Inside the 9/11 Commission

Recently I had the privilege of working as a counsel to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the "9/11 Commission"). When I was appointed by Philip Zelikow to the counterterrorism policy team, I was both honored and apprehensive about the challenges ahead.

The commission staff of 80 was divided into teams examining such areas as the al Qaeda plot, counterterrorism financing, border security and immigration, the FBI, aviation security, emergency response, and the intelligence community. My team looked into the development of counterterrorism policy, and my personal portfolio was counterterrorism policy at the Department of Defense. I examined military plans targeting Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, interviewed senior officials at the Pentagon and in the field, and reviewed some very sensitive documents. In addition toall of our work behind the scenes, we also organized public hearings and drafted both staff reports and portions of the final report that is still on the best-seller list. As Director Zelikow said, considering all we took on, "we probably should have failed."

The team found that only after 9/11 did the US begin to develop a comprehensive strategy to mobilize all the instruments of national power and marshal the resources necessary to implement that strategy. We saw firsthand how and why a piece-meal approach to counterterrorism failed to address the growing problem.

But beyond the specific issue of 9/11, the experience showed that an independent, bipartisan body that can directly question our country's leaders, including the president and vice-president, provides an unparalleled opportunity for national reflection and learning.

On a personal level, the experience turned out to be incredibly rewarding, not least because of the thanks that we received from citizens all over the country-and especially from the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Bonnie Jenkins, a joint Fellow with the Belfer Center's Managing the Atom and International Security Program, is an attorney and Lt. Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves.