On 9/11, FBI & CIA Failures Were Personal, Not Structural

[NATO AIR]

I think Bob Graham has a very good point here (though I disagree with Pres. Bush misleading the WOT),many of our problems (especially within the FBI & CIA) are the failures of agents and analysts, not the system. We need better people!



Personnel Foul
Let's stop fixating on structural problems and figure out how to recruit and reward smart spooks.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004, at 2:33 PM PT

Intelligence Matters, Sen. Bob Graham's venture into the flood of 9/11 books, is much better than its clichéd title and generic cover art might suggest. Briskly paced and mercifully brief at 297 pages, it accuses George W. Bush of blowing the war on terrorism, covering up a crucial Saudi connection, and obstructing a congressional inquiry at every turn. As the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Graham helped undertake that inquiry—and co-wrote the resulting report, which recommended a host of structural reforms, some of which Congress is now considering.

However, the main lesson of Graham's book—though he never makes this point explicitly—is that the chief failures of 9/11 were personal rather than organizational.

In the course of his narrative, Graham identifies 12 points at which the terrorists' plot "could have been discovered and potentially thwarted." Yet a close look at those 12 points reveals that in 10 of them the main problem was not the famous "wall" dividing the FBI from the CIA, but rather the sheer incompetence of the people working on either side of that wall.

the rest may be found @

http://www.slate.com/id/2106425/

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Nato, would you advocate toppling the Saudi regime through force?

 

[NATO AIR]

no, i think they are finally getting the message on reform and stopping their support of the bin ladenist vipers

i have a good article for you if you'd like to read about saudi arabia

THE FP MEMO: ADVICE FOR GLOBAL LEADERS


How to Reform Saudi Arabia Without Handing It to Extremists

By F. Gregory Gause III Page 1 of 3


September/October 2004

To survive, the monarchy must battle the militants, reassure the religious establishment, and give the middle class a taste of democracy.


TO: Crown Prince Abdullah

FROM: F. Gregory Gause III

RE: Saving the Kingdom

The combination of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, rising oil prices, and the recent upsurge in violence in Saudi Arabia has made your political system enormously important to the rest of the world. Many observers in the West blame your schools and mosques for anti-Western hatred in the Muslim world. They portray your family’s rule as both unstable and impervious to reform. Much of what is said about you outside the kingdom is, of course, uninformed or exaggerated for political effect. But external pressure will not disappear. Here are some steps you can take to placate your critics and strengthen your regime:

The Political Battle: Liberalize with Care
Security is your foremost challenge. Even after the attacks of September 11, some in your government believed you did not face an al Qaeda problem at home. The murderous assaults in Saudi Arabia over the last 15 months have given the lie to that view. Crushing the violent Islamist opposition now must be the first priority. You have embarked on a two-pronged policy that is conceptually sound but in need of some tailoring and more vigorous implementation.

read the rest @
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/files/story2674.php

 

[NATO AIR]

but hey, if saudi got worse rather than better, would you advocate toppling them through force?
(i'd say yes if the situation was as bad as it gets, i mean we have to have oil and we cannot have wackos controlling islam's holy center)

 

[rtwngAvngr]

the wall was a big deal.

I can't quite figure you out nato. What's your deal?