WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2007
Report Cites Major CIA Lapses Before 9/11
Watchdog Slams Agency For Failing To Tackle Al Qaeda Effectively
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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.
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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.
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Ya think?
Posted by patriotnw at 04:01 PM : Aug 21, 2007
Yeah, he didn''t have anyone to read it to him! Bush lied and soldiers died!!!! Long live Cindy Sheehan! Power to da people! :)
What I find scary is that they don''t seem to have learned to act much differently - we still don''t have enough agents who can act in the middle east or in middle eastern cultures - we still don''t have enough arab-speaking personnel and they''re now all headed by Waste of Space Chertoff who heads a mostly defunct poorly operating Homeland Defense.
We''re screwed.
Oh my... it''''s another "blame Clinton" robot. If that''''s the case, then why didn''''t Bush go after the perpetrators of the U.S.S. Cole bombing? And let''''s not forget the memo Bush received "Bin Laden determined to attack U.S.", which he swept aside like an old Sunday comic strip.
---------------------------------
Get an eductation, the USS COLE Bombing occured under Clinton not Bush.
Cheney never believed that there were WMDs there - he can''t be that insane - but man - isn''t it a great way to feed into the fear of the cowardly Bushies. They''re such fools - Bush could tell them the moon was made out of cheese and they''d believe him.
Sheesh - you lot get dumber by the second.
Posted by nyckate at 04:06 PM : Aug 21, 2007
Sure we are....that''s why we haven''t been attacked since 2001. We''ll BE screwed if a dem gets elected.
But you know what? Clinton didn''t blame Bush - CLinton''s a grownup - you''re an immature whining whinging fool who supports other fools.
Posted by nyckate at 04:17 PM : Aug 21, 2007
But is was CLINTON''S responsibility to do something about it! The people were put in jail, but the scope of the attact was not taken in to account.
Further, impediments were put in place by flunkies in Clinton''s administration that actually made it impossible for agencies to share intelligence.
Have you seen my BJ? I had it here a minute ago.....
AQ has plenty of Americans to attack -- they''re in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Saudie Arabia, Turkey, etc you ignorant ignorant stupid fool.
You people are never going to wise up are you? You''re just like Bush - so long as your cowardly behinds are safe let other Americans die in your place. God may be able to forgive you - we won''t.
ORIG: "If that''s the case, then why didn''t Bush go after the perpetrators of the U.S.S. Cole bombing?"
NEXGEN RESPONSE: "Get an eductation, the USS COLE Bombing occured under Clinton not Bush."
MY RESPONSE TO NEXGEN:
I said "why didn''t he go after the perpetrators"? Remember, oh convenient Clinton-blamers, it was established that al Qaeda was responsible for the Cole bombing and the president was briefed in January of 2001, soon after he took office, by George Tenet, head of the CIA, telling him of the finding that al Qaeda was responsible, Well, why wouldn%u2019t Bush go after the Taliban in order to get them to kick bin Laden out of Afghanistan? Maybe then 9/11 would never have happened...
Oct. 12, 2000 - A terrorist bomb damages the destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.
Aug. 7, 1998 - Terrorist bombs destroy the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Nairobi, 12 Americans are among the 291 killed, and over 5,000 are wounded, including 6 Americans. In Dar es Salaam, one U.S. citizen is wounded among the 10 killed and 77 injured.
June 21, 1998 - Rocket-propelled grenades explode near the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
June 25, 1996 - A bomb aboard a fuel truck explodes outside a U.S. air force installation in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 19 U.S. military personnel are killed in the Khubar Towers housing facility, and 515 are wounded, including 240 Americans.
Nov. 13, 1995 - A car-bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills seven people, five of them American military and civilian advisers for National Guard training. The "Tigers of the Gulf," "Islamist Movement for Change," and "Fighting Advocates of God" claim responsibility.
You''re blaming 9/11 on Clinton cause the attack was planned under his presidency.
You''re blaming the 1993 attack on clinton cause the attach was planned under Bush Sr. presidency but your own immature personal hatred/envy of Bill Clinton shows you up for a fool.
You probably would like the blame the 1983 attack against US base in Lebanon on Clinton too. SOmehow it must be his fault.
You hate that Clinton bombed Sudan to try and get bin Laden, you hate that Clinton bombed suspected sites of WMD in Iraq and got not one American killed. You hate that Clinton sent troops to stop genoicide there and not one Amerian soldier lost his life there either.
What you really hate is that Goergie Bush Junior is a complete and utter failure - he should you just what a girly-man sissified fake cowboy drunken trust fund baby could do -- FAIL
Oh - and it''s raining today and that''s Bill''s fault too.
