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Into tower one of the world trade center 45 minutes earlier. yes. there s definitely another aircraft that hit the tower. that s the latest report we have. i can try to confirm and i.d. for you, but i would assume he s somewhere over either new jersey or somewhere further south. okay. so american 11 isn t the hijack at all then, right? no, he is a hijack. american 11 is a hijack? yes. this could be a third aircraft. tape after tape played for the commission showed that communication between the faa, its air-traffic control centers, and the military was a mess. the technician who took this call from the faa immediately passed the word to the mission crew commander. he in turn reported to the battle commander. okay, american airlines is still airborne, 11, first guy. he s headed towards washington. okay. i think we need to scramble ....
today we present this report and these recommendation to the president of the united states, to the united states congress, and the american people. the commission made a number of recommendations, including tightening u.s. borders, increasing preparedness before the next attack, sharing information among agencies, appointing a national intelligence director and creating a national counterterrorism center. we need to ensure that the key countries anyone who said that the commission wasn t going to come up with anything new under the sun, which is one of the things that the white house told us, was wrong. because clearly we didn t have a director of national intelligence and we would not have had a director of national intelligence had it not been for the commission. on that september day, we were prepared. ....
And nothing happened. the faa did not want us to tell congress. they did everything they could. they tried to have the report classified. the whole system of security was so flawed, it s a matter how the terrorists wanted to do it. the main reason security was so bad? many told the commission it was money. the nature of what was happening in the civil aviation industry in the united states at that time did not put terrorism high on the list of priorities. every time the government proposed an actual add-on or separate tax item for security, the airlines opposed it. they said that security doesn t sell tickets. there were strong, very strong counterpressures to control security costs because ....
Investigation? why would there be a delay in this? it was something that we just could not understand. senators john mccain and joe lieberman supported the families in their effort. joe and i decided to introduce a resolution that called for the appointment of a commission. mccain and i, the families are pushing it and finally the administration said, okay, we ll start a commission. then there was a phone call from apparently vice president cheney to someone, i think, on the house side, that the conditions were not agreeable with the white house. why do we not have one? why do we have all talk and no action? after making headlines, the families made a surprise appearance at a meeting to discuss the commission. they faced down white house advisor, nick caleo. we stood up and held hands and stared them down. we stood up and said, how can you look us in the eyes and tell us there s not going to be a commission? ....
There was silence. and we were, you know, basically put on the spot. there was a moment when, you know, truth and pain spoke to power, not just truth. the families had taken on the administration and won. on november 27th, 2002, president bush signed a legislation mandating a 9/11 commission. thanks to the activities of the families, not me and joe lieberman, thanks to the families, we were able to bring it about. my capacity as the chairman of the commission on terrorist attacks in the united states, i m honored and humbled to convene this first public hearing. ....