Logan International Airport and Dulles International Airport; slides of presentations given to Commission staff from federal agencies and private sector entities including the Transportation Security Administration of the Department of Homeland Security (TSA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), American Airlines, and United Airlines; documents received by the Commission from agencies including the FBI and airlines; reports from the General Accounting Office (GAO) on transportation security; other government and private sector reports; drafts of chapter one of the Commission's final report; congressional hearing transcripts; and published articles and monographs. The records are arranged by subject.

Team 8 Files
Team 8 investigated the immediate response to the 9/11 attacks at the national, state, and local levels, including issues of continuity of government. Teams 8 and 9 were merged to access the local and national response on the day of September 11, 2001. The files contain records investigating the events of September 11, 2001 primarily relating to the activities of air traffic controllers, both military and FAA, and the military response by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and its Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS). The records also contain some materials relating to the emergency responses at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The records are arranged by subject.

Press Clippings
These records, arranged chronologically, consist of press clippings relating to the Commission and its work.

Files of the New York City Office
The records of the New York City (NYC) Team reflect the Commission's examination of the immediate response to the 9/11 attacks. The NYC office also investigated the immediate response and subsequent recovery of businesses affected. The files are arranged primarily by staff person and reflect information collected by staff in the course of the investigation. There is some duplication within the files as several staff obtained and retained copies of the same documents.

Staff Monographs
There were four monographs released by the Commission. Two monographs were released after the Commission ended, and are available through the National Archives Catalog. The other two monographs are available on the Commission's archived website.

General Services Administration Files
The Commission stored its unclassified records and those classified as Secret or Confidential at the General Services Administration (GSA) building in Washington, DC. There they maintained a central file, arranged by a commission-assigned alphanumeric code. The central file contains memos, interview summaries, notes, agency-submitted document request responses, and other various records. Many of these records are duplicated of material in the Team Files and Front Office Files.

Master File
The Master File contains primarily national security classified records produced or collected by the Commission. The Master File served as the central file for the Commission's more highly-classified records, and is arranged using the same commission-assigned alphanumeric code as the GSA Files.