In a further blow to the ‘intelligence’ of US intelligence, a report, which reveals that a CIA official had blocked a memo to alert the FBI about the entry of two top al qaeda hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar into the US before the 9/11 attacks, has been made public.
The report, drafted by Justice Department inspector general Glenn A Fine, said that the FBI had, before 9/11, passed up at least five chances to nab the two hijackers, even as they were busy gearing up for the attacks in San Diego.
The fact that the CIA delayed giving out details of the two hijackers to the FBI and other agencies for 18 months is well known. But what’s new about the revelation is that a specific memo had been written to disseminate this information to the FBI and a supervisor blocked it intentionally. The reasons why the CIA official, who has been referred to as ‘John’ to protect his identity, blocked the memo are not clear.
The report said that the official who drafted the memo had sent it in early 2000. This official, who originally belonged to the FBI and was on an assignment with the CIA, sent it to ‘John’ instead of directly communicating with the FBI because only supervisors were allowed to disseminate such sensitive information. He later followed up with an email but received no response and no action was taken to pass on the info.
The report also highlights a number of other botches, due to bureaucratic problems, lack of communication and complacency, which led to the hijackers carrying out the attacks on World Trade Center, and Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
“What we found were significant deficiencies in the way the FBI handled these issues. We don’t believe it was misconduct on the part of individuals so much as systemic problems, but we do recommend that the FBI review the performance of individuals on its own,” said author of the report, Glenn Fine.
He, however, added that would be ‘too speculative’ to assume that the terror attacks could have been stopped if the failures mentioned in the report had not taken place. “But there were very significant failures, both systemic and individual, and we lay out the details behind them,” Fine said.
Meanwhile, the FBI said it has taken several steps to make the flow of information smooth post-9/11. “By building our intelligence capabilities, improving our technology and working together, we have and will continue to develop the capabilities we need to succeed against all threats,” said FBI’s assistant director Cassandra Chandler.
A statement by the FBI, while accepting the problems pointed out by Fine’s report, said, “We enhanced our cadre of intelligence analysts with hundreds of new hires, new training and a clear career path. We changed the criteria by which special agents, field offices and investigative programs are evaluated to emphasize intelligence-related functions.”
But a top official of the CIA said the incident had occurred because its officials were exhausted and the agency was understaffed.
