GGi Bulletin - Sept. 11 commission: Failure of imagination

GERARD GROUP INTERNATIONAL INC

July 23, 2004 Bulletin

Sept. 11 commission: Failure of imagination

For text of full report: http://www.9-11commission.gov

The Sept. 11 commission's final report recommended the creation of a new intelligence center and high-level intelligence director to improve the ability of the United States to disrupt future terrorist attacks.

The panel also determined the "most important failure" leading to the Sept. 11 attacks "was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat."

The highly anticipated 567-page report said an intelligence-gathering center would bring a unified command to the more than dozen agencies that now collect intelligence overseas and at home.

Overseeing the center would be a new Senate-confirmed national intelligence director, reporting directly to the president at just below full Cabinet rank, who "would be able to influence the budget and leadership" of the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security Department and Defense Department.

While faulting institutional shortcomings, the bipartisan report being released Thursday does not blame US President George W. Bush or former US President Bill Clinton for mistakes contributing to the 2001 terrorist attacks, Bush administration officials familiar with the findings said.

The report, which is the culmination of a 20-month investigation into the plot that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, describes the meticulous planning and determination of hijackers who sought to exploit weaknesses in airline and border procedures by taking test flights.

A surveillance video that surfaced Wednesday shows four of the hijackers passing through security gates at Washington Dulles International Airport shortly before boarding the plane they would crash into the Pentagon. In the video, the hijackers can be seen undergoing additional scrutiny after setting off metal detectors, then being permitted to continue to their gate.

The final report outlined this series of "operational failures" by the US government that allowed the terrorists to carry out their plot:

Failing to include hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi on a watch list. The two were linked by the CIA to al-Qaida and were known to have entered the United States in the summer of 2001, but government agents lost track of them. The two would later board American Airlines Flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon.
Not sharing information linking individuals in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen to al-Mihdhar, who had contacts with a longtime FBI informant. The attack killed 17 American sailors.
Not taking adequate steps in time to find al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi in the United States.
Not linking the August 2001 arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui to the threat of an upcoming attack. Moussaoui was arrested after arousing suspicions at a Minnesota flight school. He has admitted belonging to al-Qaida but denied he was part of the plot.
Not discovering false statements on visa applications of some of the future hijackers.
Not recognizing that some hijackers' passports were fraudulent.
Failing to expand no-fly lists to include names from terrorist watch lists.
Not searching airline passengers identified by a computer-based airline screening system known as the Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System.
Not hardening aircraft cockpit doors or taking other measures to prepare for the possibility of suicide hijackings.

White House officials and congressional leaders were briefed on the panel's findings, and Bush was to receive a copy just before the 11:30 am EDT (1530GMT) release Thursday on the commission's Web site and in bookstores.

The president, bracing for a report that will be sharply critical of the government's intelligence gathering, said Wednesday he looked forward to reading it. He also said his administration was doing everything possible to combat terrorism, a major theme of his re-election campaign.

"Had we had any inkling whatsoever that terrorists were about to attack our country, we would have moved heaven and earth to protect America," Bush said. "I'm confident President Clinton would have done the same thing. Any president would."

One administration official said the 575-page report concludes that Bush and Clinton took the threat of al-Qaida seriously and were "genuinely concerned about the danger posed by al-Qaida," but didn't do enough to stop the terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden.

There was a "failure of imagination" to provide either Bush or Clinton with new options, particularly military approaches, to deal with al-Qaida, the official said. There also was a failure to adapt to the post-Cold War era, and people just kept trying the same kinds of things that didn't work, the official said.

The commission described a rapidly changing al-Qaida threat that has become more dispersed and harder to detect. A national intelligence chief would coordinate information-sharing and intelligence analysis to thwart al-Qaida terrorists who are keenly interested in launching a chemical, biological or nuclear attack, commissioners say.

The Bush administration is reserving judgment on that recommendation, and officials doubt it could be approved by Congress this year.

The report lists a series of missed operational opportunities to stop the hijackers, such as the bungled attempts to kill or capture bin Laden and the FBI's handling of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested in August 2001 before the hijackings, the official said.

It also "debunks" some theories that once circulated widely, such as that the Saudi government had funded the hijackers and that the White House allowed a group of Saudis to slip out of the country just after Sept. 11 when all planes were grounded, the official said.

Commissioners have said the report also will fault Congress for poor oversight of intelligence gathering and criticize government agencies for their emergency responses to the attacks. The harshest criticism will be leveled at the FBI and CIA.

But the 10-member panel declined to recommend a separate domestic spy agency modeled after Britain's MI5, as some outside experts have suggested, deciding that reform efforts by FBI Director Robert Mueller were on the right track despite the FBI's historical focus on law enforcement, said Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas.

[AP Jul. 22, 2004]
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer& cid=1090466080938&p=1078113566627

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