MEMORANDUM

To: Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton

From: Philip Zelikow

Subj: Commission Organization

As we simultaneously address issues of office space, budget, and personnel issues, I've
tried to develop a overarching conception of Commission scope and the staffing pattern
that might go with it for your review.

That outline follows. It has a front office and four basic teams. It shapes up as a staff of
50. I derived the number by going through each of the research units itemized under each
team, and tried to visualize how many people (excellent people) would be needed to
cover each topic. Then, in addition to line staff on each team and for the individual
research units, each team should have a leader to backstop the line staff on substance, a
senior counsel to help manage process while tracking and organizing information, and an
administrative assistant.

As you go through it, I hope you'll agree that this is a pretty lean staffing outline. But 1
would like to hold this line, at least for now. Work will certainly expand to fill the
number of people available to do it. For now at least, I think this number can do what
needs to be done. And it is manageable in a relatively flat, non-hierarchical structure.

I. Hypothetical Staffing and Structure 9/11 P e r s o n a l

• 10 Commissioners, 50 staff

Commissioners (10) _.--'"

personal staff (1, for Cleland),

FRONT OFFICE (8 people).,

Executive director (Zelikow)

Deputy director (Kojm) /
General counsel (lead candidates right now seem to bej

Communications (lead candidate \\e officer (Shycoff)

Security officer (Ivicic)

Special Assistant (lead candidate is Kaplan)
Administrative assistant (tbd)

TEAM ONE: The Base (9 people)

(for team leader/sr counsel, lead candidates are I

Unit A - Islamic Transnational Terrorism

Unit B T- Al Qaeda

Unit C - The Attack on America: People, Plans, and Preparations

Unit D - Intelligence Collection, Analysis, and Management/Oversight Issues

TEAM TWO: International Counter-Terrorism (12 people)

(for team leader/sr counsel, lead candidates are Koiml \t A - General Strategy and Policies

1. To 1998 I/*'
2.1998-2001 /
3.2001-date 9/11 P e r s o n a l Privacy

Unit B - Institutional Capabilities \. Military

3. Financial

Unit C — Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Iraq \t D - Afghanistan and Pakistan

Philippines ;

TEAM THREE: American Defenses (10 people

(no clear candidate yet for team leader here, but| [might play this
role or that of sr counsel)

Unit A - Watch Lists, Borders, and Immigration Issues

Unit B - Law Enforcement and Intelligence Inside the United States

Unit C - Information Sharing and Technology

Unit D - Transportation Security, esp. aviation

TEAM FOUR: 9/11 (10 people)
(for team leader/ sr counsel, lead candidate is Farmer)

Unit A - The Flights, including ATC and NORAD

Unit B - New York City and the Pentagon

1. World Trade Center
2. Emergency Response
3. Local Crisis Management

Unit C -National Crisis Management

1. Air Force One
2. The White House
3. Congress and Related Continuity of Government Issues

II. Other Personnel Issues

• Commissioner clearances. Now being worked. We can discuss. Tom's is

expected to come through next week. Otherwise only Lee, me, Ben-Veniste, and
Gorelick are definitely cleared. All others are in stages of uncertainty or
beginning from scratch. But we're now working this problem for everyone.

• Max's personal staff and office space.

• Zelikow and Kojm arrangements and salaries.

(-
• General counsel. We can discuss some alternative candidates. The concept of the
team leader/senior counsel may also help to address some of the concerns we've
all been hearing.

• Communications. Both of you have expressed interest in talking with! I

I I We can work on when that can happen,

• Special assistant. I'd like to hire Stephanie Kaplan right away, so 1 can get some
help with matters like next week's meeting. I've described her to. Lee; but not yet
to Tom.

Joint inquiry staff. I recommend hirirmi Janet Jacobsen for sure.

I |are probables. I tKara, and! kUn look pretty
good. I've given! ferfaeads up because Tim Roemer was worried that he
needs to hear something right:away. Through Eleanor; HillTve asked Jacobsen to
check with us before he takes atly:other job.

•If '
9/11 Personal Privacy
 I'd like to develop a much wider set of hiring recommendations for your
consideration next week, and try to schedule time for you to interview anyone
whom you'd like to check out before making a final decision. In other words, I
hope we'll be in position to start giving people news and moving them into place
this month.

III. Office Space

• We can accommodate about 25-28 in our D.C. space. But I'm recommending a
staff of about 50. I therefore think we'll need at least one more block of space in
the D.C. metro area, possibly two, depending on what we decide about the New
York office. We're working on options.

• New York office. I've gone back and forth about this. Contrary to what you've
heard from me before, I'm now inclined to keep the staff based in the D.C. area,
to preserve the cohesion of the staff and the investigation. But we will still at
least need space set aside in New York that we can use as a base for visiting
researchers and temporary operations.

IV. Budget
I haven't had the time or the help to do a full budget workup that incorporates the
assumptions laid out above. But we should be able to do that over the next couple of
weeks.

That said, I do think the planning assumptions set out above may end up producing a total
budget for the Commission that is over $10 million plus, mainly to get an outstanding
staff. Hopefully we'll be able to cut that down. We've done a good job already in
managing the potential cost of some of our IT needs, for example. But once folks see the
way we derive our numbers, and how our staff size connects to our work plan, I think we
will have a very convincing budget approach to take to the White House and Congress.