Program archives

Michael Hurley described the key findings of the 9/11 Commission on the facts and circumstances surrounding the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and explained why the Commission believes its recommendations will help keep America safer and more secure. He provided insights into the likelihood that key recommendations will be implemented. His talk emphasized the need to "bring foreign policy back into US counterterrorism policy". The principal theme of the talk was that every American needs to understand what our federal government is doing, and is not doing, in combating terrorism.

Michael Hurley has worked in the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations for twenty-one years; for fourteen of those years he was posted overseas. Within days after the 9/11 attacks he volunteered to serve in the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and to serve in Afghanistan. He was the lead coordinator on the scene for "Operation Anaconda," the largest military campaign against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He spent more than 14 months in that country leading efforts to hunt for Usama Bin Ladin and his lieutenants. In May 2003, the 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chair Lee Hamilton asked the Director of the CIA to detail him to the 9/11 Commission. In this position he and his team were responsible for conducting more than 150 interviews, and reviewing hundreds of thousands of pages of the most sensitive US government documents. He organized the Commission's late March public hearings of top government officials, and the early April public hearing of Dr. Condoleezza Rice. He wrote many of the sections of the Commission's final report, and helped edit the entire book. He worked closely with Chairman Kean and Vice Chair Hamilton in their dozens of appearances before congressional committees to testify about the recommendations.