Thomas Howard Kean (born April 21, 1935) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
, who served as the
48th GovernorThe Governor of New Jersey is the chief executive of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The current holder of that office is Jon Corzine, who re-assumed executive powers on May 7, 2007 from acting Gov. Richard Codey, after recuperating from an automobile accident on April 12, 2007...
of
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
, from 1982 to 1990. Kean is best known globally, however, for his 2002 appointment as Chairman of the
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United StatesThe National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002 "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
, widely known as the 9/11 Commission, which was responsible for investigating the causes of the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners...
and providing recommendations to prevent future terrorist attacks. He was appointed to this post by U.S. President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
. Upon the completion of his second term as Governor, he served as the president of
Drew UniversityDrew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
for 15 years, until his retirement in 2005.
Early life and education
Kean (pronounced "cane") was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
to a long line of
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
politicians. His mother was Elizabeth Howard and his father,
Robert KeanRobert Winthrop Kean was a Republican politician who represented New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives for twenty years.-Biography:...
, was a
U.S. RepresentativeThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. His grandfather
Hamilton Fish KeanHamilton Fish Kean was a U.S. senator from New Jersey.Kean was the son of Lucy and John Kean. He was related to several prominent American politicians including his great-grandfather John Kean , his brother John Kean , and his son Robert Kean...
and great-uncle
John KeanJohn Kean was an American lawyer, banker and Republican Party politician from Elizabeth, New Jersey. He represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 1899 to 1911 and served two separate terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1883 to 1885, and from 1887 to 1889...
both served as
U.S. SenatorsThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
. His second great-uncle was
Hamilton FishHamilton Fish , born in New York City, was an American statesman who served as Governor of New York, United States Senator and United States Secretary of State.-Biography:...
, a U.S. Senator, governor of New York, and
Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence. The current Secretary of...
. Kean's second great-grandfather was a delegate to the
Continental CongressThe Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution...
.
Kean was initially educated at
The Potomac SchoolThe Potomac School is an independent K-12 coeducational college preparatory school in McLean, Virginia, USA located on one 90-acre campus, three miles from Washington, DC . Founded in 1904, the School emphasizes academic, athletic and artistic excellence together with character development and...
in Washington, D.C. When he reached the fourth grade, he entered
St. Albans SchoolSt. Albans School is a selective, private college preparatory school for boys in Washington, D.C. The School's motto, "Pro Ecclesia et Pro Patria," translates to "For Church and Country." Its mascot is the bulldog and its team colors are blue and white. The school is named after St. Alban,...
. His parents then enrolled him at
St. Mark's SchoolSt. Mark’s School is a coeducational, Episcopal, preparatory school, situated on in Southborough, Massachusetts, from Boston. It was founded in 1865 as an all-boys' school by Joseph Burnett see , a wealthy native of Southborough who developed and marketed the world-famous Burnett Vanilla Extract....
in
Southborough, MassachusettsSouthborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the smaller villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Like several neighboring towns, its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage that remains current on many area signs and maps...
, the alma mater of his father and two older brothers. After graduating from St. Mark's, he attended
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
in
Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton, New Jersey is located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Princeton University has been sited in the town since 1756. Although Princeton is a "college town", there are other important institutions in the area, including the Institute for Advanced Study, Educational Testing...
and
Teachers College, Columbia UniversityTeachers College, Columbia University is a top ranked graduate school of education in the United States...
in New York City.
New Jersey political career
Originally a teacher of
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
and
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
, Kean was elected, in 1967, as a Republican to the
New Jersey General AssemblyThe New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.Since the election of 1967 , the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts for a term of two years, each representing districts with average...
.
At the start of the Assembly session in 1972, Democratic leadership had wanted to name
S. Howard WoodsonSamuel Howard Woodson, Jr. was an American pastor, civil rights leader, and Democratic Party politician from New Jersey. He was the first and so far only African American to serve as Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly....
of
TrentonTrenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimated that the City of Trenton had a population of 82,804....
as Speaker, until Assemblyman
David FriedlandDavid J. Friedland is an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Hudson County, New Jersey who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, serving in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1966 to 1974 and then was elected to the Senate, serving from 1978 until his conviction...
made a deal as one of four Democrats who voted to give the minority Republicans control of the General Assembly, electing Kean as Assembly Speaker. Woodson would have been the Assembly's first
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
Speaker, and charges of racism were leveled by fellow Democrats against Friedland. In the next Assembly, in 1974, the Democrats united behind Woodson for Speaker; Kean then became the minority leader of the Assembly. In 1973, he briefly served as acting New Jersey Governor.
