Report reveals CIA failures before 9/11

WASHINGTON: The CIA's top leaders failed to use their available powers, never developed a comprehensive plan to stop Al-Qaida and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to September 11, the agency's own watchdog has concluded in a bruising report.

Completed in June 2005 and kept classified until now, the 19-page executive summary released on Tuesday finds extensive fault with the actions of senior Central intelligence Agency (CIA) leaders and others beneath them. "The agency and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner," the CIA inspector general found.

"They did not always work effectively and cooperatively," the report stated.

Yet the review team led by Inspector General John Helgerson found neither a "single point of failure nor a silver bullet" that would have stopped the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

In a statement, CIA Director Michael Hayden said the decision to release the report was not his choice or preference, but that he was making the report available as required by Congress in a law President George W Bush signed earlier this month.

"I thought the release of this report would distract officers serving their country on the front lines of a global conflict," Hayden said. "It will, at a minimum, consume time and attention revisiting ground that is already well plowed."

The report does cover terrain heavily examined by a congressional inquiry and the September 11 Commission. However, the CIA watchdog's report goes further than previous reviews to examine the personal failings of individuals within the agency who led the pre-September 11 efforts against Al-Qaida.