Intelligence fails
Op/Ed - USA TODAY
Thu Sep 19, 2002
Almost three years before the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA ( news - web sites) Director George Tenet sent a memo to his deputies. ''We are at war'' against Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites), he said. ''I want no resources or people spared in this effort.''
But by the morning of Sept. 11, that war effort had yet to be mounted, according to a report released Wednesday by the House and Senate Intelligence committees. In their first public hearing into the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11, lawmakers revealed that the CIA's Counterterrorist Center had just five analysts assigned full time to tracking bin Laden's network. The FBI ( news - web sites) had but one lone al-Qaeda analyst assigned to the agency's international terrorism unit.
The lack of attention devoted to al-Qaeda before 9/11 helps explain why the $30 billion a year spent on intelligence did not turn up the terrorist plot. But the report raises new questions about the failure of the CIA and FBI to redirect resources from Cold War enemies to new-age terrorists.
Congressional investigators found no ''smoking gun'' sign of a coming attack that would suggest gross human error. They did discover smoldering evidence of multiple, vague warnings that went unheeded because of scant resources: warnings of attacks on landmarks, reports of terrorists' remote-controlled planes and plans for an attack on CIA headquarters.
The revelations are sure to touch off spasms of second-guessing. More important is the lesson they offer for thwarting future attacks: Intelligence agencies need sufficient forces focused on picking up threats, evaluating their credibility and acting on them.
While there were far more hints of possible terrorist attacks than previously admitted, the intelligence community had too few experts on the task to effectively connect all of the dots. For example, no analysts were studying the possible use of planes as weapons, despite evidence that terrorists were considering such attacks. Little wonder the FBI failed to act on the ''Phoenix'' memo that urged it to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in U.S. flight schools.
The key question now is whether the intelligence community is fixing these problems. Some signs are promising. The FBI says it's focusing more on combating terrorism, and Congress is pouring funds into the effort. The recent arrests of suspected al-Qaeda operatives in the USA and abroad suggest this intense focus is bearing fruit.
Harder to assess is whether the CIA has overcome its resistance to sharing intelligence with the FBI and has enough agents and analysts capable of tracking al-Qaeda.
To win the war on terrorism, U.S. spy agencies need to become as flexible, creative and determined as the enemy.
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