September 11 marks the third anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on our nation, something no commentator can ignore. This year, the proceedings should remind us that when it comes to raking officials over the coals, men still get priority. There are good reasons that should change in favor of a more even-handed approach.

The 9/11 Commission disbanded on August 21, a Saturday, the same day they released, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel, Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. In a strange disclaimer, the Commission's executive director Philip Zelikow says the report, "does not necessarily reflect" the views of the Commissioners. These included a woman whose only role should have been interviewee.

Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, went way out of her way to make sure law enforcement and intelligence agencies didn't talk to each other on the terrorist issue – precisely what they should have done. This helped ensure that, as this report says, the government "didn't know what it knew."

Gorelick makes a brief and inconsequential appearance in the footnotes of 9/11 and Terrorist Travel. Unfortunately, her role in reinforcing the government's ignorance about terrorism remains unexposed. She should have been answering questions, not asking them. While Jamie Gorelick would likely be John Kerry's choice for Attorney General, the Janet Reno figure of this neglected report is someone else.

"It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country," explains the preface. "Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal." (emphasis added) Those agencies include the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). As the report makes clear, this agency, along with the State Department, in effect made the U.S. government a kind of travel agency for terrorists.

Doris Meissner served in the INS from 1981 to 1986 and returned as Commissioner in 1993. During her tenure as INS head, she was briefed only once on the terrorist threat, and when the 9/11 Commission interviewed her, she could not remember anything about the briefing. During Meissner's stint, Osama Bin Laden was active, with attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa, and on the USS Cole. Meissner, however, had never even heard of Osama Bin Laden until August 2001, nearly 10 months after she left the INS.

It is as if the head of the FBI were to remain ignorant of public enemy number one and ignore organized crime. Such appalling ignorance would have been better exposed in the larger 9/11 report, the best-seller, rather than as a partially disclaimed document released on a Saturday during an election season and the Olympics. Meissner also should have been a prime candidate for televised public testimony.

Her views stand in sharp contrast with those of the late Barbara Jordan, who chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. This report notes Jordan's observation that our policy should let in those who should get in and keep out those who should be kept out and "require to leave" those who are here but should not be.

After 9/11, that will strike readers as completely sensible, but as this report makes clear, the United States government has a marked aversion to common-sense solutions. These include equal treatment for women.

As we have pointed out in this space, even though Brigadier Gen. Janis Karpinski was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison during the time of the abuses, Gen. Karpinski was not dragged before the Senate Armed Services Committee for a public grilling like her male counterparts. Further, Soldiers Megan Ambuhl, Sabrina Harman, and Lynndie England, she of the famous photo, were not the first to be prosecuted for abuses. A man was, one Jeremy Sivits. We also observed that it would be insane to have women guarding men in California, let alone an Islamic nation such as Iraq.

Three years after 9/11, we know that bad government abets terrorism. When women play a role in bad government, and they have, they should not be spared criticism. They should bear the consequences of their actions, just like their male counterparts. As 9/11 and Terrorist Travel, makes clear, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Sally Pipes is President and CEO at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. She can be reached via email at spipes@pacificresearch.org.