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UUbLLL
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
OFFICE
OF
GENERAL
COUNSEL
16OO
DEFENSE
PENTAGONWASHINGTON, DC
203O1-16OO
March
16,
2004
Daniel Marcus, Esq.General CounselNational Commission
on
Terrorist Attacksupon
the
United
States
307
7
th
Street,
SW,
Room
5125
Washington,
DC
20407
Dear
Dan:This letter responds on behalf of the Department of Defense to your letter ofFebruary20,
2004,
concerning After Action Reports.
I
attach
a
letter addressed
to me
from Colonel
David
Hayden, the Staff Judge Advocate for NORAD and United
States
Northern Command, which provides NORAD's response discussing the matters youraise.
The
scope of the request you quote in your letter is extremely broad: "alldocuments
that summarize,
analyze, evaluate
or
discuss NORAD's response
to the
events
of 9/1
1
"
This could encompass a massive amount of material that theCommission clearly does not want, such as articles in various
publications
of theDepartment
of
Defense including newspapers published
at
military
installations aroundtheworld.Wehave therefore, interpreted this request
to
seek documents
that
could
fairly
be
called reportsinmilitary parlance. That meansadocument preparedby amember
of
anorganization intendedfor ahigher levelofcommandorsupervision
descnbing
eventson September
1
1 and including some form of conclusion or recommendation.We have
listed
documents
we
consider responsive
to
this request
on the
index
delivered to you every week with our document deliveries.
I
hope this information resolves
the
issue
for the
Commission
and its
staff.
If you
have
questions, please callme at
703-695-6804.
Stewart
F.
Aly
Associate Deputy General Counsel(Legal Counsel)
Atch:
Asstated
o
 
NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND
AND
UNITED
STATES NORTHERN COMMANDOffice
of the
Staff
Judge
Advocate
16March2004
t,
;•
MEMORANDUM FOR
MR
STEWART
ALY
:
'"''
ASSOCIATE DEPUTY
GENERAL
COUNSEL
DEPARTMENT
OF
DEFENSE1600 DEFENSE
PENTAGON
\N
DC
3030U1600
;!
FROM: NORAD-USNORTHCOM/JA250
VANDENBERG
STREET, SUITE B016
PETERSON
AFB
CO
80914,3809
SUBJECT:
9/11
COMMISSION HEARINGS1.
I
have received
a
copy
of the
letter
from
Daniel Marcus, General Counsel
for the
NationalCommissionon TerroristAttacks AgainsttheUnited States,The purpose of
the
letteris toaddress document production
by
NORAD
in
response
to
thft
Commission's
request
for
after-
^
action reviews/reports (AARs) relating
to
NORAD's
response
on
9/11.
r
2. I
note that
the
request
can be
fairly
read
to
solicit
two
different
categories
of
documents.a. On the
one
hand,
the second paragraph of Mr. Marcus's letter
refers
to reports from the Air
Force,
Navy
and
NMCC
in
stating that
no
"similar report related specifically
to
NORAD's
performance
on
9/11"
has been
produced.
.This
implies
that
the
Commission
is seeking a
single
document
that
could be described as the NORAD
after
action zeport on the events of September
11,2001.
b. On
the
other hand,theemail quoted laterinthat
same
paragraph
states
that
the
Commission
•
is
"seeking
from
NORAD
ALL
documents that could
be
fairlycharacterized
as an
after
action
T
report"
[sic].
This statement
and
the
remainder of the paragraph, imply that there
may
be many
responsive
documents,
not
just
one
NORAD
report
3. I
have conducted
a
reasonable inquiry into
the
existence ofdocuments
at
NORAD that wouldbe responsive to the
requests
described in this letter. While NORAD did aot produce whatwould be traditionally classified
as
one final
and
comprehensive
After
Action
Report,
it didproduce
a
series
of
after-action
reports that document
9/11
lessons learned
These documentshavebeen provided to the Commission.
of 00

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