1977 gubernatorial loss
In 1977, Kean ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the governor of New Jersey. Although he spent most of his career as a political moderate, in this race Kean ran to the right of New Jersey Senate Minority Leader
Raymond BatemanRaymond H. Bateman is an American Republican Party politician, who represented the 16th District in the New Jersey Senate in the 1960s and 70s, and was the Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey in 1977...
. Bateman defeated Kean and won the nomination, though Bateman went on to lose the general election to
Brendan ByrneBrendan Thomas Byrne is an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey, from 1974 to 1982.Byrne is a native of West Orange, New Jersey....
.
1981 gubernatorial victory and 1985 re-election
Kean fared better four years later, in 1981, when he again ran for Governor. He defeated U.S. Representative
James FlorioJames Joseph "Jim" Florio is a Democratic politician who served as the 49th Governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994, the first Italian American to hold the position...
in the closest election in New Jersey gubernatorial election history; Kean won by fewer than 1,800 votes. The election was controversial, due to the involvement of the
Republican National CommitteeThe Republican National Committee provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is also responsible for organizing and...
, who appointed a
Ballot Security Task ForceThe National Ballot Security Task Force were a controversial group set up in the United States of America by the Republican National Committee in 1981, in New Jersey in a bid to win a gubernatorial election...
, allegedly to intimidate voters.
Kean proved hugely popular in office. In striking contrast to his slim 1981 victory, he won re-election in 1985 with the largest margin of victory in the history of New Jersey gubernatorial races, defeating
Peter ShapiroPeter Shapiro is a financial executive and former politician from New Jersey. He was the youngest person ever elected to the New Jersey General Assembly and went on to serve as Essex County executive and as the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 1985 against incumbent Thomas Kean.-...
, then
EssexEssex County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population was 793,633, ranking it second in the state after Bergen County; Essex County's population had declined to 786,147 as of the bureau's 2006 population...
County ExecutiveA county executive is the head of the executive branch of government in a county. This position is common in the United States.The executive may be an elected or an appointed position. When elected, he/she typically functions either as a voting member of the elected county government, or may have...
, 71%-24%. Kean won every municipality in the state except
Audubon ParkAudubon Park is a Borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 1,102.Audubon Park was incorporated as a borough on July 3, 1947, from portions of Audubon Borough, based on the results of a referendum held on October 28, 1947,...
and
ChesilhurstChesilhurst is a Borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 1,520. New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Chesilhurst last among the towns rated in its 2008 rankings of "Best Places to Live" in New Jersey .Chesilhurst was...
in
Camden CountyCamden County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 508,932. Its county seat is Camden. It was formed on March 13, 1844, from portions of Gloucester County....
and
RooseveltRoosevelt is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 933.The borough was established as Jersey Homesteads by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on May 29, 1937, from portions of Millstone Township...
in Monmouth County.
1988 Republican Convention speech
In 1988, reflecting his stature as an up-and-coming leader of the Republican Party's moderate wing, Kean delivered the keynote speech at the
1988 Republican National ConventionThe 1988 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana from August 15 to August 18, 1988. It was the second time that a major party held its conclave in one of the five states known as the Deep South, coming on the...
in
New OrleansNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
. The same year, he also authored a book,
The Politics of Inclusion, published by Free Press, which urged political cooperation among historically divided interest groups and politicians.
Gubernatorial legacy
Limited to two consecutive terms as governor by the
New Jersey State ConstitutionThe Constitution of the State of New Jersey is the basic governing document of the State of New Jersey. In addition to three British Royal Charters issued for East Jersey, West Jersey and united New Jersey while they were still colonies, the state has been governed by three constitutions...
, Kean left office in January, 1990 as one of the most popular political figures in New Jersey political history. Former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate
Doug ForresterDouglas Forrester is an American businessman in New Jersey. He was the 2005 Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey. Forrester was defeated by his opponent, then-U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, in the 2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election...
