Gwen Graham: “earlier this afternoon a declassified version of the report of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on the…”

“earlier this afternoon a declassified version of the report of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on the events of September 11, 2001, were released to the public. I will take a few minutes to recognize those who performed a great public service in producing this report and to commend it to my colleagues and those who are watching. The public version of this report is available at the Web site of the Government Printing Office, www.access.gpo.gov. This report fulfills the commitment that was made to the American people and particularly to the families of those who perished in this tragedy. The commitment was to conduct a thorough search for the truth about what our intelligence agencies knew or should have known about al-Qaida and its intentions prior to September 11. It was then to apply the lessons learned from that experience to reform the intelligence community in such a way as to mitigate the likelihood of a repetition of September 11. This was a historic first-of-a-kind effort. For the first time in the history of the Congress, two standing committees, the House and the Senate, joined together to conduct a special inquiry with its own staff. That staff was led by the very capable Ms. Eleanor Hill. The staff reviewed nearly 1 million documents and conducted some 500 interviews. The joint inquiry committee held 22 hearings last year, 9 of which were open to the public. The result of this effort was released today.…”