Pity. Bruce
CIA wont discipline spies over 9/11 From: Reuters >From correspondents in Washington October 06, 2005 CIA .director Porter Goss today rejected the agency's inspector general's recommendation to hold CIA officers accountable for their performance leading up to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Mr Goss said the inspector general recommended that the performance of some CIA officers who were working against al-Qaeda prior to the attacks on New York and Washington be reviewed by an accountability board. "After great consideration of this report and its conclusions, I will not convene an accountability board to judge the performances of any individual CIA officers," he said in a statement. It was not immediately known how many CIA officers were named in the report, or why. The CIA said the report was classified and would not be made public even in a censored form. Mr Goss said: "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. The New York Times reported in August that the inspector general's review criticised George Tenet, the agency's director at the time, for failing to develop and carry out a strategy to combat al-Qaeda in the years before the attacks. James Pavitt, the CIA's former deputy director of operations, and Cofer Black, former director of its counter-terrorism centre, also were criticised, according to the Times report. Mr Tenet stepped down in July 2004 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President George W. Bush in December. CIA inspector general John Helgerson's report was a product of a two-year review into the intelligence agency's performance in the years and months that led up to the attack, the deadliest ever on US soil. Mr Goss said it identified 20 systemic problems, but he did not describe them. "This report unveiled no mysteries," said the director, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "Of the 20 systemic problems identified by the IG report, all 20 are being addressed through a series of reforms identified by our own workforce, in addition to those mandated by the president," he said. The failure to prevent the September 11 attacks is widely considered one of the worst in the history of US intelligence. It was followed soon after by another major blow to the agency's prestige - prewar estimates on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be wrong. They prompted a shake-up that has placed a new director of national intelligence over the CIA and the nation's other intelligence agencies. A number of senior officials have left the agency since Mr Goss became director a year ago, and there have been persistent reports of low morale. Mr Goss said singling out CIA officers for punishment "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". Defending their performance, Mr Goss said the period before the September 11 attacks was "a time of great challenge" when CIA resources were inadequate and hiring had been at a historic low. "During this time period, certain individuals were asked to 'step-up'. These officers were 'stars' who had excelled in their areas, so the CIA leadership singled them out to take on some tough assignments," he said. "Unfortunately, time and resources were not on their side, despite their best efforts to meet unprecedented challenges," he said. Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was concerned about Mr Goss' decision, noting that convening an accountability board was the normal way to determine whether punitive personnel action was warranted. But John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, said he "fully supported" Mr Goss's decision not convene an accountability board. Mr Negroponte said he spoke with Mr Goss, read the report and had his inspector general read it as well. "I look forward to working with Director Goss to continue to address the systemic issues raised by this and other investigations," he said. With Agence France-Presse [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. 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