9-11 Commission vice chair talks terrorism

Lee Hamilton, the vice chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States discussed the panel looking into the 9-11 attacks following a speech on "conflict prevention" in international affairs at a district Rotary International meeting Friday in Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union. \nIn an interview after the speech, Hamilton, an IU School of Law graduate and director of IU's Center on Congress, spoke about his experience with the 9-11 Commission. He said the Bush administration has not been as forthcoming with information as he would have liked but the commission has not been significantly hindered by those inconveniences.\n"We've had restrictions put on access that have slowed our work," he said. "But overall, we have worked out agreements with the White House that have been satisfactory to them and satisfactory to us."\nHe also said the concessions the 9-11 Commission had to make in exchange for National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony did not present a great hindrance. \n"We are not precluded on the terms of the agreement from talking to any member of the administration again," he said. "We are precluded from having a public hearing of top White House aides only, but we didn't plan to have any more, so we're not being limited. We will go back again and talk to Dr. Rice, and I'm sure there are some others we'll go back to, so I'm sure we'll get all the information we want."\nHamilton also said the terms to which the commission agreed for Bush's testimony will not prevent it from getting the information it needs. He said initially the president would only testify before Hamilton and Commission Chair Thomas Kean. The final agreement for both the president and vice president to appear together did not represent an impasse, Hamilton said.\n"We'll be able to get the information we need, and we'll have all 10 commissioners, so it's a satisfactory arrangement from our standpoint," he said. "Why the White House did it that way, I don't know."\nHamilton was optimistic about the ability of the commission to produce an effective and meaningful report.\n"We have a major responsibility of making recommendations to the president and to the Congress on how to make the American people more secure," he said. "I think we'll be able to do that."\nHamilton, who served as a U.S. Congressman in Indiana's Ninth District for 34 years, discussed many international issues the U.S. currently faces, including the effects of the 9-11 attacks, the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.S.' growing leadership roles abroad and increasing poverty, inequality and turmoil. \nBut the overarching theme of his discourse was "conflict prevention" and how Rotary International and other non-governmental organizations could help ameliorate strife abroad and stave off conflict.\n"Conflict prevention is now a major academic discipline," he said. "It's wonderful that all kinds of people are learning how to prevent conflict. I want you to know that I think highly of the kinds of people, like (Rotarians), who go out into the world and try to prevent conflict."\nJudy Witt, president of the Bloomington Rotary Club, said Hamilton was invited to the convention because of his knowledge of world affairs.\n"He certainly has a wealth of information to share and a wealth of experience to share with us," she said. "And we asked (former) Congressman Hamilton to speak about conflict prevention because that's a new area for rotary to be more directly involved with."\nSenior Jason Robbins, president of the IU Rotaract Club, an affiliate of Rotary International, said Hamilton's speech gave him an increased drive to help people through Rotaract and Rotary International.\n"He spoke with so much power and conviction," Robbins said, "that I want even more now to go out and work on behalf of Rotary to make things better for people."\n-- Contact staff writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.