Re: "Report Cites Major CIA Lapses Before 9/11"
These weren''t "lapses". The PNAC traitors needed a "new Pearl Harbor" in order to advance their idiot plan for global hegemony.
www.zeitgeistmovie.com
Posted by nyckate at 04:21 PM : Aug 21, 2007
I''ll try my best to live with my guilty conscience....if you can, I can. :)
Unless that action gets REVERSED and addressed to the exclusion of other shell games, you can focus on lots of other *** until the cows come home, and it will be a deliberate idotic whitewwash.
It isn''t a myth.
While you two giggle in the same bed saying, "Clinton, b.j. giggle, giggle" the world is still going through this helll after 9/11.
So get back under the sheets and keep giggling while this mess continues and others deal with the present.
I for one am totally tired of stupid "reasoning" as your "Clinton b.j." sophomoric game.
BRAINWASHING.
ZEITGEISTmovie.com.
The History Channel and their FAKE 9/11 PROPAGANDA.
ZEITGEISTmovie.com
The day of 911, the only ones allowed to fly (even the ex-President Bush Senior could not fly)--no planes were in the air (I personally viewed nation wide radar and there was no air traffic)--was the Bin Laden family, apparently by special order of the administration (George W. Bush).
Unless that action gets REVERSED and addressed to the exclusion of other shell games, you can focus on lots of other *** until the cows come home, and it will be a deliberate idotic whitewwash.
It isn''''t a myth.
-severe cutbacks in funding for CIA
-500,000 troop reduction for military
-severe cutbacks in military spending
Deal with it, liberals.
Everyone knows that 9/11 happened under Clinton''s watch.
FBI - Failed US on 9/11
Bu$h - Failed US on 9/11
Deal with it neocons.
Re: ""The report unveiled no mysteries," Goss said."
On 9/11/01, Porter Goss was having breakfast with the head of Pakistan''s ISI- the man who supposedly ordered $100,000 to be wired to the alleged "lead hijacker", Mohamed Atta.
Anything coming out of Goss'' mouth on this topic is almost certainly a lie.
www.zeitgeistmovie.com
But yeah - that''s clinton''s fault too. Sheesh -what the heck are we going to do with you whining, whinging cowards when Goergie is out of office??? Maybe he''ll let ya''ll put trailers in Crawford or something and you can whine and whinge together.
If the "WAR ON TERROR" works as good as the "WAR ON DRUGS", terrorists will be in control of America in no time.
Rumsfeld also ran Pentagon as if it were their private feifdom - today''s Pentagon couldn''t successfully organize a tea party without 10 committees and $30 billion.
We need to FIX what''s broken - Rumsfeld and Bush tried to run a military on politics and theories of war games they thought might work - any general who dared disagree with them was forced out -- their delusions of grandeur aren''t funny - they''re harmful.
Pentagon is a huge wasteful corporation - how else to describe a department that paid two texas spinsters $20 million in shipping fees for $1.19 washers over and over and over again.
They''ve been ''developing'' weapons for decades - and each of the approving officers always leave and go work for that contractor. A payoff is a payoff is a payoff.
Then we have a white house that has apparently no ability to write a legal contract writing them to Halliburton - they dont'' even have to perform well just submit bills that Bush keeps approving.
Of all the lame excuses this one ranks at the top!
The other agency that should examine its record is the FBI. A senior FBI agent, man by the name of John Powell, tried over and over to get Mueller''s top people to listen to him about Bin Laden. He was ignored, passed over for promotion for making waves and finally took a job of head of security at World Trade Center. He died Sept 11 trying to save others.
Or how about that complete *** that kept refusing Colleen Rowley the right to search Moussoui''s computer. That ****** was actually promoted!! Or the memo written my agent Ken Williams about his concern of terrorist taking flying lessons.
The top tier of the FBI, CIA, NSA are all at fault and should all be forced out of their jobs. There were plenty of warnings from agents all over that were ignored over and over.
So instead of being investigated, Tenet actually gets the medal of freedom from dubya.
That really speaks volumes about how totally screwed up our defense system is.
Sudan REFUSED to hand bin Laden over to America - they did say they would give him to saudies and then the saudies could hand him over.
Strangely Bush''s Family Friends the Saudies refused.
That''s when Clinton ordered the bombing of the factory in SUdan.
On August 10, 1998, Clinton authorized a bombing campaign on alleged terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan -- including a suspected terrorist training compound in Afghanistan where bin Laden was believed to have taken refuge at the time -- in response to the August 7, 1998, twin bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Sen. John D. Ashcroft (R-MO) declared that "there is a cloud over this presidency;" and then-Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) asserted:
The president has been consumed with matters regarding his personal life. It raises questions about whether or not he had the time to devote to this issue, or give the kind of judgment that needed to be given to this issue to call for military action."
nyckate,
Re: "Pentagon is a huge wasteful corporation - how else to describe a department that paid two texas spinsters $20 million in shipping fees for $1.19 washers over and over and over again."
That is chump change.
On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon could not account for $2.3 trillion.
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