Kissinger to Lead 9/11 Inquiry

President Bush on Wednesday named Henry A. Kissinger the chairman of an independent commission that will investigate last year’s terrorist attacks, giving one of America’s most famed diplomats a broad mandate to probe the deadliest assault on American soil.

“His investigation should carefully examine all the evidence and follow all the facts, wherever they may lead,” Bush said in making the announcement. “We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of Sept. 11.”

Congressional Democrats named former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, a Maine Democrat, to be the vice chairman of the 10-member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Kissinger, 79, is a controversial figure rooted in the nation’s foreign-policy establishment for more than three decades. A Nobel laureate, he brings to the panel extensive experience in national security issues as well as personal distance from the events the panel will investigate.

He pledged that the commission would not be “restricted by any foreign-policy considerations.”

This was a reference, only slightly veiled, to the risk that the investigation could turn up information embarrassing to the administration and its allies. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has been buffeted by questions about possible financial links between its government officials and the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Kissinger has long been a lightning rod for critics of U.S. foreign policy, reaching back to his service as national security advisor and secretary of State during the Nixon and Ford administrations. His background caused some to question whether the commission’s work would remain independent of the administration and whether its findings would be credible.

Kissinger was President Nixon’s key foreign-policy aide during the secret bombing of Cambodia and the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, Chile’s leftist president.

Referring to questions about Kissinger’s role in both events, Steven Aftergood, who oversees a project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said: “He has no shortage of secrets of his own, and therefore seems like an unlikely candidate to be uncovering the secrets of this investigation.”

Aftergood questioned whether Kissinger would be willing to support issuing subpoenas for members of the president’s staff to obtain information that they did not want to reveal. This is relevant because one of the key questions about the period leading up to the attacks is what warning, if any, Bush had received about a threat.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), a leading sponsor of the legislation creating the commission, said he expected that the panel would question the president.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush does not envision testifying.

Kissinger was noncommittal on that issue, saying, “One doesn’t start with the president of the United States, and so I don’t want to make a judgment until we have all the facts, until we have other commissioners.”

Anthony Lake, who served as President Clinton’s national security advisor and who worked on Kissinger’s staff before parting company with him over the 1970 invasion of Cambodia, praised the selection.

“He will do a serious job,” Lake said. “He has great experience. He has been a consumer of intelligence but never a part of the intelligence community, and he hasn’t been a participant in recent administrations, so he may have a degree of separation that may be useful.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another key supporter of the panel, said Kissinger’s “depth of experience and broad knowledge of both intelligence and government will undoubtedly help to achieve the commission’s objectives.”

Kissinger’s selection generated some surprise in Washington, partly because he has not had a prominent government post since President Ford left office in 1977 and partly because he has not been closely linked to Bush.

But Robert F. Ellsworth, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, noted that Kissinger was close to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whose office as Ford’s White House chief of staff was a few paces down from Kissinger’s suite.

Ellsworth said Kissinger shares Rumsfeld’s views on the need to overhaul the nation’s intelligence operations -- likely to be a central focus of the inquiry.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Kissinger said the commission’s recommendations would “contribute to the safety of America, to the future of America and to the avoidance of any future tragedies.”

Bush, he said, “has said publicly, and he has told me privately, that he has every intention to carry out the recommendations of the commission.”

Although best-known since he left government for his extensive writings on foreign affairs, Kissinger also has been a consultant to businesses operating overseas.

A White House spokesman said it was unclear whether he would be required to disclose personal financial information that senior government appointees make public.

In public remarks and writings since the Sept. 11 attacks, Kissinger has called on the nation to examine the work of the intelligence agencies, to determine whether they missed details that could have signaled an attack. But he has also warned against excessive oversight.

Writing in The Times three days after the attack, he said, “There should be an initial sweeping review of intelligence procedures and organization.”

But a week later, he said in a speech in Sacramento: “What we should remember is that we have been harassing our intelligence agencies for the last 20 years, at least, and submitted them to endless inquiries.”

Mitchell, 69, served as a diplomatic troubleshooter for Clinton after he gave up his Senate seat in 1994. He sought to broker peace in the Middle East and played a key role in negotiations that produced the 1998 Good Friday peace accord in Northern Ireland.

The panel has been given responsibilities similar to commissions that investigated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.

A joint congressional committee quickly launched a probe of intelligence lapses leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks. But both lawmakers and relatives of victims of the attacks pushed for the independent commission, arguing that it would not be as limited as the congressional inquiry.

The Bush administration initially opposed the idea, saying it feared the panel could distract and demoralize intelligence officials working to prevent another terrorist assault. But as the congressional committees unearthed more and more examples of intelligence lapses, the administration reversed its stance.

Still, the panel’s existence was not resolved until the final days of the congressional session that ended last week, when differences between Republicans and Democrats over how the panel members would be appointed were resolved.

Under the compromise, the commission will be made up of five Democrats and five Republicans. It will be empowered to issue subpoenas upon agreement of the chairman and vice chairman or a majority of the members. Lawmakers have until Dec. 15 to name the other eight members.

Along with intelligence failures by government agencies, the panel will look into such areas as funding of terrorist networks, diplomacy, immigration policies and aviation security.

Bush said the Kissinger panel would build on the work of the joint congressional inquiry. That investigation found poor communication between the FBI and CIA in tracking terrorist threats.

Bush announced his choice of Kissinger as he signed legislation creating the panel and authorizing annual spending for the nation’s intelligence agencies. Moments later, the president left the White House to spend the Thanksgiving holiday at his ranch outside of Crawford, Texas.

Bush said he hoped the commission would work quickly, issuing its report before the 18-month deadline specified by the legislation creating it.

“The sooner we have the commission’s conclusions, the sooner this administration will act on them,” the president said.

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Times staff writer Paul Richter contributed to this report.