Posted on 12/10/2002 9:35:12 AM PST by Balata
W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 10 — The United States possibly could have prevented the Sept. 11 hijackings if intelligence agencies had reported to a single leader, with the resources to link scattered clues, a senator investigating the attacks says.
Sen. Bob Graham, outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday that lawmakers hope to prevent future attacks by recommending creation of a national intelligence director, a Cabinet-level post that would oversee all U.S. intelligence operations.
It is a principal recommendation of an inquiry into the attacks by the House and Senate intelligence committees. They are to review a classified, draft report in a private session Tuesday.
The report's findings about why the attacks weren't stopped will remain classified, but recommended changes for improving intelligence could be made public as early as Wednesday.
These were among approximately 20 recommendations expected from the panel:
Commission a study whether a new domestic intelligence agency is needed.
Thoroughly investigate whether U.S.-based terrorists receive help from foreign governments.
Review whether to expand a law allowing surveillance of foreign terror suspects in the United States.
Establish procedures to reward staff who acted in ways that could have prevented the attacks and discipline those whose actions might have prevented the attacks from being stopped.
The recommendations from the joint inquiry follow a series of public hearings in which congressional staff faulted the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies for failing to share information that, if pieced together, might have uncovered the Sept. 11 plot.
Asked if he believed the attacks could have been prevented, Graham, D-Fla., gave "a conditional yes."
"It would have required several things to have happened, which in fact did not occur," he said in an interview.
That included having a single person with the job of reviewing all the information collected by different organizations, "a creative mind that would have seen the pieces of this puzzle start to form a plot that would have triggered a law-enforcement response."
Creating a new intelligence director position would help overcome the cultural barriers that block communications among agencies, Graham said.
The Senate panel's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, said the position should be like the chief executive of intelligence.
"Short of that we're going to continue to have a lot of principalities, a lot of dukedoms, and no one really in charge of the intelligence community," Shelby said.
CIA Director George Tenet oversees the overall intelligence apparatus as director of central intelligence. Many studies have recommended separating the jobs, which are sometimes at cross-purposes when interagency disputes arise. The director also has limited authority over military intelligence, whose budget is controlled by the Pentagon.
The Pentagon and its supporters in Congress probably would oppose creating an intelligence director position if it would oversee military intelligence.
The recommendation to investigate links between foreign governments and U.S-based terrorists follows reports that money from the Saudi royal family ended up in the accounts of two Saudi men who had helped two hijackers. The Saudis have denied vehemently any policy of aiding terrorists.
Graham and Shelby have accused the FBI and CIA of failing to aggressively investigate the Saudi connection. They've also urged the government to declassify information about the connections.
In the interview, Graham said the government has given Americans an "incomplete and distorted picture" of the foreign help hijackers may have received.
Without specifically mentioning the Saudis, Graham said a foreign government's assistance could explain how hijackers could live in the United States for months while planning a sophisticated attack.
"It is equally believable that the infrastructure remains in place and is supporting the current generation of terrorists who are inside the United States, plotting the next attack against us," he said.
The joint inquiry's work will be followed up by an independent commission headed by Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state. It will go beyond a review of intelligence failures to examine other issues related to the attacks, such as immigration and aviation security.
Putting a new boss in place of two old bosses ain't gonna change squat. It wasn't the head of the FBI that blocked consideration of a field agent's concern about all the Middle Eastern men in flight schools - that happened at the middle levels, and that is where change needs to happen.
Isn't that what Tom Ridge is suppose to do??
"Creating a new intelligence director position would help overcome the cultural barriers that block communications among agencies, Graham said." Grahms's quote seems to contradict the above finding.
Up to this point no one in our govt has been held accountable. It seems to me it was CIA Director George Tenet's job and responsibility to oversee the overall intelligence apparatus and IMO he failed.
Someone's head has to roll and I nominate Tenet.
The HSA Secretary will not have authority over intel agencies. There are provisions in the Homeland Security Act that require the new agency to improve information sharing and develop improved information sharing techologies, but government being government, without authority there will be little implementation of any HSA methodologies in other agencies, due to turf battles and pinhead bureaucrats who only listen to someone who can transfer their sorry a**es to the Aluetians...
The problem is, with civil service being what it is, the mid levels can pursue their own agendas no matter who is in charge. I agree the overall culture needs to change starting at the top - how many times have we seen intel and federal law enforcement personnel do something that should have gotten them either fired or imprisoned, but instead they got promoted (a certain Mr. Horuchi comes to mind) - but simply putting a new boss in charge of three glacial organizations will only give you a bigger glacier, and this report fails to address the overwhelming cultural problems in these agencies.
True, and if this Congressional report is a big fat softball, and this is the way it appears to date, then our problems aren't being solved. They are getting bigger.
Faulty intel was the cause from the get go.
SIC...Kinda appropiate don't ya think?
You say that and I say that, but I don't see anyone taking responsibilty for it and more seriously this Congressional report doesn't seem to be assigning that responsibility.
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