Representative Stephen Lynch joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday to talk about issues in his district, and what he's been up to in Washington. Rep. Lynch is a ranking member on the Subcommittee on National Security, and co-chair of the Task Force on Antiterrorism and Proliferation Financing. He talked about the death of Usaamah Rahim, the missing 28 pages from the 9/11 Commission report, and IndyCar racing in the Seaport.
Questions below are paraphrased. Rep. Lynch's answers are edited where noted [...].
Certain lawmakers like yourself have been briefed on the death of Usaamah Rahim. What have you been told that makes you believe that action was justified?
This is an ongoing investigation, so some of what is not public yet is really important to the ongoing investigation. […] There's some additional information that'll probably come out in the next couple weeks about the details, and I think that’ll be very enlightening, but I’m not allowed to speak to it right now.
You think there was sufficient evidence for the FBI to surveil him then?
I do. I think it goes back a ways. I think that they were watching him very closely for some time, and there were some triggering events that led them to believe that they had to move quickly. He had purchased some knives on Amazon. There were some conversations with his nephew, Mr. Wright, about a ‘change in plans.’ So, I think objectively you would look at that as sort of Mr. Rahim going ‘operational,’ as they say. [...] The officers and agents gave him every opportunity to surrender. I don't think that's been fully explored, and I understand some of the security issues, but I think they really did. They really did try to give this young man the opportunity to lay down his weapon and surrender. I think he was just so determined that there was no stopping him.
Usaamah Rahim's brother insists there's no evidence of Usaamah brandishing a knife in the surveillance video.
Yeah it's pretty far away, it's pretty far away. You do see — you do see the two agents going up. [...] They were under orders not to let him get on that bus. And then, all of a sudden you see [...] them all backing up, and him coming forward. So, right, you can't really see the knife. Then they continue to back up with increasing speed, and it looks like he comes after them. And after he goes down you see the officer go over and kick something away from him.
You’ve been on a campaign for a final 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission’s report to be un-classified so the public can see them.
This is part and parcel for the investigation that we had done leading up to the 9/11 report. [...] It was done fairly professionally, I think. They did a very good job. Senator Graham was the co-chair of that. We’ve had good investigators on this for a very long time. [...] Before it was made public, the White House reached in — at that time George W. Bush — and excised 28 pages. So this isn't a case of him going in and deleting certain words and phrases. [I’ve read those pages] multiple times in a secure location with Intelligence Committee staff and others watching me.
And to read them you had to go to some kind of secure room, under supervision, right?
I had to surrender my iPad, my phone, any other electronics. [...] I sit there. Across the table I’ve got three other individuals. [...] I’m trying to memorize, [...] so I read the 28 pages over and over and over again. Finally, [...] I turned to the intelligence staffer and I said, ‘I just want you to know I think this is information that should be made public.' [...] They all started scribbling, because they're allowed to take notes on me reading [the report].
So they made you take all these precautions. Why should this report be released?
We owe it to, number one, the families because look, if you have American citizens killed by terrorists they should be given the full explanation. We owe it to them. [...] The people that are complicit in these attacks should be held accountable.
Conventional wisdom is that there are ties between Saudi Arabia — a US ally — and the hijackers, and that both the Bush and Obama administrations have been sensitive about revealing.
I think that's part of it. That has been out there. I think that Senator [Bob] Graham made that point in his book. So that's public, and I can talk about that in that context. I also think the information that was out there, their surveillance of these individuals, the funding — you know it may embarrass some of the national security personnel who were in place and whose job it was to prevent these attacks from occurring. So I think there's some embarrassment there. [...] I thought President Obama would take a different look at this and perhaps allow them to be released.
What do you make of Mayor Walsh securing an IndyCar race in the Seaport in 2016?
I'm with that. I think that will be an exciting opportunity. [There's] a lot of support, a lot of fans. I think they can do it safely. I think it'll be an exciting way of bringing people to the South Boston waterfront. I think it'll be great, I think it'll be cool, and I think we can do it in a way that enhances what we've got going on the South Boston waterfront. [...] And if it doesn't work out the first year we're doing it, we won't do it again. That's all.
Do you have a candidate in the 2016 presidential race?
I do. Hillary Clinton.
You're not concerned about Benghazi emails?
I've never chosen my President based on how they handle their emails, and I'm not going to start. I think there are a whole lot of other important issues where Hillary Clinton is rock-solid.
