CIA report slams top officials over terrorism readiness

[seemslikeadream]

It says Tenet, others didn't do enough before Sept. 11
Douglas Jehl, New York Times

Friday, January 7, 2005

Washington -- An internal CIA investigation has concluded that officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks, according to current and former intelligence officials.

The conclusion is spelled out in a draft version of a report by John Helgerson, the agency's inspector general who reports to Congress as well as to the CIA. Among those most sharply criticized in the report, the officials said, are George Tenet, the former intelligence chief, and James Pavitt, the former deputy director of operations. Both Tenet and Pavitt stepped down from their posts last summer.

The findings, which are still classified, pose a quandary for the CIA and the administration, particularly since President Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom to Tenet last month. It is not clear whether either the agency or the White House is willing to reprimand Tenet, Pavitt or others.

The report says that Pavitt, among others, failed to meet an acceptable standard of performance, and it recommends that his conduct be assessed by an internal review board for possible disciplinary action, the officials said. The criticism of Tenet is cast in equally strong terms, the officials said, but they would not say whether it reached a judgment about whether his performance had been acceptable.

As described by the officials, the basic conclusion that the CIA paid too little heed to the threat posed by terrorism echoes those reached in the past two years by the joint congressional panel on the Sept. 11 attacks and by the independent commission that investigated those attacks. But the criticisms of senior CIA officials are more direct and personal than those spelled out in either of those two previous formal assessments.
more
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/07/MNGQOAML081.DTL

[el_gato]

1. innoculation

[indepat]

2. Which others appointed to high position failed to meet an acceptable

standard of performance: Condi, Rummy, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz, el at ad nauseam?

[leveymg]

3. No Accountability For Decisions Made Above Their Pay Grades

Let's face it, the CIA IG and ARB are just going through the motions. The Congressional Joint Committee and the 9/11 Commission, as well. Nobody rolled up the UBL cells in the U.S. because Bush didn't order it when Tenet presented him with that option on several occasions.

In particular, George Tenet's August 24, 2001 meeting at Crawford with W, Rummy, Condi, Hughes, and Gen. Myers which GT denied had occurred, perjuring himself before the Commission last March. By the way, that was the day after the CIA finally watchlisted the Flt. 77 hijackers and two others whom the Agency had observed at the Kuala Lumpur Al-Qaida planning summit. Does anyone believe that topic wasn't discussed at the August 24 meeting at Bush's ranch? The next day, the White House press office quoted W as describing his meeting with Tenet, et al. as one of the longest in his memory thrashing out "a very important subject."

Just thought I'd share that item before it disappears down the memory hole. For details, see:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0406/S00153.htm

- Mark

[Moderator]

4. duplicate topic, please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1128463