Bush Appointee Obstructed, Sabotaged 9/11 Report

[leveymg]

Bush Appointee Obstructed, Sabotaged 9/11 Report
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/12/164139/748
Fri Aug 12th, 2005 at 13:41:39 PDT

The staff director of the 9/11 Commission suppressed information that two U.S. intelligence agencies had detected the 9/11 hijackers inside the U.S. eighteen months before the attacks, withheld notification from the FBI, and obstructed Bureau investigators searching for al-Qaeda terrorist cells.

In recent days, we've learned that Philip D. Zelikow, Bush's appointee as Staff Director on the 9/11 Commission, withheld information from the Commissioners that detailed secret Pentagon surveillance of the al-Qaeda hijackers.

While Staff Director, Zelikow was also allowed to read sections of the still-unreleased CIA Inspector General's report that reportedly criticizes high Agency officials for failing to pass on information to the FBI after the CIA learned of the entry into the U.S. of several of the 9/11 hijackers on early 2000. According to a report in Government Executive magazine, Zelikow cut a deal with the CIA that withheld that information from the Commission report, as well.

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Before the 9/11 Commission finalized its report in July, 2004, a U.S. Congressman and an Army Intelligence officer repeatedly briefed Zelikow on the details of the DoD surveillance program, Codenamed Able Danger, that had detected Mohammed Atta and three other would-be hijackers inside the U.S. during the summer of 2000. At that time, Able Danger officers tried to pass on what they learned to the FBI, but higher-ups denied that request. Nothing about this was included in the findings of the 9/11 Commission final report, and Commissioners claim that Zelikow and his staff never briefed them on this information. See, http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/08/con05285.html;http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/politics/11intel.html; also, see, How Bin Laden and Mohamed Atta Escaped Gen. Franks http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/10/145513/501

Mr. Zelikow, who was a close associate of Condi Rice during the first Bush Administration, apparently kept information out of the 9/11 Commission Report -- and even withheld it from his bosses on the Commission -- of enormous importance. Had he not quashed this evidence, the Commission would have had to entirely change the conclusions offered about the causes of the so-called intelligence failure that precipitated the attack that killed 3,000 Americans.

A more complete 9/11 report might well have changed the outcome of the 2004 election.

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Here's some background on the CIA AG Report which Zelikow agreed to withhold from the 9/11 Commission.

In October, as the election neared, Robert Scheer reported in the LAT that the IG's report was essentially completed in June and was stalled within the Agency. Scheer described the report's findings of personal failings by CIA Director Gerge Tenet and Counter-Terrorism Center Black in general terms, and suggested the Agency was sitting on the report until after November.

According to Gov't Executive on 10/28/2004, Phil Zelikow had reviewed the IG report, which was completed at the time the 9/11 Commission final report was published in July 2004. The Agency worked out a deal with Zelikow to omit the IG's findings from the 9/11 Commission report. As we learned on Tuesday, Zelikow also omitted mention of what he had been told about the DoD Able Danger monitoring of the four principal hijackers.

In January, Douglas Jehl wrote in the NYT that the Agency faced a dilemma in releasing its critical findings about Tenet in view of the former Director's having been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Jehl suggested that there was a "near final version" that had been tightly circulated, and that a final classified report would be delivered to Congress within six weeks, after Tenet, along with Black and Deputy CIA Director Pavitt had a chance to comment.

Six months later, Knight-Ritter retracted a report that the paper had been finalized, and raised doubts that it would be released at all. It said, "the report is nearly complete and that comments from some of those it criticizes are being incorporated."

The August 1 issue of American Conservative contained a piece by Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, who stated the report was completed, but is will be submitted "after those criticized in it add their own comments".

The bottom line is that Tenet, Pavitt and Black were originally given six weeks to submit their rebuttals, but the head of the Agency has managed to delay release with the excuse that he awaits comments. My conclusion is that the IG Report is, in fact, complete. It was reviewed by Phil Zelikow in July 2004, who suppressed it. The deadline for comments passed many months ago, and the only thing delaying release is the political decision to do so.

In my DKOS and DU posts yesterday, I concluded that pressure is mounting on the Administration to release the CIA IG report. If it isn't released soon, somebody's going to leak it.

**

Re: sources for CIA IG report info

LAT: October 19, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket
The agency is withholding a damning report that points at senior officials

by Robert Scheer
REPRINTED: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1019-04.htm

SNIP

The official stressed that the report was more blunt and more specific than the earlier bipartisan reports produced by the Bush-appointed Sept. 11 commission and Congress.

"What all the other reports on 9/11 did not do is point the finger at individuals, and give the how and what of their responsibility. This report does that," said the intelligence official. "The report found very senior-level officials responsible."

According to officials who have read the most recent version, the report is sharply critical of then-CIA chief George Tenet; James Pavitt, his deputy director for operations; Cofer Black, who was the head of the agency's Counter-Terrorism Center; and others for failing to adequately alert policymakers about the terrorist threat and for devoting insufficient resources to countering it.

*

DAILY BRIEFING
October 28, 2004
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1004/102804c1.htm
9/11 report left out CIA investigation of intelligence failures
By Chris Strohm
[e-mail]

Key staff members of the 9/11 Commission left an internal CIA review of intelligence failures leading up to the attacks out its final report, the former executive director of the commission said Thursday.

The staffers made an agreement with the CIA's inspector general to not cite the internal investigation in the commission's final report, which was issued in July, Philip Zelikow told Government Executive. Zelikow led the 9/11 Commission staff until the body ended its work in August.

