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Congressional Report: Fix Intelligence Problems to Avoid Another 9/11 NewsMax.com Wires and NewsMax.comWASHINGTON – A congressional report released Thursday warns that unless intelligence deficiencies are addressed, there could be a repeat of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A joint committee of the Senate and House intelligence panels issued the report, which focused on the intelligence failures of the Clinton years. Investigators found that the CIA in early 2000 was aware of the terrorist connections of 9/11 hijackers Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi and that the FBI was aware the pair frequented radical Muslim circles. But the "best chance to unravel the Sept. 11 plot" was lost because intelligence agencies failed to let the FBI's San Diego office know that two men were suspected terrorists. The agencies failed to share information or act aggressively to gather intelligence domestically or abroad, the report said. It also found the National Security Agency had intercepted messages from al-Midhar and Alhazmi as early as 1999 but didn't tell any other agency about them. "Our review of the events surrounding Sept. 11 has revealed a number of systemic weaknesses that hindered the intelligence community's counterterrorism efforts before Sept. 11," the report said. "If not addressed, these weaknesses will continue to undercut U.S. counterterrorist efforts. "In order to minimize the possibility of attacks like Sept. 11 in the future, effective solutions to those problems need to be developed and fully implemented as soon as possible." Covering for the Saudis Parts of the report remain classified, including a section that reportedly discusses Saudi support of the hijackers, most of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia. It does say that Omar al-Bayoumi, a student who provided the terrorists with financial help, "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia." The report said U.S. intelligence was not well organized and that before 9/11 there was no comprehensive plan for handling terrorism. Additionally, since the end of the Cold War, intelligence funding had declined, and increased reliance was placed on technology at the expense of human intelligence gathering and making the United States more dependent on foreign intelligence-gathering operations. Among the findings:
"Nonetheless, testimony and interviews confirm that it was the general view of the intelligence community ... that the threatened bin Laden attacks would most likely occur against U.S. interests overseas."
"Senior U.S. military officials were reluctant to use U.S. military assets to conduct offensive counterterrorism efforts" partly because they believed "the intelligence community was unable to provide the intelligence needed to support military operations," the report states.
"The criticism regarding the FBI's limited attention to the dangers at home ... reflects a large gap in the nation's counterterrorism structure ... a failure to focus on how an international group might target the United States itself. No agency appears to have been responsible ... for regularly assessing the threat in the homeland."
So, does the report say the government could have prevented the terrorist attacks? That depends on which news service you read. "But even with all the failures, no 'smoking gun' has emerged to suggest the government could have stopped the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people," Fox News reported. Knight Ridder, however, said the report "concludes that the hijacking plot that killed more than 3,000 people could have been foiled." Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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