IN HIS OWN WORDS
The Future White House Counselor as 9/11 Panelist
Wednesday, January 10, 2007; Page A11
The House passed several of the remaining key recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission yesterday, including better cargo screening, improved communications for first responders and more funding for cities at risk.
President Bush has been lukewarm in his support for some of the commission's recommendations, but his newest high - profile hire has made his position clear.
 
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Fred F. Fielding, who Bush named as White House counselor on Monday, served on the commission. On Dec. 5, 2005, he had this to say:
Our task, simply put, was to find out what happened and how the U.S. could try to prevent it from ever happening again.
And so in January of 2003, we began our work. There were many commentators who said we were doomed not to succeed. After all, the commission was split five and five between Republicans and Democrats, it was a very volatile time, a very tumultuous time in political history as well, highly charged atmosphere, and yet Republicans and Democrats came together, with the same unity of purpose that I just described, to help make our nation more secure.
We approached our task determined to be fair and objective, candidly to be worthy of the trust that was given to us by the public, and to honor the memory of those who died on 9/11.
In July 2004, after reviewing millions of documents, interviewing thousands of people and holding dozens of public hearings, we issued our report, which was unanimous. No dissents, no additional views -- unanimous. And in accordance with our mandate, we issued 41 recommendations designed to help prevent acts of terrorism. We presented those recommendations not as a Chinese restaurant menu to pick and choose but as a single, comprehensive package to be implemented, hopefully, in concert.