, New Jersey Congressman
Bob FranksRobert Douglas Franks is a Republican politician. He is a former U.S. Representative from New Jersey....
, and other leading New Jersey and national Republican figures began their political and public policy careers in his state administration. He was succeeded by Florio, who won a landslide victory in November 1989.
Drew University
Following the end of his second Gubernatorial term, Kean was named President of
Drew UniversityDrew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
, a small liberal arts university in
Madison, New JerseyMadison is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population was 16,530. It also is known as "The Rose City."-Geography:Madison is located at ....
. Kean's considerable standing as a popular former governor of the state was helpful as he undertook an upgrading of the university's campus and academic programs. Extremely popular among the student body, Kean served as Drew's President until 2005.
Involvement beginning in 1990
While leading Drew University, Kean also continued to expand his role as a national political leader, forging close working relationships with the administrations of
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
,
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
(with whom he had worked closely in the
National Governors AssociationThe National Governors Association , founded in 1908 as the National Governors' Conference, is a primarily taxpayer-funded lobbying organization of the governors of the fifty U.S. states and five U.S. territories The National Governors Association (NGA), founded in 1908 as the National Governors'...
) and
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, who saw Kean as an important national political ally.
Former
Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
foreign policy analyst
Michael JohnsMichael Johns is an American health care executive, former federal government of the United States official and conservative policy analyst and writer.-Biography:...
and other national policy and political leaders were recruited by Kean to support and help administer his growing involvement in a broad range of national policy initiatives in the fields of education, environmental, low-income housing, foreign policy and other issues. As Governor, Kean had some degree of national recognition as the spokesperson for a New Jersey tourism commercial, in which he cited the state's tourism motto: "New Jersey and You: Perfect Together." With Johns' support, Kean also quickly established foreign policy and national security credentials following his Governorship that ultimately proved important in his gaining appointment by President George W. Bush to head the 9/11 Commission.
Beginning in 1990, Kean for the first time began expressing views on foreign policy and national security matters, views that generally mirrored those of the Republican Party. In a December 15, 1991 speech to the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Kean endorsed the
free tradeFree trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services....
initiatives under way by the administration of then-President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
. He also advocated continued U.S. aid to anti-communist resistance forces in
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
,
AngolaAngola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean. The exclave province of Cabinda has a border with the Republic of the...
, and to those engaged in supporting democratic change in the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. "To those supporting the Afghan resistance," Kean told the Heritage Foundation audience in 1991, "I say, carry on."
Kean quickly was appointed to the boards of several important foreign policy bodies, including the U.S. government-funded
National Endowment for DemocracyThe National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983, to promote democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
(NED), which was heavily engaged in supporting
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
-building programs in former
Eastern blocThe terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960...
and other nations around the world, and a Presidential advisory commission on a post-
CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician, one of the primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then the President of the Council of State of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008...
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
, chaired by former U.S. Presidential Republican candidate
Steve ForbesMalcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is the son of Malcolm Forbes and the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000. He is the...
.
Several years later, in 1997, Kean was appointed as an Advisory Board member of President Clinton's
One America InitiativeOn June 14, 1997, U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton announced One America in the 21st Century: The President's Initiative on Race. This initiative, established with Executive Order 13050, was a critical element in President Clinton's effort to prepare his country to embrace diversity...
, designed to help heal racial divides in the nation.
Heading the September 11 Commission
Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States by
al-QaedaAl-Qaeda , alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida, is an Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988 and late 1989 and early 1990...
, political pressure grew for an independent commission to independently investigate why the attacks were not prevented by U.S. national security organizations, including the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
,
Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the military...
,
National Security AgencyThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States government, administered as part of the United States Department of Defense. Created on November 4, 1952 by President Harry S...
and others, and to provide recommendations for preventing future terrorist attacks.
Bush appoints Kean
Bush initially selected former
Nixon'sRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
Secretary of State,
Henry KissingerHenry Alfred Kissinger , is a German-born American political scientist, diplomat, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Nixon Administration....
to head the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (
9/11 CommissionThe National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002 "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
). But on December 13, 2002, Kissinger resigned as the Commission's Chairman, under pressure because of potential conflicts with his global business consultancy.
