Pressure Builds For CIA to Disclose 9/11 Report
by TChris
The Republican chairs of the House and Senate intelligence oversight committees have joined Democrats in asking the CIA to make public a report that criticizes former senior CIA officials, including George Tenet, for their actions (and inaction) regarding terrorism prior to 9/11.
They add to the pressures on [CIA Director Porter] Goss, who has made clear that he would prefer not to make the report public, at least in part because its publication could be damaging to the agency's morale.
Until last week, only the top Democrats on each panel, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Representative Jane Harman of California, had called for Mr. Helgerson's report to be made public. The White House has not commented on the issue.
Relatives of the 9/11 victims have also asked for public disclosure of the report.
There's little doubt that its contents would be enlightening.
Current and former government officials who have seen Mr. Helgerson's report or been briefed on it have said it faulted Mr. Tenet as failing to develop a strategic plan against Al Qaeda and carry it out in the years before 2001. Others who are said to be criticized in the document include James L. Pavitt, the former deputy director of operations, and J. Cofer Black, the former director of the agency's Counterterrorist Center, though the report also offers praise for some specific actions taken by them and others, they said.
| < Settlement Proceeds Donated to Red Cross | Hunger Strike at Guantanamo 'Unsettles' Military Authorities > |
