C.I.A. Details Errors It Made Before Sept. 11 (Jan. 2000 CIA knew of two hijackers)

NY Times ^ | 8/21/2007 | MARK MAZZETTI

[tobyhill]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — A report released Tuesday by the Central Intelligence Agency includes new details of the agency’s missteps before the Sept. 11 attacks, outlining what the report says were failures to grasp the role being played by the terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and to fully assess the threats streaming into the C.I.A. in the summer of 2001.

The 19-page report, prepared by the agency’s inspector general, also says that 50 to 60 C.I.A. officers knew of intelligence reports in 2000 that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hamzi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, may have been in the United States. But none of those officers thought to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the potential domestic threat, the report says — evidence of what it calls a systemic failure.

The inspector general recommended that several top agency officials, including former director George J. Tenet, be held accountable for their failure to put in place a strategy to dismantle Al Qaeda in the years before Sept. 11, 2001. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the current C.I.A. director, and his predecessor, Porter J. Goss, have declined to seek disciplinary action against Mr. Tenet and others named in the report.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

January 2000 would have been during who’s administration????

[denydenydeny]

We’ve known this—the CIA’s failure to track the two hijackers—since Septermber 12.

Tenet’s absurdly self-serving book that blamed everyone but himself makes me despise him even more. He really should have gone to jail for criminal negligence.

[tobyhill]

Clinton!

[Rudder]

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the current C.I.A. director, and his predecessor, Porter J. Goss, have declined to seek disciplinary action against Mr. Tenet and others named in the report.

Oh, why bother. The bureaucrats reign supreme.

[evad]

Tenet was doing his usual “dodge and weave” to try and excuse his sorry ass.

[SandRat]

Not sure but I think it was the Zipper-meister’s.

[reefdiver]

B.J. Bill an His tool Tenet, What a cost to The United States the Democrates has been. What fools vote for these people?

[tobyhill]

I wonder if one of those 50-60 agent’s name is Plame or Wilson?

[joonbug]

Tomorrow’s NY Times lead editorial will still blame the problems in the 90s on Bush...

[FlingWingFlyer]

I don’t know how this 9-11 stuff ever got by super-secret, “covert,” secret agent Valerie Plame. After listening to what the DemocRATS say about her, one would think she would have picked up on it before 9-11.

[ElkGroveDan]

This is also a good time to ask if the President’s wife was working on the important issues of the day as all this was happening, or baking cookies?

[stylin19a]

They couldn’t tell the FBI cause of freaking Gorelick’s wall...

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Not sure about the cookies, but she darn sure wasn’t running the house.......

;-)

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

And it must be remembered that Clinton came out and endorsed the opponent of Weldon, the leader of the Able Danger investigation.

And it must be remembered that former head of the NSA Sandy Berger stole documents from the 9/11 archives.

Clinton's head of the NSA stealing 9/11 documents, need I say more!

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Y’all passed your history exam.......

[tobyhill]

I know they couldn’t tell the FBI but then that puts the burden on them if they knew something and didn’t stop it even at the expense of violating the law. That is the job of the CIA, to protect the US number one. It was an unfortunate part of reality that falls on Gorelick’s head in the end but the other reality is something should have been done.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

The report cited the C.I.A.’s failure to pass intelligence about Mr. Mihdhar and Mr. Hamzi to other agencies as potentially significant. The C.I.A. had identified the men in January 2000 when they visited Malaysia, but never notified the State Department to put them on the terrorist watch list.

Others throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s failed to act not just CIA personnel.

Peter Lance's book, TRIPLE CROSS: How bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI - and Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him, names them.

He has the best explanation why 9/11 happened: virtually all personnel in key positions were busy covering their butts for one goof-up after another. Simple as that as best I can understand it from his interviews. I've heard several including a couple of three-hour interviews.

Some terrorist connections were ignored because to act on them would jeopardize other cases. LE personnel who pushed the terrorist threat too hard were screwed. Lots of actionable shenanigans IMO.

I did not buy the book, Mr. Lance in his interviews was too quick to blame "Bush 1" and "Bush 2" while, when pressed, acknowledging that "President Clinton" is partly to blame.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lance documents events throughout the 1990s that were practically screaming, "Hey! over here, over here!" But alas. . . .

[PaRepub07]

“something should have been done”

There was a major breakdown somewhere. The wall part sounds like more of an excuse, or reason for one.

[stylin19a]

I don’t disagree...but this “summary” snapshot appears devoid of ANYTHING Clinton.

That’s not possible.

The Tenet & Hayden of this summary are Clinton’s Tenet & Hayden, not Pres. Bush’s Tenet & Hayden.

Tenet was DCI beginning 1997
Hayden was the head of NSA starting 1999.
Goelick was Deputy Attorney General of the United States.

The time frame in question was Clinton...somehow the news articles will try and connect this to Pres. Bush....

or the report will get buried.