Marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) is today releasing newly declassified records derived from the work of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, more commonly known as the 9-11 Commission. The first document in today’s release is a summary of President’s Daily Briefs (PDBs), consolidating relevant intelligence information from the period leading up to, and immediately following, the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The second comprises eleven Memorandums for the Record (MFRs) documenting 9-11 Commission interviews with high-ranking national security officials in the Clinton and Bush Administrations.
The Declassification Review Process
The ISCAP, a presidential panel established in 1995 via Executive Order (E.O.), provides a forum for review of classification decisions. ISCAP members include security classification experts and senior officials from the National Security Council (NSC), Department of Justice, Department of War, National Archives and Records Administration, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of State, and Central Intelligence Agency. The ISCAP meets regularly, rendering decisions that set precedent for the continuing classification. or appropriate declassification, of information across the executive branch.
One of the ISCAP’s functions is to decide on appeals for the mandatory declassification review of information. The declassification of the PDB Summary reflects an ISCAP ruling responsive to two long-standing appeals, 2022-008 and 2023-001, for the review of a 7000-word summary of presidential intelligence briefings created by the 9-11 Commission. This document, released today, is a compilation of all PDBs that mention al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and Afghanistan in the three years leading up to the attacks. The document was created at the NSC and is Presidential record held at the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
In conjunction with its review of the PDB Summary, pursuant to 32 CFR 2003.15, the ISCAP has also reviewed and declassified information in 11 MFRs, the second set of documents released today. Produced by the 9-11 Commission, these MFRs encompass interviews with: Sandy Berger, National Security Advisor during Clinton’s second term; Richard A. Clarke, the Counterterrorism Czar at the National Security Council during the Clinton and Bush administrations; Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush’s first National Security Advisor; Michael Sheuer, chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station (or ALEC Station) at the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1990s; and George Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence from 1996-2004.
Remaining Redactions
In its review of these records, the ISCAP declassified information in both sets of documents while affirming the classification of other information, consistent with the definitions provided in E.O. 13526 “Classified National Security Information.” Some redactions to protect information that still meets the standards for national security classification are present throughout, with the following redaction codes: 25X1, X4, X5, X7, and X8. These codes are derived from section 3.3(b)(1)(4)(5)(7) and (8) of E.O. 13526.
The information that remains classified protects the following information: sources and methods, a state-of-the-art technology within a weapon system, military war plans, the security of the President, Vice President, and other protectees, and vulnerabilities in current national security emergency preparedness plans. While the documents are dated between 2003 and 2004, the information discussed is already 25 years old, allowing the use of a 25X marking. This code allows the information to remain classified for another 25 years.
E.O. 13526 affirms that the protection of information critical to our national security and a commitment to open government are co-equal priorities in a democratic society, demonstrated through “the accurate and accountable application of classification standards and routine, secure, and effective declassification,” for which the ISCAP was created to serve as the final arbiter on behalf of the President. The ISCAP assesses that the information declassified in these records no longer meets the standards for classification established by E.O. 13526 and that its release could not reasonably be expected to result in damage to national security.