WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2007
Report Cites Major CIA Lapses Before 9/11
Watchdog Slams Agency For Failing To Tackle Al Qaeda Effectively
-
Play CBS Video Video CIA Releases 9/11 Summary Congress forced the CIA to release a summary of its report on failures to act against al Qaeda leading to 9/11. David Martin reports.
-
(AP / CBS)
-
Who's Who Spy Agency Chiefs A glimpse at those who have headed the Central Intelligence Agency since its inception.
-
Interactive 21st Century Spying The biggest overhaul of the U.S. intelligence community in half a century.
-
Timeline In Terror's Wake A look at the major developments following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Completed in June 2005 and kept classified until now, the 19-page executive summary finds extensive fault with the actions of senior CIA leaders and others beneath them. "The agency and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner," the CIA inspector general found.
"They did not always work effectively and cooperatively," the report stated.
Nearly three years before 9/11, then-CIA Director George Tenet signed a directive declaring "we are at war" with Osama Bin Laden and directed that "no resources or people (be) spared," reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. But the inspector general found "no…strategic plan was ever created" and no extra money or people were added to operations against Bin Laden.
Yet the review team led by Inspector General John Helgerson found neither a "single point of failure nor a silver bullet" that would have stopped the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
In a statement, CIA Director Michael Hayden said the decision to release the report was not his choice or preference, but that he was making the report available as required by Congress in a law President George W. Bush signed earlier this month.
"I thought the release of this report would distract officers serving their country on the front lines of a global conflict," Hayden said. "It will, at a minimum, consume time and attention revisiting ground that is already well plowed."
The report does cover terrain heavily examined by a congressional inquiry and the Sept. 11 Commission. However, the CIA watchdog's report goes further than previous reviews to examine the personal failings of individuals within the agency who led the pre-Sept. 11 efforts against al Qaeda.
Helgerson's team found that no CIA employees violated the law or were part of any misconduct.
The report recommends Tenet and other senior officers face possible disciplinary action, adds Martin, but a statement by the current CIA director says that's not going to happen.
In October 2005, then-CIA Director Porter Goss also rejected the recommendation. He said he had spoken personally with the current employees named in the report, and he trusted their abilities and dedication. "The report unveiled no mysteries," Goss said.
Hayden stuck by Goss's decision.
Providing a glimpse of a series of shortfalls laid out in the longer, still-classified report, the executive summary says:
While blame is heaped on Tenet and his deputies, the report also says that Tenet was forcefully engaged in counterterrorism efforts and personally sounded the alarm before Congress, the military and policymakers. In a now well-known 1998 memo, he declared, "We are at war."
The trouble, the report said, was follow-up.
In a statement, Tenet said the inspector general is "flat wrong" about the lack of plan.
"There was in fact a robust plan, marked by extraordinary effort and dedication to fighting terrorism, dating back to long before 9/11," he said. "Without such an effort, we would not have been able to give the president a plan on Sept. 15, 2001, that led to the routing of the Taliban, chasing al Qaeda from its Afghan sanctuary and combating terrorists across 92 countries."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From War On Terror
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
... - 21
- next
See all 407 CommentsYou are a hate monger, a liar and no doubt a person with a deeply flawed character, an individual blinded to the truth by your left leaning ideology. You are as flawed and weak as the Liberal left in America. You and people like you are the problem in America today, you are not part of the solution. You live in a %u201Csound bite%u201D world, cleaver slogans rule your day and you believe them, just like you believe the Kennedy%u2019s and Kerry%u2019s of the world. How very sad indeed.
-- Tell me he''s not using his office for a political agenda in violation of our laws ---
-- Our agents in the CIA deserve a hell of a lot better & so does America & our Troops
How can you tolerate this administration for promoting the political shrub that witheld Al Queda communication intel from the CIA - The very agency task with following them ??????? Is that your idea of Patrotism for America ????????
FYI -- WE TORTURE & LOCK PEOPLE UP WITHOUT DUE PROCESS IN ORDER TO GET EXACTLY THAT KIND OF INTELLIGENCE
... Now the SOB takes away veterans Tri Care Prime medical insurance,, Denies veterans full educational benifits & lied to our troops on Mine Resistant Vehicles he promised them.
