‘The single database that contains terrorist-related intelligence and law enforcement information in a single repository’

According to a 9/11 Commission document, the US has a “single database that contains terrorist-related intelligence and law enforcement information in a single repository, enabling detailed link, pattern, and trend analysis.”

The commission document is a draft briefing request for the Pentagon, apparently written by commission Counsel Daniel Marcus sometime in August 2003. It requests an “orientation/briefing” from the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Combating Terrorism on five issues, the fourth of which is the database. The request can be found on page 55 of the pdf file.

The request was found in the 9/11 Commission’s files at the National Archives by History Commons contributor Erik Larson and uploaded to the 9/11 Document Archive at Scribd.

I thought the mention of the database was interesting, and just wanted to pass it on. I’m sure somebody else can make better sense of it than I.

Rumsfeld: Worse than Clinton

This made me laugh. It’s from a 9/11 Commission memo summarising an interview with RAND staffers:

Did the military trust Clinton to use force responsibly? Yes, they disliked Clinton until they saw Rumsfeld.

You can find that on page 81 of the PDF file.