The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 19 that a report on the internal CIA investigation has been stalled within the agency since June. The investigation was conducted to determine whether individual CIA officers should be held accountable for intelligence failures leading up to the attacks. The joint congressional committee that investigated intelligence failures related to the attacks requested the investigation in December 2002.

According to the Times, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and ranking member Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., sent a letter to the CIA in early October asking for the report to be released. The legislators are also key members of the conference committee meeting to craft a final bill on intelligence reform.

The 9/11 commission's final report did not identify any failures of specific government officials, but rather concluded that governmentwide and institutional failures, especially within the intelligence community, laid the groundwork for the attacks.

Zelikow said commission staff members interviewed officials working on the CIA investigation and reviewed material from the investigation. According to Zelikow, however, the investigation was not cited in the commission's final report because CIA personnel who were interviewed and named in the review were never told the information they provided would end up in the final 9/11 report.

Efforts to craft an intelligence reform bill remained stalled Thursday amid differences between House and Senate conferees, mainly over how much budget authority a new national intelligence director should have over Pentagon intelligence agencies.

Zelikow said he believes the House and Senate are close to reaching a compromise bill. He wrote a memo supporting a proposed compromise by House leaders in an effort to show that the House has moved away from an entrenched position. A national intelligence director must have some budget control over Defense intelligence agencies, or else the secretary of defense might divert funding into other areas, Zelikow contends.

"There's an opportunity here to try to close the gap," he said. "If either side declares it's totally dug in, then you have to shrug your shoulders. But I think this is a solvable problem."

**

NYT: January 7, 2005

DOUGLAS JEHL C.I.A. Report Finds Its Officials Failed in Pre-9/11 Efforts

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/national/07intel.html?

REPRINTED: http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/personnel/vernag/EH/F/manif/lectures/C.I.A.%20Report.htm

C.I.A. Report Finds Its Officials Failed in Pre-9/11 Efforts
By DOUGLAS JEHL

Published: January 7, 2005

ASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency 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.

Advertisement

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

SNIP

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

The report says that Mr. 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 Mr. 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 C.I.A. paid too little heed to the threat posed by terrorism echoes those reached in the last 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 C.I.A. officials are more direct and personal than those spelled out in either of those two previous formal assessments. The findings were described by people who have read or been briefed on significant parts of the near-final version of the document. But the officials said the conclusions could still change on the basis of responses being solicited from those criticized in the document. Mr. Tenet and Mr. Pavitt are among those from whom Mr. Helgerson has solicited responses, the officials said. A final report is expected to be completed within six weeks.

**

Knight-Ridder:

Report criticizing CIA leaders' efforts on terrorism may stay sealed
Warren P. Strobel, Knight Ridder Newspapers
June 22, 2005
REPRINTED: http://www.skyhen.org/WarAndTerror/report_criticizing_cia_leaders_efforts_on_terrorism_may_stay_seal ed.php
According to officials who have read the most recent version, the report is sharply critical of then-CIA chief George Tenet; James Pavitt, his deputy director for operations; Cofer Black, who was the head of the agency's Counter-Terrorism Center; and others for failing to adequately alert policymakers about the terrorist threat and for devoting insufficient resources to countering it.

SNIP

Administration officials have sought to blame the lapses on intelligence agencies. Others, including former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, have said President Bush and his top aides paid little attention to terrorism before Sept. 11, despite warnings of a growing al-Qaida threat.

CORRECTION: A story about a CIA inspector general's report on the agency's performance before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks wrongly said the report has been finished. The story should have said the report is nearly complete and that comments from some of those it criticizes are being incorporated.

August 1, 2005 Issue
Copyright © 2005 The American Conservative
http://amconmag.com/2005_08_01/article3.html

A CIA internal review of the agency's performance prior to 9/11 is harshly critical of former CIA Director George Tenet, former Director of Operations James Pavitt, and the former chief of the Counterterrorist Center, Cofer Black, for not doing everything possible to confront terrorism. Pavitt, who was reluctant to take on risky missions against bin Laden encouraged by the National Security Council during the second term of President Bill Clinton, is particularly criticized. The report, completed by CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, is especially acerbic regarding the failure of the agency to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States. Black did not share information on the two men with the FBI agents assigned to the Counterterrorist Center at the CIA and also turned down a request for a formal memorandum to be sent to FBI Headquarters. The report will be finalized and given to Congress after those criticized in it add their own comments. Pavitt, as head of the Operations Directorate, has publicly accepted full responsibility for the agency's failure, but Black has not acknowledged any deficiencies in his performance. Tenet has not yet responded.-- Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is a partner in Cannistraro Associates

RELATED

Perjury by CIA Counterterrorism Center Director - the Blocked Memo
by leveymg
Fri Jun 10th, 2005 at 07:51:25 PDT
June 10, 2005. The LA Times reports that in early 2000, the CIA intentionally withheld a memo from the FBI that reported the entry of key 9/11 hijackers into the US. See: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-te ...

In his testimony before the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee in September 2002, former head of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC) stated under oath that his office had inadvertently neglected to inform the FBI when it became known in early 2000 that Flight 77 hijacker, Nawaf al-Midhar, had entered the U.S. However, it was revealed yesterday that a memo informing the FBI had actually been drafted at CTC, but an order was issued blocking transmission of that information.

[indepat]

1. Being rewarded for a job well done is not all that uncommon: in fact, it

is s rather common practice.