Noting Kean's post-gubernatorial foreign policy involvement and his reputation as a consensus-oriented political leader, Bush nominated Kean to succeed Kissinger in leading the important and politically-sensitive Commission. The Commission is widely considered the most important independent U.S. government commission since the
Warren CommissionThe President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22. Its 888-page final report was...
, which was charged with investigating the 1963 assassination of President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, and perhaps the most important in American history given its mammoth responsibility for investigating the causes of the first foreign attack on the U.S. mainland since the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
, and recommending steps to defend the U.S. from future attacks. Kean's appointment to head the Commission, and later the work and final report of the Commission, drew substantial global attention.
Criticisms of Kean's 9/11 Chairmanship
Just as some had criticized Kissinger's nomination, Kean's leadership of the Commission also drew some criticism. Some alleged that Kean did not have the depth of foreign policy and national security expertise needed to manage an investigation so integral to the future of American national security. Supporters of Kean in the Bush administration and elsewhere, however, countered that Kean's work since 1990 as a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, the post-Castro Cuba Commission and his foreign policy and national security commentary and analysis following his Governorship established adequate national secrurity and foreign policy credentials for him to assume such a critically important assignment.
Once the Commission began its work, some critics argued that Kean, the Commission members, and the Commission staff almost all had various business and political conflicts that made it difficult to lay blame on their political allies. One prominent example was the Commission's Staff Director,
Philip D. ZelikowPhilip D. Zelikow is an American diplomat, academic and author. He has worked as the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and Counselor of the United States Department of State...
, who had served on George W. Bush's Presidential transition team and had worked closely with U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is a professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, a key Commission witness, in the George H. W. Bush administration.
Kean has also been criticized for using his role as the chairman of the 9/11 Commission in order to make profit, such as his book,
Without Precedent. Some also argue that his endorsement of the television movie,
The Path to 9/11The Path to 9/11 was a two-part miniseries that aired in the United States on ABC television from September 10 – 11, 2006, and also in other countries. The film dramatizes the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City and the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks.The film...
, was misguided. The film features some scenes which are known to be false, according to those involved and the official 9/11 Commission Report. Kean was also a paid consultant to the film and was credited as an
executive producerAn executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the filmmaking or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production. Typically an executive producer handles business and legal issues. See also associate producer, co-producer, line producer...
.
Kean on bin Laden: "We had him"
In December 2003, Kean said that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented, stating: "As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done. This was not something that had to happen."
On April 4, 2004, Kean again stated that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented, saying that the United States government should have acted sooner to dismantle al-Qaeda and responded more quickly to other terrorist threats. "When we actually saw bin Laden on the ground, using the Predator or other means, did we have...actionable intelligence? Should we have sent a cruise missile into a site where he was at that point? I think those early opportunities are clear. We had him. We saw him. I think maybe we could have done something about it."
On July 22, 2004, the Commission issued its final report, the
9/11 Commission Report9/11 Commission Report, formally named Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is the official report of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks...
, which concluded that the CIA and the
FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
had ill-served President Bush and the American people in failing to predict or prevent the September 11 attacks, which the report concluded was preventable.
Without Precedent
On August 15, 2006, a book by Kean and 9/11 Commission Vice Chairman
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton , the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, currently serves on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, having previously served in the United States House of Representatives for thirty-four years....
, titled
Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, was released regarding the September 11 attacks and the September 11 Commission.
In the book, Kean and Hamilton write that the 9/11 Commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by officials from
The PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
and
Federal Aviation AdministrationThe Federal Aviation Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation with authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
during their investigation that they considered a separate investigation into possible
obstruction of justiceThe crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by judges, prosecutors, attorneys general, and elected officials in general. It is misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance in the conduct of the office. Most commonly it is prosecuted as a crime for perjury by a non governmental official...
by Pentagon and FAA officials.
ABC's The Path to 9/11
Kean served as a paid consultant and spokesman for the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
miniseries
The Path to 9/11The Path to 9/11 was a two-part miniseries that aired in the United States on ABC television from September 10 – 11, 2006, and also in other countries. The film dramatizes the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City and the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks.The film...
