PrintAugust 8, 2007
Here We Go Again
According to The Hill, the CIA is ready to declassify an internal report on the agency's performance in the months leading up to 9/11.
The CIA has been ordered to release by Labor Day a declassified summary of an internal report on the agency’s performance prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, possibly shedding light on whether senior officials made fundamental lapses in judgment.Previous media reports have leaked the fact that the IG's report is scathing in its criticism of several former agency officials including CIA Director George Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James Pavitt, and former CIA Counterterrorism Center Chief Cofer Black. All have since left the agency.
Under the 9/11 bill that President Bush signed into law Friday, the agency must release a public summary within 30 days of the law’s enactment, along with a classified annex for Congress that explains the report’s redactions.
CIA spokesman George Little told The Hill in an e-mail Monday that the agency “will, of course, comply with the law.” Until now, the CIA had refused to disclose any part of the report since its former inspector general (IG), John Helgerson, completed the final draft more than two years ago. The 9/11 bill, which addresses most of the 9/11 Commission’s unfulfilled recommendations, is the first successful legislation to mandate a declassified summary.
Once more, we wiill witness the right and left going hammer and tongs over who was to "blame" for 9/11 and whether it could have been prevented. And the report is coming out just in time to mark the 6th anniversary of the tragedy where 3,000 Americans lost their lives in the worst terrorist attack in US history.
