How the CIA dropped the ball on stopping 9/11

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

One of the saddest aspects of the 9/11 attacks is that the CIA allowed 9/11
hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khaled al-Mihdhar, to roam free in the U.S.
for almost 18 months before the attacks even though the CIA considered these
two guys "dirty" and likely associated with Al Qaeda.
 
Attached are two AP articles that provide some more details about these two
hijackers from the Moussaoui trial and how the CIA dropped the ball.
 
As an aside, here is Nawaf al-Hazmi's home phone listing at Yahoo from the
fall of 2001:
 
http://www.computerbytesman.com/biometrics/presentation/nawaf.htm
 
Richard
 
  _____  

 
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/27/moussaoui/index.html

Missed opportunities


The missed opportunities -- independent of Moussaoui -- to locate the 9/11
hijackers is the theme of the defense team. The defense began its case by
calling Eric Rigler, a former FBI agent who is now a private investigator,
to detail five missed chances to find hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khaled
al-Mihdhar.

The CIA had known since March 2000 the two were in the country but delayed
telling the FBI until a week after Moussaoui was arrested.

When the FBI got the information, it was assigned to an single agent getting
his first counterterrorism lead, Rigler said. 

Rigler's testimony was based on a 2004 Justice Department inspector general
report. The 9/11 commission also documented the missed chances to locate
al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar.


  _____  

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114347593133509093.html?mod=home_whats_news_
us

Waiting in Vain

Just before he took the stand, the court heard testimony that two months
before the attacks, a CIA deputy chief waited in vain for permission to tell
the FBI about a "very high interest" al Qaeda operative who became one of
the hijackers. The official, a senior figure in the CIA's Osama bin Laden
unit, said he sought authorization on July 13, 2001, to send information to
the FBI but got no response for 10 days, then asked again.

As it turned out, the information on Khalid al-Mihdhar did not reach the FBI
until late August. At the time, CIA officers needed permission from a
special unit before passing certain intelligence on to the FBI.

The official was identified only as John. His written testimony was read
into the record. The testimony included an email sent by FBI supervisor
Michael Maltbie discussing Mr. Moussaoui but playing down his terrorist
connections. Mr. Maltbie's email said "there's no indication that
[Moussaoui] had plans for any nefarious activity."

He sent that email to the CIA even after receiving a lengthy memo from the
FBI agent who arrested Mr. Moussaoui and suspected him of being a terrorist
with plans to hijack aircraft.

Former FBI agent Erik Rigler, the first defense witness, was questioned
about a Justice Department report that he said criticized the CIA for
keeping intelligence about two known al Qaeda terrorist operatives in the
U.S. from the FBI for more than a year. Under cross-examination from the
prosecution, he acknowledged the report did not link the pair specifically
to a civil aviation plot. But he said the report's thrust was about their
preparations for what turned out to be the 9/11 attacks, and their ability
to elude federal agents. "That's why they came here," he said. "They didn't
come for Disney."

The two were among the 19 suicide hijackers on 9/11. The report said they
had been placed on a watch list in Thailand in January 2000, but not on a
U.S. list until August 2001.

 

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