Lawmakers Ask CIA to Open Sept. 11 Report (AP)

[Up2Late]

(Is this new? It's all starting to blend together.)

Sep 16, 5:20 PM EDT

Lawmakers Ask CIA to Open Sept. 11 Report

By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee want CIA Director Porter Goss to provide a public version of his agency's hard-hitting report on the failures leading up to Sept. 11, 2001. In a letter made public Friday, Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and the panel's top Democrat, California Rep. Jane Harman, asked Goss to reveal as much of the report from his inspector general as possible.

"We believe the public has a right to know if people should be held accountable for those failures as a result of gross negligence or misconduct," Hoekstra and Harman wrote on Sept. 6. "More importantly, the public also should know what steps should be taken in the future for the CIA to address the findings of the report."

Spanning hundreds of pages, the report calls for disciplinary reviews for former CIA Director George Tenet and current and former officials who were involved in faulty intelligence efforts before the attacks. The report was sent to Congress last month. Limited details have been provided by anonymous officials. The CIA declined to make an immediate comment.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has also sent a letter to Goss requesting the report's declassification. An aide declined to provide a copy of the correspondence. A spokeswoman for the Senate committee's top Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, said he supports Roberts' request.

<http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_SEPT_11?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-16-17-20-23>
(more at link above)

[sabra]

1. NO

will be the answer.

[Up2Late]

2. You're probably right, but I don't see why they couldn't declassify it.

Everyone big has quit since Goss slithered into office.

[NCPatriot]

3. Besides...

If we wanted Big Covert Black Ops names and numbers...

We could just ask Turd Blossom!

[Ignacio Upton]

4. CIA to Congress: NO

....but we'll give you a heavily redacted version where the only two words are "Clinton" and "Osama."

[WhiteTara]

5. third word...9/11

welcome to DU :hi:

[struggle4progress]

6. Republicans Join in Call for Release of Report on C.I.A.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 - Senior Republican members of Congress have joined Democrats in asking Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director, to declassify and make public an internal agency report that criticizes his predecessor, George J. Tenet, and others for lapses on terrorism in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The requests were sent last week by leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, said members of Congress and their aides. They add to the pressures on Mr. Goss, who has made clear that he would prefer not to make the report public, at least in part because its publication could be damaging to the agency's morale.

Mr. Goss is also still weighing difficult decisions about whether to impose any kind of disciplinary action against the dozen or so current and former intelligence officials, including Mr. Tenet, who are said to have been singled out in the report.

The report was prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency inspector general, John L. Helgerson, at the request of the joint Congressional committee that completed its own review in 2002 of the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Goss delivered a highly classified version of the document to Capitol Hill last month, and Mr. Helgerson has briefed the Intelligence Committees on his findings, but distribution of the report has otherwise remained very limited.
<snip> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/politics/17intel.html

[newscott]

7. Does this report bear any resemblance to the Iraq intel?

[seemslikeadream]

8. Potential Bush-CIA crisis ***** George Tenet will defend himself

Potential Bush-CIA crisis
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By John B. Roberts II
September 1, 2005


George Tenet is not going to let himself become the fall guy for the September 11 intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet.
A scathing report by Inspector General John Helgerson criticized the former CIA director and a score of other agency personnel for their failure to develop a strategy against al Qaeda. The report, delivered to Congress this week, recommends punitive sanctions for Mr. Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorist center head J. Cofer Black. Mr. Tenet's response to the report is a 20-page, tightly knitted rebuttal of responsibility prepared with the aid of a lawyer, according to the friendly source.
Mr. Tenet's decision to defend himself against the charges in the report poses a potential crisis for the White House. According to a former clandestine services officer, the former CIA director turned down a publisher's $4.5 million book offer because he didn't want to embarrass the White House by rehashing the failure to prevent September 11 and the flawed intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Tenet, according to a knowledgeable source, had a "wink and a nod" understanding with the White House that he wouldn't be scapegoated for intelligence failings. The deal, one source says, was sealed with the award of the Presidential Freedom Medal.
Now that deal may be off. Mr. Tenet's rebuttal to the report is detailed and explicit. In defending his integrity as CIA director, Mr. Tenet treads perilously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official whose public disclosure of the Bush administration's delay in adopting a strategy against al Qaeda stirred controversy last summer.
The IG report is the result of a 17-month investigation by a team of 11 CIA officials. The Senate and House intelligence oversight committees requested the report, which follows in a CIA tradition of analyses of past mistakes in order to prevent recurrences. After double-agent Aldrich Ames was unmasked, the CIA inspector general produced a detailed account of the agency's failure to protect its Soviet spies. That report, which was made public, prompted sweeping changes in CIA counterintelligence practices.
In contrast, the IG report and Mr. Tenet's 20-page rebuttal are classified. This is a departure from past CIA practice. There is much about the IG report that is unusual. It was completed, according to multiple intelligence sources, by July 2004. Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin passed this hot potato to his successor, Porter Goss. As chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mr. Goss had lead the joint congressional inquiry into September 11 and called for the inspector general's report.
In an abundance of fairness, Mr. Goss gave agency personnel whose performance was criticized by the IG time to review files and respond in their own defense. This one-year delay in its issuance, coupled with the decision to classify the report, give ammunition to partisan critics.
This isn't about avoiding sanctions. Insiders agree that career-ending letters of reprimand are about the most severe punishment CIA officials will face. Messrs. Tenet, Pavitt and Black have all left the agency. What is at stake for them is personal honor and their legacy in failing to prevent September 11.
In criticizing Mr. Tenet for lack of a strategy to fight al Qaeda, the IG report goes to the heart of the September 11 failure. Mr. Tenet's defense inevitably leads to the sensitive issue of the CIA briefings of the president and other senior officials in the summer of 2001




http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050831-091719-1217r.htm

[MasonJar]

9. If Pat Roberts wants the report, it must be a real nothing. He and

Porter Goss have been unashamedly partisan and mean.

[TheStates]

10. They're trying to set this up so it falls on Tenet....

Last I heard George Tenet won't take the fall....so I guess the CIA won't release the report, according to GOSS. At least I don't think so..