MEMORANDUM TO ACCESS SUBCOMMITTEE

August 26, 2003

From: Dan Marcus and Steve Dunne

Re: Issues for August 27 Meeting

In preparation for tomorrow's meeting, there are a number of matters we want to

bring to your attention:

1. Gonzales letter and negotiated understandings. The day after the last Commission
meeting Tom received a letter from Judge Gonzales purporting to state formally the
conditions on access to NSPDs/PDDs and drafts of those documents that he had
discussed with Tom before the Commission meeting. The Gonzales letter is attached at
Tab A. As you will see, it states the conditions in somewhat stronger and more absolute
terms than were set forth in Gonzales's conversation with Tom, and the letter fails to
include the crucial assurance Gonzales gave Tom about revisiting these conditions if the
Commission finds that it needs to.
Philip and Dan therefore met with David Leitch, Gonzales's deputy, last week
(Gonzales was out of town) to discuss our concerns about the Judge's letter. Dan's
memo for the record, attached at Tab B, sets forth the understandings we reached at the
meeting, which Leitch told us he confirmed with Gonzales later.

2. Notice letters to agencies. As discussed at the Commission meeting, we sent, on

August 19, letters to the heads of all major departments and agencies notifying that, in
preparation for our September interim report, we need to know by September 5 their
position on any access issues that are still outstanding, and we need to receive from them
the most important documents that are already overdue. An example of these letters to
agencies is attached at Tab C. Today, we notified each agency by email of the "litmus
test" documents or requests for which we will hold them accountable.
At our Wednesday meeting, we will review with you where we stand with each
department or agency. The major outstanding issues revolve around the Team 2 and 3
document requests to State, DoD and CIA for high-level policy documents (where Dan
Levin is conducting a review of potentially privileged material, which he promises will
be completed by September 5) and Team 4 requests to the FBI and State Department for
documents related to terrorist financing issues.

3. Air Threat Conference Call. After the Commission meeting, we informed Dan Levin
and the White House that the Commission had instructed the staff to send a letter to
Levin demanding immediate production of the long-delayed transcript of the conference
call. David Leitch asked us to hold off for a few days so that he could read the transcript.
After reviewing the transcript, he proposed to deal with our concerns by a letter from him
or Dan Levin, apologizing for the delay and promising prompt access. We agreed to hold
off further action, and we received the letter from Dan Levin attached at Tab D last
Friday. (Philip consulted Tom and Lee on these steps.) This morning Philip had an
opportunity, on behalf of Tom and Lee, to review the transcript.

4. Briefings on 9-11 conspirators and detainees. We sent a memorandum to Dan Levin

last Friday requesting two important sets of briefings, which Levin, the CIA and the FBI
have agreed to provide: (1) a briefing/discussion on the process for interviewing
detainees and to provide us additional information or documents on the results of
interrogations of particular detainees where the intelligence reports do not exist or are
inadequate; and (2) a meeting to exchange and discuss information on current
understandings of who may have been involved in the 9/11 plot and who were the leaders
of the Al Qaeda organization in the period immediately before the attacks..