WASHINGTON — A House intelligence panel announced Thursday that it will conduct a bipartisan review of recommendations included in the 9/11 Commission Report, with hearings to be held starting next month as the nation prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the Al Qaeda terror attacks in 2026.
On the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence established the review, to be chaired by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
“Today, as a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee and a proud New Yorker, I am honored to announce that I will chair the bipartisan House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence review of 9/11 Commission Report to evaluate the progress made on the intelligence-related recommendations,” said Stefanik in a statement.
“It is important that the intelligence community is equipped to counter terrorism over the next 25 years amid a quickly evolving landscape.”
The review will focus on how well the feds have followed the recommendations in the 2004 report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States — widely known as the 9/11 Commission — and how ready the intelligence community is to counter future terror threats.
The attacks led to the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to coordinate activities responding to threats, and the intel office’s record will also be reviewed as part of the bipartisan panel’s inquiry.
“The attacks on 9/11 fundamentally altered the security posture of the United States and the way we engage in the world,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.).
“In the dark days following the devastating attack on U.S. soil, we watched Americans come together in unimaginable ways and we pledged never again to allow a failure of intelligence to compromise our national security,” Crawford added.
“As we mark the 25th anniversary of one of the darkest days in U.S. history next year, we must ensure our intelligence community and its capabilities remain one step ahead of our rapidly evolving adversaries. While the threats look different today, the mission remains the same: we can never allow a failure to connect the dots to result in catastrophe ever again.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the panel, also said: “We are still reckoning with the aftermath of 9/11— both in Connecticut where so many lost neighbors, friends and family members, and as a nation whose belief in our own security was deeply shaken.”
“Twenty-four years later, we continue to honor the victims by doing all in our power to prevent future attacks and keep Americans safe,” Himes said. “In the years following the attacks, the Intelligence Community underwent substantial reorganization. I look forward to a rigorous bipartisan review of the intelligence community’s progress since 2001, and the opportunity to identify additional areas for improvement.”
Rep. Josh Gotteimer (D-NJ) will be the other Democrat co-leading the review with Stefanik, Crawford and Himes.
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