Posted on 08/21/2007 1:27:11 PM PDT by STARWISE
The CIA's top leaders failed to use their available powers, never developed a comprehensive plan to stop al-Qaida and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to Sept. 11, the agency's own watchdog concluded in a bruising report released Tuesday.
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,"
*snip*
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.
*snip*
• The CIA and the National Security Agency tussled over their responsibilities in dealing with al-Qaida well into 2001. Only Tenet's personal involvement could have led to a timely resolution, the report concluded.
*snip*
The report recommended forming accountability boards for the CIA Counterterror Center chiefs from 1998 to 2001, including Black.
• Although 50 to 60 people read at least one CIA cable about two of the hijackers, the information wasn't shared with the proper offices and agencies. "That so many individuals failed to act in this case reflects a systemic breakdown.... Basically, there was no coherent, functioning watch-listing program," the report said. The report again called for further review of Black and his predecessor.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hmmm ... no mention of Clinton, Berger, Able Danger.
PING ~~!
It's from the AP... Oh and BTW Clinton at least TRIED to get Bin Laden! Well at least according to Clinton.
More and more I wonder... just what the heck do we give all that money to the CIA for?
Come on, that's all in the past. Besides it's just about sex. And if it weren't for you right wing nuts trying to impeach him why Bill Clinton could get on with the business of America. It's actually Bushes fault that Bill Clinton couldn't stop Al Queda.
That's right. Karl Rove and his VRWC were out planting stories about BC for years and he got so distracted that that whole Al Queda thingy just slipped right out of his mind quicker than you can slip a cigar into a young intern.
So you see, it's not Bill Clintons fault....
(I don't really need to point out that the above was sarcasm, do I?)
L
Thanks tons, STARWISE. I have been looking for something on this.
And after all that attention that Bill Clinton gave his CIA chief ... why, he met with him what, at least twice during his 8 years in office?
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 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.”
#####
How in heck will the release of this report affect officers in the field, unless Congress plans to use it for more so-called “hearings”, of activities that took place six years ago.
Quote: “The CIA’s top leaders failed...to stop al-Qaida ...in the run-up to Sept. 11...”
UNDER BILL CLINTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Say it! Say it! Under Bill Clinton!!!
Oh, Bill was the greatest. Just ask Richard Clarke.
These people have no credibility.
“Clintonista strategy ... kick the can down the road.”
Clintonista strategy - Don’t do anything, and then lie about it later.
http://www.abledangerblog.com/
Inside Able Danger – The Secret Birth, Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death of a U.S. Military Intelligence Program
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/sep_05/shaffer_interview.html
“Shaffer said Able Danger was begun in 1999 at the request of General Hugh Shelton, then the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and under the direct supervision of General Pete Schoomaker, then the commander of the Special Operations Command (SOCOM), based in Tampa, FL. Shaffer described how he was personally recruited to the newly-created unit by General Schoomaker.
After briefing the CIA’s representative stationed at SOCOM headquarters, and explaining that Able Danger would not be
competing with the CIA’s own separate mission to find and
kill Osama bin Laden, Shaffer was surprised by the CIA rep’s stern resistance to sharing any information, said Shaffer.
“I clearly understand the difference,” the CIA rep told him, according to Shaffer. “I clearly understand. We’re going after the leadership. You guys are going after the body.
But, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is, CIA will never give you the best information from ‘Alex Base’ or anywhere else.
CIA will never provide that to you because if you were successful in your effort to target Al Qaeda, you will steal our thunder. Therefore, we will not support this.”
~~~~~~
And who goes after despicable, arrogant, self-serving cretins like him and makes THEM pay for their treasonous and devastating obstructionism?
~~~~~~
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57232
The war on Weldon (former Rep. Curt Weldon, involved in helping Anthony Shaefer in Able Danger) gets scarier, part I
“In no case, however, has this collaboration of progressive forces acted with more diabolical efficiency than in that of Weldon. Regardless of any charges that may be filed against him, Weldon committed only one unforgivable crime: Investigating the intelligence failures of the Clinton era.
As to specific counts, Weldon wrote an exposé of the CIA’s performance prior to Sept. 11, “Countdown to Terror”, which won him few friends in that overly politicized agency. (Read Rowan Scarborough’s excellent “Sabotage” to understand the CIA role in the Democratic collaboration).
More provocatively, in June 2005, Weldon revealed that Clinton administration attorneys had intervened to stop the “Able Danger” group in the Defense Intelligence Agency from initiating preventive actions against two of the Sept. 11 terrorists.
Payback began in 2004 when the Los Angeles Times ran a series on members of Congress whose family members lobby or work as consultants.
