CIA unprepared for al Qaeda before 9/11.
By on Aug 21st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
CIA unprepared for al Qaeda before 9/11.
Former CIA Director George Tenet “failed to lead a strategic effort against al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks,” according to an inspector general report released today. The intelligence community’s understanding of al Qaeda “was hampered by insufficient analytic focus,” the report said, as “the CIA had made no comprehensive report on Osama bin Laden since 1993, had not examined the potential for terrorists to use aircraft as weapons, and had done only limited analysis on the potential of the United States as a target.” Tenet called the analysis “flat wrong.”
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...and still unprepared now - a perfect track record!!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:53 pmFail and you get a Medal of Freedom under Bush-43
August 21st, 2007 at 3:55 pmClinton let Osama go. Go figure!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:56 pmwondering how long it would be before that little nugget of falsehood was posted... only took 3
August 21st, 2007 at 4:00 pmTruth hurts huh?
August 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pmbobby, bobby, bobby . . . you wouldn't recognize "the truth" if it came up behind you and bit you in your overly-ample arse.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:04 pmCIA unprepared for al Qaeda before 9/11
------------------------------------------------------------
Ahh, duh.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:05 pm#
Truth hurts huh?
Comment by Bob — August 21, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
is that why you run away from it?
take the pain, bob.
man up.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:07 pmSounds like another repuke refrain of "Oh...CLINTON DID it!."
Will they ever earn a new tune? Nope.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:08 pmDid any of you catch the History Channel's 9/11 "twoofer" smack down last night?
It'll be on again if you missed it: http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=240087
August 21st, 2007 at 4:09 pmSome would dare to say it was an inside job.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:10 pmOK George, give the medal back now.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:10 pmHistory will look back more favorably if you acknowledge your shortcomings.
However, if you were an enabler to Bush, Cheney and Halliburton, well, now, that's another matter...
Some would dare to say it was an inside job.
Comment by BJ
-----------------------------------
Would you?
August 21st, 2007 at 4:12 pmBill Clinton did not sit idly by after the embassey bomings in 1998. He missed Osama bin Fogotten by a mere 20 minutes in Afghanistan>.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:15 pmThats it, ringo and the cia-did-it troll get into it - ill get the popcorn.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:16 pmbomings s/b bombings in my post 12.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:17 pmThis evokes memories of "My Pet Goat".
August 21st, 2007 at 4:19 pmSomeone needed to investigate in order to reach that conclusion? Do they next intend to research whether or not Bush and Cheney Big Lied the nation into unleashing war?
August 21st, 2007 at 4:23 pmIt appears I'm being blocked this afternoon....
August 21st, 2007 at 4:23 pmsince bush has been in office, there have been zero attacks
on the homeland by pet goats.
under clinton... those fuzzy four legged, goatee wearing socialists were
completely out of control.
i think tenet can take a lot of the credit...
it was his idea to put radio transmitters in their ears.
solid.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:24 pmWhat's weird here is that apparently the CIA wasn't in touch w/ Richard Clark, 'cause Clark sure was all over OBL and al Quaida.
What was that briefing, again??
"Bin Laden Determined To Strike W/in US"???
Guess Bush got wrapped up reading "My Little Goat", over and over and over..
August 21st, 2007 at 4:29 pmBush would like to blame everything on the CIA, but they are not responsible for 9/11/01 terrorist attack. Bush baby is responsible.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:30 pmIf only we'd received some sort of warning. Something in a Presidential Daily Briefing, perhaps. Or an alert from a FBI agent. Or even if someone could have forseen the use of jet airliners as weapons during some sort of "attack simulation," if you will.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:45 pm#3. Ha! Clinton tried to kill bin Laden over Republicans' protests. Bush, on the other hand, has allowed bin Laden to fly jet airliners into The Pentagon and to remain free.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:47 pmBush and the Defense Dept. were focused on a Missile Defense System. It wouldn't work, but a lot of political contributors stood to make a lot of $$ from Govt. contracts. Al Qaeda was a pesky distraction to this Big Bucks sales job.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:48 pmBush was blindsided by Boxcutters.
Cheney's "Terrorist Task Force" didn't even MEET until after bin Laden attacked our country! Incompetent boobs!
August 21st, 2007 at 4:55 pm'[T]he report said, as “the CIA had made no comprehensive report on Osama bin Laden since 1993, had not examined the potential for terrorists to use aircraft as weapons, and had done only limited analysis on the potential of the United States as a target.†'
Hmmmm...Who was president from 1993 to 2001???? Let me think....
