If I were a 9/11 Commissioner, I would ask:

1. What were the vacation schedules and locations in July and August 2001, of the principals of our government and national security apparatus, including the President, Vice President, Condoleezza Rice, Andy Card, George Tenant and Louis Fresh?

2. Did the President actually read the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing?

As many Americans, I have been following closely the developing drama of the 9/11 Commission. It occurs to me, that the 9/11 tragedy may have had a lot to do with two pretty basic human frailties: the natural tendency to protect one's committed vacation time; and not being very good at doing homework.

A Google search of "Bush Vacation 2001" brings up an interesting set of articles... They reinforce my faded memory of the controversy over the President's long August 2001 vacation. I remember that he was going to relax and work on an initiative for neighborhood volunteerism, to be rolled out in September. The articles remind that he used some of that time to finalize the Administration's position on stem cell research. An August 3, 2001 USA Today article said the President looked forward to "seeing the cows. Occasionally they talk to me -- being the good listener that I am." The articles indicate that the Vice President was in Wyoming during this time.

An August 6, 2001, USA Today article says that, that day, the President took a morning jog, got his daily intelligence briefings and spoke by telephone with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Chief of Staff Andy Card, then went to work on a nature trail in a canyon. This is the date of the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) memorandum, which is now taking on such significance.

Was the President hearing directly from George Tenet during August 2001? Did Tenet go on August vacation?

What about the other days of the President's vacation? Was Mr. Bush briefed every day by Ms. Rice and Mr. Card? If so, where are there other relevant PDBs between August 6, 2001, and Sept. 11, 2001?

The "dog days of August" in Washington, D.C., are legendary. Those with the ability to get away do. For that reason, not much of substance gets done by government in August. This is true, to a somewhat lesser extent, in much of American business.

Anyone who works hard and commits to taking a vacation, knows how difficult it is to keep intervening events from disrupting or ruining the relaxation of the vacation. This has to be all the more true for those in high office. I have been surprised at the media's, and the Commission's, willingness to ignore the vacations of all involved, as contributing to the informational breakdown preceding September 11.

My theory is that, as the intelligence community began to pick up the chatter of an impending attack in late June 2001, and as Richard Clarke began to run around "with his hair on fire", there was an inherently human predisposition for the decision makers not to listen carefully. The vague indications of potential terrorism were troublesome, "but why screw up a good vacation over them. If they come into focus, we will deal with them. If not, they will still be here when we get back in September." This happens on millions of desks, in every office in America, every summer. Nonetheless, the 9/11 Commission should pull into focus exactly where every one of the principal players was, and what they were doing, during this critical period.

My second question is prompted by a television interview of the President, which I saw in late September 2003. The transcript of interview is on the Internet. FOX News anchor Brit Hume asked Mr. Bush some pretty softball questions, before finding out how the President gets his news. Mr. Bush told a pretty astonished Hume that he does not read newspapers, but relies on briefings from Condoleezza Rice and Andy Card for unbiased news. This gave me the impression that the President may get most of his information in face to face conversations, rather than in written form. That leaves me wondering whether the President has a learning disability. If either is true, what is in the August 6, 2001 PDB matters, but more important is what the President was told during the August 6, 2001 briefing by Rice and Card.

My interest in these issues is more than passing. The photo below is of my parents, Francis and Marilyn Bradach, and my nephew Marine Corporal Travis Bradach-Nall, at a family beach campout in early August 2002. They are all now dead.

My parents died in a car fire on Mount Hood, on March 13, 2003. While I am still questioning what happened to them, the Oregon State Medical Examiner found that their deaths were suicides. If that is the case, I can say that the pressures of world, national and local events, including 9/11, its economic and political aftermath, and, particularly, the impending Iraq war, were factors in that outcome. On March 13, 2003, my nephew Marine Corporal Travis Bradach-Nall was perched on the Kuwait border. His group of courageous, but so very young, Marines would be among the first into Iraq. Travis survived the "war". He volunteered to stay and help clean up ordinance and mines which were endangering our troops and the Iraqi people.

He was killed near Karbala, Iraq, when a mine exploded, on July 2, 2003.

The recent 9/11 hearings brought to my attention the "Jersey Girls". They are four widows and mothers, who lost their husbands in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. They have been relentless in their push for answers, beyond the political talking points. The 9/11 Commission exists and Ms. Rice testified, in great part, because of the Jersey Girls now considerable clout. I feel a kinship with the Jersey Girls, in the tragedies endured by my family.

In a real sense, every American is a Jersey Girl. While not all have lost family members, no American has escaped harm from the attacks. We have all been affected by the policies, decisions, acts and omissions which preceded and followed September 11. The Jersey Girls and the rest of us deserve to ask questions, and to get straight answers. I want to start with the two questions set forth above.

John F. Bradach, Sr. is a Portland Construction Law Attorney.