, which aired nationally and without commercial interruption on September 10, 2006. On September 11, the second part of the miniseries aired, also without commercial interruption, with the exception of a 20-minute break at 9pm ET, when President Bush addressed the nation on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
While not technically considered a documentary by ABC, prior to its airing, the series drew criticism for misrepresenting facts leading up the September 11 attacks. Many former high-ranking Clinton administration officials, including Clinton himself, and other scholars, publicly questioned the accuracy of the miniseries and asked that it not be aired. Former Secretary of State
Madeleine AlbrightMadeleine Korbel Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99-0...
called the miniseries' portrayal of her "false and defamatory.". Former U.S. Ambassador to
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
Barbara BodineBarbara K. Bodine is a career member of the Foreign Service of the United States Department of State.-Education:...
also strongly criticized her character's portrayal, complaining in the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
about the "mythmakers" who created the film, calling the project "false." The film depicts Clinton and his administration with being aloof in addressing the al-Qaeda threat, failing to intervene in ways that could have prevented the attack, and being too absorbed in the political dimensions of the
Monica LewinskyMonica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom then-United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
scandal to properly defend the nation's national security interests.
Kean defended the docudrama in July 2006 and until the eve of the broadcast, declining to disclose the amount of his payment from ABC for supporting the project.
July 2007 al-Qaeda video cites Kean comments on al-Qaeda's strength
On July 4, 2007, the terrorist group
al-QaedaAl-Qaeda , alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida, is an Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988 and late 1989 and early 1990...
publicly released a video, featuring its Deputy Chief Ayman al-Zawahri urging all
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
s to unite in a
holy warJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning "struggle." Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah "...
against the U.S. in
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
and elsewhere. The 95-minute video was discovered and released by U.S. intelligence sources and, in addition to al-Zawahri's comments, prominently featured video excerpts of Kean citing al-Qaeda as one of the most formidable security threats that the U.S. has ever confronted, presumably with the intention of bolstering the morale of al-Qaeda supporters through Kean's citation of the magnitude of the movement's strength and threat. Comments by Kean cited on the video include a reference to the fact that al-Qaeda remains as strong in 2007 as it was before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The video also appeared to validate that al-Qaeda was closely monitoring U.S. political developments, especially including the work of the September 11 Commission, which Kean chaired. It also suggested that al-Qaeda intended to focus not just on engaging the West in Iraq, but also in other countries. "As for the second half of the long-term plan," al-Zawahri says on the video, "it consists of hurrying to the fields of Jihad like
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, Iraq and
SomaliaSomalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...
for Jihadi preparation and training."
Corporate boards
As of 2004, Kean was a member of a number of corporate
board of directorsA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board...
, including
ARAMARKAramark Limited, known commonly as Aramark, is an American food, facilities, and clothing provider, supplying businesses, courts, educational institutions, health care providers, and armed forces. It is headquartered in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Aramark is the 19th largest employer on...
,
Hess CorporationThe Hess Corporation is an integrated oil company based in New York City, New York, USA. The company explores, produces, transports, and refines crude oil as well as natural gas...
,
Pepsi Bottling GroupThe Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. is the world's largest bottler of Pepsi-Cola beverages. PBG sales of Pepsi-Cola beverages account for more than one-half of the Pepsi-Cola beverages sold in the United States and Canada and about 40 percent worldwide...
, and major financial firms
CIT Group IncorporatedCIT Group, Inc. is a large American commercial and consumer finance company, founded in 1908. The company is included in the Fortune 500 and is a leading participant in vendor financing, factoring, equipment and transportation financing, Small Business Administration loans, and asset-based lending...
and
Franklin Templeton InvestmentsFranklin Resources Inc. is a holding company which together with its subsidiaries is referred to as Franklin Templeton Investments; it is an investment firm originally founded in New York in 1947 as Franklin Distributors, Inc. It is listed on the NYSE under the ticker BEN as in Benjamin Franklin,...
.
Since 1993, Kean has also been on the board of
UnitedHealth GroupUnitedHealth Group Incorporated is a managed health care and health insurance company. According to its company literature, UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making health care work better...
, a large health insurance firm. In 2006, the
United States Securities and Exchange CommissionThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is an independent agency of the United States government which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets...
began investigating the conduct of the company's management and directors. Additionally, the
Internal Revenue ServiceThe Internal Revenue Service is the United States federal government agency that collects taxes and enforces the internal revenue laws. It is an agency within the U.S. Department of the Treasury and is responsible for interpretation and application of Federal tax law. The official U.S...
and prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York subpoenaed documents from the company. The investigations came to light after a series of probing articles in
The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000...
in May 2006, which reported on the apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock options by UnitedHealth Group's management. The backdating allegedly occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors, including Kean, who sat on the company's compensation committee during three crucial years, according to the
Journal. Major shareholders have filed lawsuits accusing Kean and the other directors of failing in their fiduciary duty.