The Weldon family member in the spotlight was his daughter, Karen Weldon. In 2002, the then 28 year old had co-founded Solutions North America, a business consultancy along with a millionaire entrepreneur named Charles Sexton.
That much said, as the Times also acknowledged, “Congressional ethics rules provide few barriers to the practice. They do not forbid members of Congress from helping companies or others who are paying their relatives.”
The House Ethics Committee, in fact, cleared Weldon of any wrongdoing.
That was not clearance enough for the mischief-makers from CREW. Its executive director, Melanie Sloan, petitioned the Justice Department to investigate Weldon and determine whether the congressman had violated a federal bribery law. This petition, once executed and amplified, would spell the end of Weldon’s career.
Sloan had been recruited just the year before by a pair of wealthy Democratic activists, Norman Eisen and Louis Mayberg. Sloan, then an assistant United States attorney in Washington D.C., saw the potential in their brainchild, signed on and nurtured CREW to life.
In principle, CREW was to function as something of a counterweight to Judicial Watch, the D.C.-based conservative watchdog group. CREW describes itself, in fact, as nonpartisan. Its presumed target – “government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests.”
In reality, however, CREW has emerged as something of a dirty tricks operation for a truly worrisome cabal known as the Democratic Alliance.”
Well George gave Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
It seems to me .... clinton that’s bill.... passed a bill or what ever making it impossible for the CIA and other organizations to communicate with each other.
Also see my post #20 .. ;)
Bush Honors Tenet, Franks, Bremer
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2004
Mr. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer.
Franks is a retired four-star Army general who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. He didn’t decide until last summer to endorse Mr. Bush’s re-election, but then spoke on the president’s behalf at the Republican National Convention and campaigned for him through the fall.
Mr. Bush said Franks “led the forces that fought and won two wars in the defense of the world’s security and helped liberate more than 50 million people from two of the worst tyrannies in the world.”
Tenet left the CIA in July after seven years as director. He has been criticized for intelligence failures before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the never-proven prewar allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Bush credited him as “one of the first to recognize and address the threat to America from radical networks.” He said that after Sept. 11, Tenet was “ready with a plan to strike back at al Qaeda and to topple the Taliban.”
Bremer was the top civilian U.S. official in postwar Iraq, overseeing the transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government in June. “For 14 months Jerry Bremer worked day and night in difficult and dangerous conditions to stabilize the country, to help its people rebuild and to establish a political process that would lead to justice and liberty,” Mr. Bush said.
This fall, Bremer suggested the United States had paid a price in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations because it did not have enough troops in place to stop the looting.
Those remarks gave Bush critics ammunition for their claims that the administration’s postwar planning was inadequate.
Bremer tried to calm that controversy by saying he had constantly supported the president’s strategy in Iraq.
The Medal of Freedom, established by President Truman in 1945 to recognize civilians for their efforts during World War II, was reinstated by President Kennedy in 1963 to honor distinguished service.
“This honor goes to three men who have played pivotal roles in great events and whose efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty,” Mr. Bush said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/14/iraq/printable660994.shtml
..... he should have waited for this report, or maybe the medal is for something not told to public
Of course they did and it is very unfortunate.
Jamie Gorelick .... I just don’t know how that witch sleeps at night.
There is nothing they won’t do, no dirty trick they won’t pull, my friend. Not one.
Not ONE!
IMHO the part of your question following 'unless' is the answer to the previous part.
Just shakin my head...
Thanks so much for the ping. Off to read now..
In other news, The C.I.A. failed to see the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Only spent 1 trillion dollars in preceding decade.
Don`t blame Bush for prior political choices... I too am from Texas; Lot`s of what he has to endure is from Billery...
It`s politics.
Ex-C.I.A. Chief, in Book, Assails Cheney on Iraq
The book recounts C.I.A. efforts to fight Al Qaeda in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mr. Tenet’s early warnings about Osama bin Laden. He contends that the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most of 2001.
“The bureaucracy moved slowly,” and only after the Sept. 11 attacks was the C.I.A. given the counterterrorism powers it had requested earlier in the year.
Re-read the article by replacing CIA with Congress and Pre-911 with today. The article would still be true.
Of course not. You think the MSM is going to say ANYTHING linking Tennet to Clinton at this point? Not a chance in H###.
One (of many things) I do fault GW for: Keeping Tennet, and for that matter most of the top staff at CIA and NSA, on board for the sake of the “New Tone.” How’d that work out, GW? Getting lots of warm and fuzzies from the traitorous Demscum? No? Wow, that was one NAIVE move!!!
Hindsight is always perfect, isn’t it?
There is plenty of blame to go around MrJapan.
It`s politics.
And Billery and George both are politicians.
As far as we know OBL is still sucking air.
Valerie Plame and Co.
