[Mb-civic] CIA Refuses to Release "Dynamite" Report on 9/11 Accountability

[Michael Butler]

CIA Refuses to Release "Dynamite" Report on 9/11 Accountability

Thursday, October 21st, 2004
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/21/1440244

The CIA is ignoring calls from members of the House Intelligence Committee
to release an internal report on whether agency employees should be held
accountable for intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks. We
speak with Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer who broke the story.
[includes rush transcript]

 The ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee have called on the
CIA to turn over an internal report on whether agency employees should be
held accountable for intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11
attacks.

 An intelligence official told the New York Times that the report was not
finished and that "the matter is still under review."

 Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned whether the report is being
withheld to avoid embarrassment for the Bush administration in the final
weeks before the presidential election. So far no agency employee has been
fired or faced other disciplinary measures in connection with Sept. 11.

 The review, by the CIA's inspector general, was sought in December 2002 by
the joint Congressional committee that investigated intelligence failures
leading up to the 9/11 attacks.

 In a written statement, Democratic Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey said
the CIA report concludes that senior intelligence officials "failed to do
all that they could have to prevent the attacks, and that White House
officials were not as focused on the al Qaeda threat as previously
asserted."

    €      Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times columnist and co-author of "The
Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq." His latest column is titled,
"The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket"
RUSH TRANSCRIPT 

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AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Robert Scheer, the L.A. Times columnist who¹s
written about the story and co-author of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us
About Iraq. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Robert Scheer.

 ROBERT SCHEER: Hi.

 AMY GOODMAN: Your latest piece is called, ³The 9/11 Secret in the C.I.A's
Back Pocket.² Please explain.

 ROBERT SCHEER: Well, what happened here is that the report was done, as I
understand it, in May and June, and turned over to the inspector general in
July. Now, the inspector general -- it was finished, and the inspector
general is supposed to hand it over to Congress. And my sources, what I
reported, was that there's no national security reason for withholding the
report from Congress. That's the only grounds in which the inspector --
inspector general and the Justice Department, State, C.I.A, Defense
Department, is supposed to act as an independent auditor. They¹re supposed
to be check on the agency. And so, if the C.I.A director doesn't want to
turn over the whole report to Congress he has -- legally has seven days to
notify Congress that there¹s a national security concern then Congress can
act on that. They can demand to see the report, they can meet, or what have
you. In this case, the inspector general has been stalling, and -- been
stalling since July; and what I reported was people who have knowledge of
this saying they're stalling the report until after the election, so, it
won't adversely affect Bush's chances. And Porter Goss who¹s the -- was the
head of the House Intelligence Committee is the new C.I.A
Director­Republican -- former Republican congressman­is the one who is
currently stalling it. So, here is a study on what happened at 9/11 demanded
in December of 2002 -- 2001 by Congress -- 2001 by Congress. An eleven-man
committee at the C.I.A worked on that question for almost two years; and it
hasn't been turned over. And my understanding, and what I reported in The
Los Angeles Times, is that this is dynamite. It's the first report to really
fix the responsibility by naming names. Remember, both reports that we¹ve
had, the Senate Intelligence Committee -- joint committee -- intelligence
committee -- and the 9/11 Commission managed to be bipartisan by holding
back on the question of accountability, particularly accountability of the
Bush administration. My understanding is that this report is explosive
because it says the Bush administration was asleep at the wheel before 9/11
and it fixes responsibility on individuals quite high up, and that it says
the administration covered up after 9/11 by not holding these people
accountable. So there it is.

 JUAN GONZALEZ: And Bob, the current inspector general of the C.I.A -- Was
the I.G. appointed by the Bush administration, or was he a holdover?

 ROBERT SCHEER: Yeah. It was a holdover. And -- But the main thing is the
I.G. is supposed to, as I say, be an independent auditor. They're supposed
to operate in a professional manner; and the director isn't even actually
supposed to -- he's not supposed to comment or respond to the report when
it's requested. No inspector general has ever been overruled by the C.I.A
director in the history of the agency in a matter of this sort. Not one
report has been held up by the director of the C.I.A, ever, in the history
of the agency. This is the first time. I know it's difficult for people to
understand, but the C.I.A actually, in order to preserve the democracy, the
State Department, the C.I.A, the Justice Department, Defense Department have
this independent auditing arm that's supposed to keep the thing straight.
And what happened here is that the system broke down. And, as I say, since
July, there's been a report that they¹ve been sitting on that does what has
not been done. After all, this is a nation that's been traumatized by 9/11.
This is a president who demands to be re-elected primarily on the basis of
9/11; and the public opinion shows that without 9/11, this president would
be incredibly weak. That's his one issue, is: How did he handle the attacks
-- respond to the attacks on the United States? And what this report says is
that this administration bears responsibility on the highest level for being
unprepared before 9/11 and not doing -- holding people accountable after
9/11. I mean it's amazing. You know, if you have an automobile accident, or
something, people want to know who's accountable. Here you have this
horrible event happen, and we still do not have a single individual in this
country who has been held accountable for: How did these people get into the
country? Why were our defenses down? Why didn't the agencies coordinate? Why
didn't they act on the information? So, it is ­ it¹s a major scandal. This
is the first report that names names, breaks open this controversy, tells us
what really happened, and what didn't happen on the part of the
administration; and they're afraid of this report, and that's why they're
suppressing it. And now you have the House and Senate -- the chairman of the
committee -- the Democrat and Republican of the House saying: ³Where's the
report?² It's been fifteen days since they wrote their letter (and I wrote
about it in the -- in my column in The Los Angeles Times). They demanded to
know where is this report, and Jane Harmon, the ranking Democrat on the
committee, has said, you know, I¹ll quote her, she said: ³We believe that
the C.I.A has been told not to distribute the report. We are very
concerned.² And so she is finally ­ you know -- she's raising the issue, and
she said, I'll quote again, Jane Harman, she said: ³It fuels the perception
that no one is being held accountable. It is unacceptable that we don't have
the report. It not only disrespects Congress, but it disrespects the
American people. And then in my column, I said: ³The stonewalling of the
Bush administration and the failure of Congress to gain release of the
report [here [inaudible] intelligence reports that I quote] Œled the
management of C.I.A to believe it can engage in a cover-up with impunity.
Unless the public demands an accounting, the administration and C.I.A's
leadership will have won and the nation will have lost.¹² So, my question
there would be: Where are all these people who say 9/11 has to be the focus
of this election, has to be the focus of our policy? Why aren't they
demanding the first report that lays out the responsibility, holds people
accountable?

 AMY GOODMAN: Robert Scheer, I want to thank you very much for being with
us. Los Angeles Times columnist who broke the story of this C.I.A pre-9-11
accountability report that the C.I.A refuses to release. And you are
listening to and watching Democracy Now!

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