August 21st, 2007 at 5:07 pmAnother Clinton failure. Shocking!
August 21st, 2007 at 5:08 pmNow, having said that, let me say that I am not blaming Clinton for the atrocity of 9/11. I am simply pointing out what the report says and thus showing that any attempt by people here to blame Bush for 9/11 is equally futile. The people responsible for 9/11 are Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:12 pmHey, wait a minute. Wasn't it Bush and Condi who blew off all attemps by the CIA to raise red flags and alerts. They did zero until after 9/11. Clinton made a few attemps but Bush didn't even listen to the warnings of his own counter terrism guy and then fired him when he was right.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:17 pmWm
Failure leads to Bush and Cheney as they were stratagising on Iraq.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:19 pmFor Oil
August 21st, 2007 at 5:20 pm"Operation Ignore"
August 21st, 2007 at 5:23 pmComment by Badger — August 21, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
Chalmers Johnson make a very good case that Bush/Cheney were also after oil pipelines across the oil rich countries above Afghanistan. The former Russian provinces are weak politically and have lots of untapped oil.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:00 pmwho was it that delivered the briefing to bush on Bin Laden determined to strike?
August 21st, 2007 at 7:11 pm...do we take back the Medal of Freedom now?
August 21st, 2007 at 9:01 pmComment by Gerald Gibson — August 21, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
I believe that it was Tenet. Bush's comment was to the effect - 'OK, now you have covered your ass.' Then Bush went fishing.
August 21st, 2007 at 9:34 pmClinton let Osama go. Go figure!
Comment by Bob — August 21, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
so did bush - at tora bora in 2001
August 21st, 2007 at 10:54 pmThe failure to even understand foreign languages for intelligence reasons translate into "was hampered by insufficient analytic focus,â€.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 amThe 9/11 Commission Report stated that Bill Clinton's administration held cabinet-level counterterrorism meetings three times a week, meaning that in the last eight months in office, top Clinton officials held 100 of these meetings to address the al Qaeda right-wing terrorist threat.
Sooo, how many top level counterterrorism meetings did the incoming Bush administration hold in the first eight months of his entrance into our White House and up until the 9/11 attacks occurred?
ONE.
And this ONE meeting was held just ONE week before the 9/11 attacks and ONE month after Bush was briefed by the CIA at his hog farm outside Crawford TX that "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the U.S."
In fact, Condi Rice (NSA chief at the time) stated that this ONE meeting was not called to specifically address the al Qaeda terrorist threat, but was called so that the Bush administration could develop it's own Middle East "regional strategy" (as opposed to Clinton's "regional strategy") with dealing with the al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, just being part of the Bush strategy...a small part.
Hmmm, anyone want to bet that 90 percent of this ONE meeting held ONE week before the 9/11 attacks dealt with Bush's obsession to attack Iraq and kill Saddam Hussein?
Awww, you know I'm right.
100 to 1.
These indicates to me that Bill Clinton's administration was 100 times more vigilant in addressing the al Qaeda terrorist threat than the Bush administration was...which is the real reason why some right-wing religious terrorists succeeded in attacking us on 9/11.
Bush, Cheney and all the wingnuts had Iraq on their minds...not al Qaeda.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:20 amBush did it too. nanananananan
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:32 amUnfortunately not enough was done to protect us from bin Laden. The fault clearly lies with Tenet. He didn't deserve the medal of freedom. He failed to protect Americans.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:32 am@Snidely Whiplash,
you were warned by perhaps 20 intelligence agencies around the world, see the 911 timeline (http://tinyurl.com/2awtb2).
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:30 am"The good news - you're getttin' a medal. The bad news - you're the fall guy. thanks for takin' one fer the team. Heckuvajob."
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:01 amYes, they're still unprepared for Al Qaeda, and will continue to be until they focus on these guys:
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
How many big red flags do they need?
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:27 amBill, Al Qaeda is merely a constructed bete noir. All the evidence needed for this assumption is in Iraq, where, given the perfect oppurtunity to attack US forces they make up but a tiny fraction of the belligerent factions.
Without coming to terms with this basic understanding, nobody is ever going to realise what is really going on.
You all want wars like this to end? Then i suggest you start lobbying for fuel efficiency standards. And not just minor standards, equivalent to EU standards. The root cause lies in the USAs (deliberately) decadent use of oil.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:52 am