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July 22, 2004
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9/11 Commission Releases Comprehensive Report
Volume catalogs what happened, what went wrong, and what needs to be done to protect U.S. from another terrorist attack
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LOIS R. EMBER
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The long-awaited 9/11 Commission report offers a sweeping indictment of government antiterrorism efforts prior to the al Qaeda attack that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001. The almost 600-page report catalogs at least 10 missed “operational opportunities”—including bungled attempts to kill or capture al Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden—that might have averted the attack. But the report places no blame on former president Bill Clinton or President George W. Bush for failing to prevent the attack.
Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean says the report cites governmentwide “failure of policy, management, capability and, above all, failure of imagination,” but not government neglect. Fault is spread broadly: The intelligence community is harshly chastised but so is Congress for poor oversight of intelligence collection.
The report calls on Congress to overhaul its committee structure to deal with homeland security and strengthen oversight of the intelligence community. It also recommends the creation of a national counterterrorism center to be headed by a national director of intelligence who would report directly to the President. This intelligence director would have authority—including budgetary control—over the CIA, FBI, and 13 other government intelligence agencies.
Instead of a separate domestic intelligence agency, like Britain’s MI-5, the report calls for the creation of a new domestic intelligence agency within the FBI whose personnel would have expertise in intelligence and national security.
Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) were expected to introduce legislation incorporating the report’s recommendations. But for various reasons, including a short legislative calendar, the report’s recommendations are not expected to be acted upon by Congress this year.
President Bush, who had been briefed earlier on the report’s findings, received the report just a few hours before its official release. He said the report “puts forward some very constructive recommendations,” and he looked “forward to working with Congress in implementing” them. But perhaps signaling the Administration’s opposition to an intelligence “czar,” acting CIA director John E. McLaughlin and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge both swept aside the report’s suggestion of such a director.
Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee John F. Kerry, who has called for a national intelligence chief, said the report carried a simple message: “We can do better. We must do better. And it’s time to act—now.”
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Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2004 |
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