In 2004, Kean's compensation from UnitedHealth Group alone was more than $650,000; in that year, as a corporate director, he missed more than a quarter of the company's board-related meetings.
Personal
Kean and his wife Deborah have three children, a daughter, Alexandra, and identical-twin sons, Tom and Reed. They live in
Bedminster Township, New JerseyBedminster Township is a Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 8,302....
. Kean's son, Tom, Jr., is a
New Jersey State SenatorThe New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the State Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
and
Minority LeaderIn U.S. politics, the minority leader is the Floor Leader of the second-largest caucus in a legislative body. Given the two-party nature of the U.S. system, the minority leader is almost inevitably either a Republican or a Democrat, with their counterpart being of the opposite party. The position...
of the
New Jersey SenateThe New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the State Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
, representing New Jersey's 21st district. Kean Jr. was the
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
SenatorialThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
nominee in the
November 2006 general electionThe New Jersey 2006 U.S. Senate election held November 7, 2006 determined that Democrat Bob Menendez will represent New Jersey in the United States Senate for a six-year term ending January 2013. The seat was previously held by Democratic Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine. After he stepped down...
, losing to
DemocratThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
Bob Menendez. The race was expected to be close, but Menendez won by a 9-point margin.
Kean is also a weekly columnist for the
Star-Ledger, a
Newark, New JerseyBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
newspaper, where he and former New Jersey Governor
Brendan ByrneBrendan Thomas Byrne is an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey, from 1974 to 1982.Byrne is a native of West Orange, New Jersey....
(his immediate predecessor as New Jersey Governor) address issues of the day in a column titled "Kean-Byrne Dialogue". Although both men sometimes disagree (as Kean is a Republican, while Byrne is a Democrat), they occasionally see eye to eye on topics, and both men have expressed great mutual respect for each other.
Kean is an advisor to, and has been inducted into,
Alpha Phi OmegaAlpha Phi Omega is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of approximately 17,000 students, and over 350,000 alumni members...
, a national service fraternity.
Kean is a partner in Quad Partners, a private equity firm that invests in the education industry.
On November 19, 2007, Kean endorsed
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
for the
2008 presidential raceThe 56th quadrennial United States presidential election was held on November 4, 2008. Outgoing Republican President George W. Bush's policies and actions and the American public's desire for change were key issues throughout the campaign, and during the general election campaign, both major party...
.
Trivia
Kean UniversityKean University is a state university located in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey....
in
Union TownshipNot to be confused with Union City, New Jersey in Hudson County and Union Beach, New Jersey in Monmouth County.Union is a Township in Union County, New Jersey, United States...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
, formerly located in
NewarkBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
and named Newark State College and Kean College, is named in memory of Kean's father, Robert, who served New Jersey in the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from 1939 to 1959. The land the university currently sits on was once owned by the Kean Family
External links
- Thomas H. Kean biography at 9/11 Commission Official Web Site.
- New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean biography, National Governors Association
The National Governors Association , founded in 1908 as the National Governors' Conference, is a primarily taxpayer-funded lobbying organization of the governors of the fifty U.S. states and five U.S. territories The National Governors Association (NGA), founded in 1908 as the National Governors'...
.
- Governor Tom Kean, a biography by Alvin S. Felzenberg, Rutgers University Press.
- "A View from Outside the Beltway: Winning Policy Themes for the 1990s", by Thomas Kean, Heritage Lecture #357, Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
, December 15, 1991.
- "9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon", The Washington Post
The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C. and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877. Being located in the nation's capital, it has a particular emphasis on national politics and international affairs...
, August 2, 2006.
- "Stonewalled by the C.I.A.", op-ed by Kean and Lee Hamilton, New York Times, January 2, 2008.
- Thomas Kean interview on CNN's "The Situation Room" regarding CIA's refusal to disclose al-Qaeda interview tapes to 9/11 Commission, January 2, 2008.