MEMORANDUM FOR COMMISSIONER BEN-VENISTE

FROM: DANA HYDE

DATE: August 22,2003

SUBJECT: Status of Team 8's DoD Document Requests

Per our conversation yesterday, outlined below is a brief overview of where we stand
with respect to the DOD Document Requests.

(1) Requests Submitted: The Commission has submitted six document requests to DoD.
Issues of concern to Team 8 are embodied in Request Nos. 1,2,4 and 5. Request No. 2
relates to the historical project being conducted by the Naval Historical Center, and is
being managed by Kevin Shaeffer. My understanding is that he is satisfied with their
progress. Request No. 5 was a specific tasking to the Air Force for the creation of radar
data on an autoplay CD; it has been fully completed.

Requests No. 1 and 4 seek NORAD documents related to the air defense operation on
9/11, as well as NORAD's policies and procedures related to hijackings. Request No. 1
was submitted on May 9th, with a production date of May 23rd; Request No. 4 was
submitted on June 13th, with a production date of June 30th.

(2) Documents Received: DoD is Bates stamping and indexing all of the documents it
delivers to the Commission. According to DoD's index, it has thus far delivered 23,580
pages to the Commission, with the most recent delivery on August 15th.

Two items are outstanding from DoD Request No 1: (1) the Air Threat Conference Call
(Item 3), and (2) "All documents relating to communications between NORAD and the
FAA concerning the tracking of hijacked airplanes on 9/11/01" (Item 13). DoD has
delivered some documents responsive to this issue, but my sense is there is still more
outstanding.

Request No. 4 really focuses on NORAD and comprehensively asks for all operational
material related to the air defense operation on 9/11. Per DoD's suggestion, Team 8
prioritized Request No. 4 so that the first two pages (Items 1-16) represent our priority
needs. To date, DoD has provided documents that are responsive to Items 2, 10 and 16
(we are unsure whether this represents partial or full completion of these requests). We
met with DoD in July and at that time learned from DoD's point-of-contact that the
internal deadline for NORAD to submit its documents to the Pentagon was August 5th. I
spoke with DoD's point-of-contact last week and she informed me that they are still
getting documents in, and that some are in process (i.e. being reviewed by the Counsel's
office, indexed and Bates stamped).
(3) Priority Items: As I mentioned to you, Team 8's top priority is receiving access to
the Air Threat Conference Call. We understand that issue is being worked and should be
forthcoming in the near future. Beyond that, Team 8 is seeking completion of the
documents sought in DoD Document Request No. 4, Items 1-16. (We are seeking the
completion of the entire Request, but most immediately the items on the first two pages,
Items 1-16.)

As I informed you, Team 8 has plenty of material to review (from both DoD and FAA) so
the absence of these documents is not leaving us idle. However, we will need time to
digest the materials sought by Request No. 4 before setting out to visit the NORAD
components (i.e., NEADS, CONR and NORAD HQ) for interviews with personnel on-
duty on 9/11. Our target date for starting these interviews is late September or early
October.