11) Gen. Donald Kerrick, who was deputy national security advisor under President Clinton and remained on the National Security Council staff in the early Bush administration, says he wrote a classified memo to his replacement, Stephen Hadley, warning that al-Qaida was going to strike the United States again. "They never once asked me a question," Kerrick now says, "nor did I see them having a serious discussion about it ... They saw those problems through an Iraqi prism. But the evidence, the intelligence, wasn't there." Did you ever see this memo? Did you and Hadley discuss this memo or Kerrick's concern? Did you discuss Kerrick's concern with anyone on the NSC or with the president?
12) Richard Clarke has said that in June 2001 he was concerned that Bush officials -- including yourself -- were not addressing the al-Qaida issue with sufficient zeal and that he asked CIA chief George Tenet to brief you on the matter. Do you agree that you needed such a briefing? What did you think after receiving the briefing? Did you ask to hear more? Did you do anything in response to the briefing? Did you ask for regular briefing on the subject for yourself?
13) Clarke has maintained that he was excluded from all National Security Council meetings related to Iraq after 9/11 because he did not agree with the administration's policy on Iraq. Is that true? Did you have the habit of excluding staff members from meetings if they disagree with the prevailing view?
14) In early 2000, the CIA learned that Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, two of the 19 9/11 hijackers, were inside or heading toward the United States. Yet the CIA did not share this information with the FBI -- which had an informant in San Diego in contact with the two -- until late August 2001. No one can know what might have happened had the FBI been informed that these two terrorist suspects were in the United States. But had the CIA passed this information to the FBI, it would have been possible for the FBI to track the men and perhaps, as the intelligence committees noted, "unravel the September 11 plot." This appears to have been one of the worst of the mistakes leading to 9/11. When did you and the president learn of this egregious error? Did you or the president ever ask Tenet to explain this screw-up? Why has no one been held accountable for this? Was the CIA wary of the FBI?
15) Why did your administration insist on classifying nearly the entire chapter on Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 report put out by the intelligence committees, after both Democrats and Republicans urged the White House to release at least portions of it?
16) Any commission that seeks testimony from witnesses must be concerned about the ability and willingness of witnesses to speak candidly and openly to the commission in public and private sessions. Did you participate in any discussions at the White House regarding how you could discredit or undermine Richard Clarke, a commission witness? Or are you aware of any such discussions? If so, who attended these meetings? What strategies were considered? What decisions were made? Did you approve the declassification of documents in an effort to try to discredit Clarke? CNN's Wolf Blitzer reported that administration officials were saying there were some "weird aspects" to Clarke's personal life. Did you hear any Bush official talk about spreading derogatory information about Mr. Clarke?
17) On "60 Minutes" you said, "The [9/11] commission is rightly not concentrating on what happened on the day of Sept. 11." Can you please explain that remark in the light of the commission's charter to examine what happened on that day? Do you believe the commission should not be looking at what occurred on 9/11?
18) And while we have you, are you aware of any conversations or meetings about leaking the identity of covert CIA Valerie Plame operative to conservative columnist Bob Novak?