Thomas Howard Kean (/ˈkeɪn/ KAYN;[1] born April 21, 1935) is an American politician, statesman, and academic administrator from the state of New Jersey.

[citation needed] In 1974, Kean ran for Congress in New Jersey's 5th congressional district but lost the Republican primary to Millicent Fenwick by 0.32%.

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 Bateman.

In his campaign, Kean pledged to foster job creation, clean up toxic waste sites, reduce crime, and preserve home rule.

[2] The election was controversial due to the involvement of the Republican National Committee, who appointed a Ballot Security Task Force that was alleged to have intimidated voters.

A number of leading New Jersey figures of the 1990s and 2000s began their political careers in Kean's administration, including Douglas Forrester, Bob Franks, and Chris Daggett.

Kean would frequently eat lunch unannounced with students in the dining hall and was a regular spectator at Drew sporting events.

[32] In 1990, Kean for the first time began expressing views on foreign policy and national security matters that generally mirrored those of the Republican Party.

In a December 15, 1991, speech to The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Kean endorsed free trade initiatives then under way by the George H. W. Bush administration.

Kean also advocated continued U.S. aid to anti-communist resistance forces in Afghanistan, Angola, and to those engaged in supporting democratic change in the former Soviet Union.

[citation needed] Kean served as co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center.[34][when?]

[35][17][36][37] In 2006, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the conduct of United Health Group's management and directors, and the Internal Revenue Service 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 following publication of a series of probing articles in The Wall Street Journal 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 Wall Street Journal.

[citation needed] Bush initially selected Richard Nixon's former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to head the 9/11 Commission.

But Kissinger faced opposition due to his potential conflicts of interest with his global business consultancy, and withdrew from consideration for the position on December 13, 2002.

[43] In December 2003, as the 9/11 Commission neared completion of its investigation, Kean said that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented, saying, "As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done.

"[44] On April 4, 2004, in an interview with Meet the Press, Kean again stated that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented, saying that the federal government should have acted sooner to dismantle al-Qaeda and responded more quickly to the terrorist threat it represented.

[46] In the book, Kean and Hamilton write that the 9/11 Commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by The Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration that it considered an investigation into possible deception by these government bodies concerning their response to the attacks.

[47] Kean served as a paid consultant and spokesman for the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, which aired nationally in primetime in two segments, on September 10 and 11, 2006.

The second part of the miniseries also aired without commercial interruption with the exception of a 20-minute break at 9 pm ET, when President Bush addressed the nation on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

[citation needed] While not technically considered a documentary by ABC, the series drew criticism prior to its airing for misrepresenting facts leading up the September 11 attacks.

"[48] Former U.S. ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine also strongly criticized her own portrayal, complaining in the Los Angeles Times about the "mythmakers" who created it and calling the project "false.

Comments by Kean cited on the video include a reference to the fact that al-Qaeda remained as strong in 2007 as it was before the September 11, 2001, attacks.

[citation needed] The video also appeared to validate that al-Qaeda was closely monitoring U.S. political developments, especially including the work of the commission.

"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 Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia for Jihadi preparation and training".