Yup, and I do engage in hindsight sometimes. This isn't one of those times. I was screaming for Tenet et al. to be fired from day one. Almost threw my computer across the room when I read about that hack getting the Medal of Freedom the first time, again in a transparent attempt at creating the "New Tone" (where Republicans cave to Demscum in hopes that the Demscum will be nice).
Following is the text of a written statement issued by George J. Tenet, the former Director of Central Intelligence, regarding the public release today of the executive summary of the June 2005 report by the Office of the Inspector General concerning the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001
The latest IG report is equally wrong regarding resources. Although resources available for everything else at CIA went down or stayed flat, counterterrorism resources were going up. The IG report fails to understand where we were starting from or the geopolitical context that the intelligence community faced. We had to try to rebuild a seriously under-funded intelligence community across the board. During the 1990s, as a Community, we had lost 25 percent of our people and tens of billions of dollars in investment compared to the 1990 baseline. The rebuilding of the entire Community was essential to bolstering our counterterrorism efforts and enabling us to address all the intelligence priorities established by the President. For me, however there was no priority higher than fighting terrorism. The IG fails to understand how intensely I pushed the counterterrorism issue because he failed to interview either me or policymakers from either the Clinton or Bush Administrations on this matter. Had he done so he might have learned that I was relentless in seeking additional funding for the Intelligence Community in general and counterterrorism in particular. I wrote the Administration in 1998 and 1999 imploring for more money to rebuild U.S. intelligence. When only a small portion of what I requested was made available, I went outside established channels to work with then-Speaker Gingrich to obtain a $1.2 billion budgetary supplemental for the intelligence community
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21cnd-tenet.html
nor the “wall builder” Jamie Gorrelic.
Here is a link to the full 19 page report by the cia ig. Its quite an interesting read. There are some redactions (seemingly when referring to specific individuals), but its pretty scathing. Check out the dates in the document..and what was done in 01 versus what was (not) done prior to President Bush. Not a whole lot of specifics, but what is there is quite revealing, imho.
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/Executive%20Summary_OIG%20Report.pdf
Thanks !!
And Billery and George both are politicians.
Actually... He`s not a politician... He is from a rich family... and was raised most of his life in west Texas.... but he is a `country boy`... He speaks his mind, which kills him in politics.. he IS closer to a redneck than me, POLO shirts and dockers, but he still tries to do the best he can to what he actaully has control of. I myself am a patriot of my country and freedom... 4 years USAF, 3 years Army, and 3 years as a deputy sheriff of Texas.. and you cop haters out there can kiss my butt. I never had a big head with the badge.. I only enforced the law; and if juvenile had alcohol (with neighbor complaints of noise).. I would drive there to their house and warn them that if they didn`t lower their noise, I would be back asking for IDs... In my mind, I didn`t want to make a double standard, since I also had done the same thing when I was in high school. Let the kids have fun, as long as they weren`t destructive to others (and no drugs were involved... I still, to this day, HATE any type of drugs.... don`t give me the alcohol is a drug crap either... that`s an excuse.. and alcohol is harmful, but not an illegal drug).
OBL sucking air?! Who cares?! as long as he is not sucking from USAmericans! (America is actually 3 continents...you can figure it out. USA is 1 country...), although, as liberal as it is, I would defend Canada too...
Obliterate the b@stard.. do whatever to make the best we, as a COUNTRY can do to make us/you happy.... Just don`t phuk with our freedom.
Sorry, not all of this is directed at you... but I hope that some others can try to understand what freedom is.
Again, my apologies.. I am not a good debater..
OH... BTW.... 1 of the WORST insults I hear coming from an outsider (Euro).. Yankee!!!! I am NOT a freakin`yankee! I am from the south. NO offense meant toward the NEasterners.. but there is a BIG difference! Freakin` Euros have NO idea about the insult... It`s like me calling an Irishman a Brit.
anyway, I am tired (7am here, with no sleep), sorry for any offenses... :D
MJ
I agree with you. However, if we can get just a bit of the energy that politically aware people have had recently for other issues, maybe we can assist the Congressional leaders to drive their poll numbers even lower.
Gallup poll today: 18% favorable rating.
You might appreciate this little sidenote:
I once asked someone from England if he ws British, and was told (proving one stereotype) “I’m English, actually.” He didn’t want to be thrown in the mix with those other lesser members of the UK!
"If IC Officers had been able to review and analyze the full range of information available before 11 September 2001, they could have developed a more informed context in which to assess the threat reporting of the spring and summer that year."
I have yet to hear one rational reason why George Tenent should not have been fired and then held accountable for the failures of the CIA, under his watch, that led to both 9/11 and the ‘no’ MWD’s fiasco.
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