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Gold9472
10-05-2005, 05:11 PM
C.I.A. Chief Refuses to Seek Discipline for 9/11 Officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/politics/05cnd-intel.html?hp&ex=1128571200&en=fccdbac1a1008449&ei=5094&partner=homepage

(Gold9472: Without accountability, it will happen OVER and OVER and OVER again.)

By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: October 5, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 -- The C.I.A. will not pursue disciplinary action against George J. Tenet, a former director, or anyone else among current or former officials singled out by an inspector general for poor performance on counterterrorism before Sept. 11, 2001, the agency said today.

The decision by the agency's current director, Porter J. Goss, signifies an end to nearly four years of inquiries into the agency's performance before the Sept. 11 attacks. It means that no current or former officer will be reprimanded for his performance, despite what the inspector general, John L. Helgerson, concluded were serious shortcomings in advance of the attacks.

In a written statement, Mr. Goss said that as "matter of judgment," he had decided not to heed a recommendation by Mr. Helgerson that he convene what the agency calls an "accountability review board" to assess the performance of individual officials, as a prelude to possible disciplinary action.

Mr. Helgerson's report remains classified. But people who have read the document have said that it singled out about 20 current and former officials, including Mr. Tenet; James L. Pavitt, the former deputy director for operations; Cofer Black, the former head of the agency's Counterterrorism Center.

"In no way does this report suggest that any one person or group of people could have prevented 9/11," Mr. Goss said of Mr. Helgerson's report.

In his statement, Mr. Goss said he had concluded that singling out individuals for disciplinary action "would send the wrong message to our junior officers about taking risks -- whether it be an operation in the field or being assigned to a hot topic at headquarters."

Of those named in the report, Mr. Goss said, "about half" have retired from the agency since Sept. 11, 2001, while "those who are still with us are amongst the finest we have."

Mr. Helgerson delivered his report to Congress in August, more than two years after beginning his review. Congressional leaders from both parties have asked that it be made public, but in his statement, Mr. Goss signaled that the agency was unlikely to approve the request, saying that the "extraordinary bulk" of the document bore on sensitive intelligence matters.

The internal report was said to have faulted Mr. Tenet in particular for focusing too little attention on combating Al Qaeda as a whole in the years before Sept. 11, a period in which much of the agency's focus was aimed at the terrorist group's leader, Osama bin Laden. Mr. Tenet and others named in the document objected strongly to that conclusion, and prepared lengthy rebuttals that the C.I.A. has also shared with members of Congress.

The C.I.A. inspector general's report, ordered by Congress in December 2002, was the last in a series of inquiries by Congress, the independent Sept. 11 commission and others that have focused on the agency's performance before Sept. 11. The C.I.A. has acknowledged missteps that prevented information about two future 9/11 hijackers from being shared with the F.B.I. until shortly before the attacks, but it has otherwise defended the agency's performance.

The Sept. 11 commission concluded that the C.I.A., under Mr. Tenet, was the most aggressive of government agencies in trying to call attention to the threats posed by terrorism before Sept. 11. The F.B.I. also conducted an internal review of the bureau's performance before Sept. 11, but that report did not hold any individuals accountable in connection with the attacks.

Mr. Pavitt, who retired as head of the agency's directorate of operations in August 2004, said today that Mr. Goss had done "the right thing" by deciding not to seek disciplinary action against anyone named in the report.

"There has been a great deal of accountability - how many times can we go through it again?" Mr. Pavitt said. "How many times do we need to try to hold a G.S.-13 or, for that matter, a former director responsible for 9/11. We've said, yes, mistakes were made, but there was an awful lot that was done that was good, that was positive, that was extraordinary."

There was no immediate response from members of Congress who had called for the report.

Gold9472
10-05-2005, 05:12 PM
THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!

Partridge
10-05-2005, 05:49 PM
But if a McDonalds worker turns up late three times they're fired. Nice.

Gold9472
10-05-2005, 06:03 PM
The reason (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4378&highlight=tenet) for this absolute BULLSHIT is because they know that if they start holding people accountable, those people would start to squeel. Would you go to prison for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney?

Gold9472
10-05-2005, 06:12 PM
If I know the widows... this is going to REALLY piss them off...

Gold9472
10-05-2005, 07:12 PM
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-10-05T225052Z_01_N0590257_RTRIDST_0_SECURITY-CIA-UPDATE-2.XML

Gold9472
10-05-2005, 07:27 PM
CIA will not pursue disciplinary action for Sept 11

http://today.reuters.com/investing/FinanceArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=uri:2005-10-05T225052Z_01_N0590257_RTRIDST_0_SECURITY-CIA-UPDATE-2.XML&pageNumber=0&summit=

Wed Oct 5, 2005 6:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - CIA Director Porter Goss, defying the spy agency's inspector general, said on Wednesday that he will not pursue disciplinary action against former and current CIA officials over intelligence lapses involving the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Despite widespread calls for accountability, Goss said the CIA would risk undermining the readiness of its operatives to take risks in the U.S. war on terror if it were to single out individuals for missteps that occurred in the run-up to the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

CIA inspector general John Helgerson recommended in an internal report last August that Goss convene a performance accountability board to examine the roles played by specific CIA officials charged with protecting the United States against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

But Goss said the agency's shortcomings on Sept. 11 stemmed not from individuals but from a lack of resources and personnel that dogged the CIA in the 1990s as a result of mandated post-Cold War cutbacks.

"In no way does this report suggest that any one person or group of people could have prevented 9/11. Of the officers named in this report, about half have retired from the agency, and those who are still with us are amongst the finest we have," he said in a statement issued by the CIA.

"Singling out these individuals would send the wrong message to our junior officers about taking risks, he said.

Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are blamed for orchestrating the attacks that killed 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, and prompted U.S. President George W. Bush to launch the invasion of Afghanistan.

But a blue-ribbon presidential commission later blamed the CIA in a scathing 2004 report for errors that included an unwillingness to share intelligence about al Qaeda militants with other agencies including the FBI.

The inspector general's report, which is classified, was sent to Congress in August.

Media accounts say it criticized several officials including former CIA Director George Tenet, former deputy director of operations James Pavitt and former counterterrorism director Cofer Black. All three have left the agency.

In a response to calls for a public version of the report, Goss said he would leave that to the outcome of an individual request for its release under the Freedom of Information Act.

Tenet, who declined to comment on Goss' decision on accountability, resigned in July 2004 but later received a Presidential Medal of Freedom award from Bush. The award is America's highest civilian honor.

Neither Pavitt nor Black were immediately available to comment.

Goss' decision won firm backing from his boss, U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte, who issued a statement supporting the CIA director.

But Goss, a former Republican Florida congressman who once chaired the House of Representatives intelligence committee, drew a mixed response from his former Republican and Democratic colleagues in Congress.

Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he was concerned that Goss had avoided the very mechanism by which the CIA determines whether punitive action is warranted.

The committee's senior Democrat, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, said the Goss decision raised a troubling question: "What failures in performance, if not these, warrant the convening of an accountability board at the CIA?"

But Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican who succeeded Goss on the House intelligence panel, said the report showed there was no "smoking gun" that would have enabled U.S. officials to predict or prevent the attacks. "The time has come to look forward, not backwards punitively," Hoekstra said.

Angry Sept. 11 family members heaped scorn on the decision.

"I find it reprehensible considering he (Goss) failed to carry out adequate oversight when he sat on the House intelligence committee," said Kristen Breitweiser, who heads a victims' relatives group called Sept. 11 Advocates.

"No one has been held accountable for the failures on 9/11," she added.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.