I''m sure you can tell me what muslems do to them,,, You''ve probably been all over the hate sites.
.. Bush deserted his country when he ran from Viet Nam & attacked heroic Veterans for thier service ----
-- He''s a frigging low life corrupt asss coward & always was... --
--- My plan is seeing the SOB in prison were he should have been years ago.
+ report abuse
*****
You simply are trying to see it from a logical stand point. oh well you have a hard on in getting rid of bush..well he will be gone 2008..so what is your plan after that??
You know you are right..we should pull all our troops, stop spying on muslims as a matter fact open the floodgates and let them all in..Let see who goes first..the conservatives or the liberals...do you know what muslims do to homosexuals????
How much money does Congress spend rehashing the same garbage ...
We all know that our law enforcement agencies let us down ... as well every single pol that is in office ...
When will Americans wake up and start sending these personal agenda idiots out to pasture?
TERM LIMITS FOR ALL !!!!
-- As a direct result the topic in D.C. has turned from Iraq is Mission Accomplished into How fast can we leave & that you here from both parties...
.. Generals on the ground are open about democracy no longer being the option.... "Iraq is the center of the War on Terror" according to our "Decider" Not even half the number of Mine Resistant Vehicles promised will ever be built... Defense dept. contractors --
-- Who would have known what Liberals have been saying was correct all along ??
The group, Freedom''''s Watch
The $15 Republican ad campaign full of Slogans
The global war on terror
Freedom is on the March
Shock and Awe
They Hate us for our Freedoms
Your with us or Against us
It''''s Hard Work
etc. Blah Blah
Book Chief: Conservatives Want Slogans
Aug 21 02:40 PM US/Eastern
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry''''s trade group says she knows why%u2014and there''''s little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: ''''No, don''''t raise my taxes, no new taxes,''''" Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. "It''''s pretty hard to write a book saying, ''''No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes'''' on every page."
and there''''s little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: ''''No, don''''t raise my taxes, no new taxes,''''" Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. "It''''s pretty hard to write a book saying, ''''No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes'''' on every page."
+ report abuse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******
you are as bogged down as Bush..there would be no future as long as both conservatives and liberals are both bogged down. you dont see the benefit of working together. an attack is imminent and is coming sooner that you expect and after that attack..we will be again bogged down..work together and the liberals would come out of it more triumphant than the conservatives.
herbert who wrote the dune series for the
cia, osama bin laden, paul of arrakis.
the main hero of the dune series.
in the first novel he is triumphant over
all, and marries the princess irulani.
where fiction crosses the set of reality.
and the set of reality containus unreality.
venn diagrams from junior high algebra.
do they still teach that? or is it
the ''new'' math, 2 plus 2 =22 not 4. the f.b.i.
or federal bureau of islam is doing a good
job making islam palatable and behave.
the federal bureau of israel is doing a good
job too of behaving well. the honor system.
always works perfectly. the cia is also
known as the communist intelligence agency.
and also the capitalist intelligence agency.
and as rodney king''s lawyer had him say
as he was their mouthpiece that got them
rich, can''t we all just get along.
,,, Who would have ever expected that to happen except liberals, as we have been saying since Bush started this war ???
Well look - I''d love to stay on-line all afternoon, but now, I do have to log off. I''ll look forward to seeing your answer tomorrow on why you thought there were 110 Senators in Congress. (''Kin-A, no wonder this idiot believes Bush is a card carry Nazi.)
You''re just a mite bit confused, boy. But, that''s a given, Liberalism is a disease. So, don''t take it personal, ok. 110 Senators - (this kid is a *** I N Idiot.)
troll - note: this definition comes from the ''internet'' - I''m not sure if it has anything to do with "the worlds 1st nude actress Hedy Lamarr in 1933 who held the 1st patent on Frequency Modulation" or self-proclaimed inventor, Mr. Gore; but, nerver-the-less here it is, so you will know how people perceive you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
BTW, if you are form California (amazing - you spelled the state correctly) how can you possibly be so ignorant as to say there are 110 Senators ? Answer this, please.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
... - 21
- next
See all 407 Comments