Gerald R. Ford was a decent and honorable man. Under his steady hand, the nation began the process of recovering from the terrible trauma of Watergate - the lies, distortions, cover-ups, misuses of federal agencies to exact political revenge, illegal wiretapping, burglaries.

Richard Ben-Veniste

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Well, changes have been made. The question is whether we've done... by Richard Ben-Veniste

Well, changes have been made. The question is whether we've done enough by way of change.

Richard Ben-Veniste
done change way

With respect to the FBI, they had problems communicating in a vertical way, within the FBI itself, so that information of importance could get pushed up to those who were decision-makers.

Richard Ben-Veniste
respect information decision
No connection between Iraq and the 9/11 catastrophe. by Richard Ben-Veniste

No connection between Iraq and the 9/11 catastrophe.

Richard Ben-Veniste
catastrophe connections iraq

You can assert a fifth amendment privilege and not testify. But if you go in and swear to tell the truth, then you better do it. Otherwise, if a prosecutor finds that you have testified in a way that is factually incorrect and you had reason to know that it was factually incorrect, then you're guilty of perjury.

Richard Ben-Veniste
fifth-amendment privilege way

Were there contacts over time between Iraq and al-Qaeda? Yes, there were efforts made to communicate. We found no evidence of collaboration in any effort to mount any kind of operation against the United States' interests.

Richard Ben-Veniste
collaboration iraq effort

Without the tape-recorded evidence demonstrating irrefutably, in Nixons own voice, his knowledge of and active involvement in obstruction of justice, it is likely that Nixon would have escaped impeachment and removal from office.

Richard Ben-Veniste
voice office justice
I like Harvey Keitel. I liked him in Mean Streets. Im a fan. by Richard Ben-Veniste

I like Harvey Keitel. I liked him in Mean Streets. Im a fan.

Richard Ben-Veniste
streets fans mean

There is nothing comparable to the kind of pressure and obligation that this kind of job puts on your shoulders, having been there before, gives him the confidence to know how to do it and how to do it right.

Richard Ben-Veniste
top-news
Bob Mueller's attributes are legion. by Richard Ben-Veniste

Bob Mueller's attributes are legion.

Richard Ben-Veniste
top-news

When Richard M. Nixon resigned and Ford became the 38th president of the United States, the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office, of which I was a member, was preparing for the criminal trials of Nixon's top aides - H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell.

Richard Ben-Veniste
top office trials special
Only the last two planes, I think, had any shot of being intercep... by Richard Ben-Veniste

Only the last two planes, I think, had any shot of being intercepted and taken down on 9/11.

Richard Ben-Veniste
only down being think

At bottom, the decision to pardon Nixon was a political judgment properly within the bounds of Ford's constitutional authority. The specter of a former president in the criminal dock as our country moved into its bicentennial year was profoundly disturbing.

Richard Ben-Veniste
political decision authority country

Well, our statute provides us with authority to conduct a very broad inquiry basically to provide an investigation of 9/11 that's thorough, complete and will withstand the scrutiny of history.

Richard Ben-Veniste
us will authority history

Our mandate expects that we will build on the Joint Inquiry's investigation and we will not be re-inventing the wheel. But we go to places which the Joint Inquiry was not permitted to explore.

Richard Ben-Veniste
wheel build will go

And it turned out that the Roberts Commission did not fully utilize the information available and that it came to conclusions which were I think quite short sighted and, indeed, in some cases, scapegoated individuals.

Richard Ben-Veniste
short some think information

But as I said to Dr. Rice following her testimony, and I think she appreciated it, we had our job to do and we did it best we could, trying to get answers to the important questions that the 9/11 Commission must answer.

Richard Ben-Veniste
best job think important

Well, our position, and our chairman has talked about this extensively, is that we had a lot of intelligence prior to 9/11. We knew that two al Qaeda operatives who ultimately participated in the 9/11 disaster were in the United States. We didn't find them.

Richard Ben-Veniste
find disaster intelligence two

So we knew their intentions were to strike in the United States. We also knew from other sources of dozens of examples of where the notion of using planes as weapons was discussed.

Richard Ben-Veniste
intentions strike where weapons

The real question was, here we had this information, Bin Laden intends to strike in the United States. We knew they had struck before in 1993 at the World Trade Center in the first bombing of the trade center.

Richard Ben-Veniste
question information real world

We've had public hearings. We've had interim reports, which our statute has encouraged us to provide to the public. We have brought the public along with us, trying to make as much available as possible over time.

Richard Ben-Veniste
us possible time trying