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UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

5000 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, DC 2O301-500O

INTELLTOSNcr
JUL 2 1 2004

Dear Mr. Chair and Vice Chair:

On behalf of the Secretary, I am responding to your letter of June 10,

2004. You asked for confirmation that the Department has completed its
response to each of the Commission's document requests.

Your staff has forwarded to the Department 39 requests comprising

nearly 500 specific requests for documents and other materials. The
Department has responded by providing the Commission with over 4,000
documents - spending an estimated 13,000 man-hours to assist the
Commission in its important task.

Over the past year, I have represented to the Commission that the
Department's responses have been thorough and complete. You have now
required that there be formal certification that all reasonable steps necessary
to find and produce responsive documents have been undertaken.

I have requested that the Department's component organizations that

participated in this unprecedented and complex task certify that they have
provided all responsive documents. Specifically, I have required that they
certify in writing that their searches were complete based on their extensive
yet reasonable efforts to locate all responsive documents.

I, therefore, can assure the Commission that:

To the best of my knowledge and based upon reports and

representations made to me in the course of the Department's business
and within the scope of my duties and the duties of the appropriate
officials within this Department charged with the responsibilities to
act upon the requests of the Commission, the Department has taken
and completed all reasonable steps necessary to find the documents in
its possession, custody, or control responsive to the Commission's
document requests.

The Department has produced or made available for review by the

Commission all such responsive documents located.
 The Department has produced or made available for review by the
Commission all such responsive documents located.

I attach a copy of the final index prepared by the Department to

identify each document produced and the request to which it responds.

You state in your letter that you seek this assurance so that you can
rely with confidence on the Department's document production. My staff
and I are fully aware of the tremendous efforts and great dedication of the
many DoD personnel involved in responding to your requests and assisting
you in your work. I am confident that the Commission can rely on this
response.

Stephen A. Cambone

Attachment:
As stated

TOTAL P.003
Thomas H. Kean
CHAIR June 10, 2004

Lee H. Hamilton
VICE CHAIR
The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Richard Ben-Veniste Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Fred F. Fielding Washington, DC 20301-0001
Jamie S. Gorelick
As you know, the statute that created the National Commission on Terrorist
Slade Gorton Attacks Upon the United States (Public Law 107-306) directs the Commission to
investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding the September 11,2001
Bob Kerrey
terrorist attacks, including the nation's preparedness for, and immediate response
John F. Lehman to, those attacks, as well as to evaluate the lessons learned from those attacks and
to make recommendations for preventing future attacks. In connection with its
Timothy J. Roemer
investigation, the Commission has made 39 separate formal requests for
James R. Thompson documents from your department. The Commission does not anticipate
submitting any further document requests to your department.
Philip D. Zelikow
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR To ensure that the search for, and production of, responsive documents has been
completed, we request that you certify in writing, by return letter, as follows:

"To the best of my knowledge and based upon personal inquiry of the
appropriate officials, the Department has taken and completed all
reasonable steps necessary to find the documents in its possession,
custody, or control responsive to the Commission's 39 document
requests. The Department has produced or made available for review
by the Commission all such responsive documents that it located."

For purposes of this certification, "document request" means the Commission's

written document requests as modified by any communications with the
Commission's staff, including agreements that certain potentially responsive
documents need not be produced, that certain documents from other agencies
would be handled by that agency, and that certain documents addressed or sent to
or received from the Executive Office of the President (EOF) or that record
communications with or coordinated by the EOF would be handled by the EOF.

Your personal response to this request is critical to our investigation; it will allow
the Commission to rely with confidence on the document production by your
department. To avoid any delays in completing our work, please reply to us in
writing no later than June 25,2004.

301 7th Street SW, Room 5125 26 Federal Plaza

Washington, DC 20407 Suite 13400
T 202.331.4060 F 202.296.5545 New York, NY 10278
www.9-llcommission.gov T 212.264.1505 F 212.264.1595
The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
June 10, 2004
Page 2

Thank you for your efforts, and for the efforts of many others at your department,
to cooperate with the Commission and to comply with our requests.

Sincerely,

Thomas H. Kean Lee H. Hamilton

Chair Vice Chair

cc: Stephen A. Cambone, U.S. Department of Defense