Some members of the 9/11 Commission suspected that military officials knowingly had made false statements to Congress and the commission about the Pentagon’s response to the 9/11 terrorists attacks, according to the Washington Post. This claim and publication of excerpts of NORAD audiotapes in the current Vanity Fair magazine has caught widespread media attention. The Post reported that commission members had contemplated appealing to the Justice Department, but instead decided to leave the matter to the inspectors general of DOD and the Transportation Department, since the matter involved the FAA, as well. An IG report sent to Congress in 2005 faulted Pentagon recordkeeping for some errors in official testimony. According to the Post, release of a DOD IG report on the matter is imminent. Much of the recent media hype has focused on Vanity Fair’s “new” release of the tapes, however Air Force Magazine in October 2004 reported on the miscommunications between NORAD and the FAA, offering excerpts of the tapes provided by the 9/11 commission, and noted the “inaccuracies in the public record.”
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted his highly unusual background for the job as an asset and reaffirmed his commitment to stay apolitical during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1.