September 11 commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean said yesterday that panel members will tone down the partisan rancor as they begin drafting a final report on security failures that might have allowed the 2001 terrorist attacks to occur.
“There will be a lower profile,” the New Jersey Republican told the Associated Press. “Trying to do anything in Washington is very, very difficult because the atmosphere is so poisonous and there are rockets coming from the right and the left.
“But I believe we’ll steer through the distractions and write a fair and balanced report,” he said.
In recent weeks, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has been beset by accusations of partisanship. Several of the most publicized televised hearings have included audience applause and witness interrogations worthy of a courtroom drama.
Since early in the commission’s existence, some observers have demanded the resignation of Philip D. Zelikow, the executive director of the panel who has close ties to President Bush and some people in his administration.
Another lightning rod on the committee has been Jamie S. Gorelick, who served as the No. 2 person in the Clinton Justice Department and has been called on to resign by House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican.
His call came after Attorney General John Ashcroft testified before the committee and presented a declassified memo Ms. Gorelick had written in 1995. During the hearing, he blamed her for maintaining a “wall” that prevented counterintelligence services and law-enforcement agencies from working together.
On Sunday, Ms. Gorelick wrote an opinion column published by The Washington Post that disputed Mr. Ashcroft’s testimony before the commission and defended her actions in the Clinton administration.
That column actually supports the conflict-of-interest charge, a Sensenbrenner spokesman said yesterday.
“The fact that she penned her op-ed in The Washington Post defending her action and work as deputy attorney general highlights the fact that she does have a conflict of interest,” spokesman Jeff Lungren said. “She is defending a position, disputing testimony that was before the commission. She clearly is not an independent arbiter of the issues before the commission.”
Mr. Lungren pointed to the commission’s guidelines regarding recusals.
“Those guidelines clearly state that commissioners and staff must recuse themselves from investigating work they performed in prior government service,” he said. “Commissioner Gorelick certainly is defending her work in prior government service.”
The White House also weighed in on the Gorelick matter yesterday, with one senior administration official suggesting Ms. Gorelick was better suited to be a witness testifying before the commission than a member asking questions.
“It’s always struck people here as odd,” the official said. “Perhaps she should be a participant on the other side of the table.”
Ms. Gorelick says she has drawn not only criticism, but threats, which she has reported to the FBI.
“I can confirm that I’ve received threats at my office and my home,” she told CNN on Saturday. “I did get a bomb threat to my home.”
In addition, she said, “I have gotten a lot of very vile e-mails.”
Nevertheless, she said she is “not intimidated enough to resign from the commission.”
• Bill Sammon contributed to this report.
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