Maybe the then Director of Central Intelligence. But would need time and money to give a fair hearing of both sides. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tenet#cite_note-navy-17 CCC – Intelligence Failure and 9/11 At the least he should have resigned. If your a guard and the enemy gets through the gate, then just out of an abundance of caution lets have another guard have a go at it, no? Also, look into the head of the then INS or its sub agencies who are responsible for identifying and capturing foreigners with expired visas, like auntie Zeituni Onyango.
Even Admiral Kimmel was punished for Pearl Harbor which he had less control over the circumstances and foreseeability then did the CIA in the situation with 911.
See wiki On the other hand, Kimmel’s critics point out that he had been ordered (on November 27, 1941, ten days prior to the attack) to initiate a “defensive deployment” of the fleet. Kimmel understood this to mean defense against sabotage, and so made the necessary arrangements. Because of this misinterpretation ships were kept in port and the fleet was not placed on alert. Moreover, after his intelligence unit lost track of Japan’s aircraft carriers, Kimmel did not order any long-range air or naval patrols to assess their positions,[5] in part for lack of serviceable PBYs, in part because he also had a training schedule to maintain, and in part because the Army Air Corps had the responsibility for long-range patrol (but even less capability in Hawaii than he did, since the Philippines had higher priority).
On August 23, Atta’s driver license was revoked in absentia after he failed to show up in traffic court to answer the earlier citation for driving without a license.[77] On the same day, Israeli Mossad reportedly gave his name to the CIA as part of a list of 19 names they said were planning an attack in the near future. Only four of the names are known for certain including Atta; Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.[78] On August 30 he was recorded purchasing a utility knife from a Wal-Mart store near the hotel where he stayed prior to 9/11.
I probably would agree with you on Tenant; that given circumstances he probably should have resigned; if only in recognition that he either failed to promote the policies and actions that more likely (more than the efforts that were in place) MIGHT have “seen” the 9/11 attack coming (in some specific, actionable intelligence manner) or that he had failed, politically, to convince either Clinton or Bush to take the necessary steps.
I have not seen this next idea, but here it is: That we may yet find out he had tried to resign but GWB (as he did with Rummy) refused to accept it.
As far as everything you had to say about Atta; none of it amounted to specific actionable intelligence, beyond the intelligence community continuing to be “on the look out” for Atta’s name to show up - IN THE INTELLIGENCE STREAM, along with a few hundred other guys; with “actionable intelligence” being something that is directed to some specific action of the terrorists to be extremely concerned about and some specific action some agency should and can make.
But, it - Atta’s name - wasn’t COMPLETELY in the intelligence stream because of the institutional disconnect between the “U.S. intelligence community” and other law enforcement agencies, at many levels. THAT was not the particular fault of the incumbent leaders and workers in intelligence and law enforcement. Years of executive and legislative action had set the standards they operated by.
While it is sometimes easy to see possible “actions that could have been taken” (if only ALL information was ‘connected’), it is often more difficult to correctly and with certainty fault individuals for actions not taken.