9/11 report highlights US Government's failure
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-23 11:07

US leaders and intelligence agencies failed for many years to grasp the gravity of the threat posed by radical Islamists and suffered from a collective "failure of imagination," the commission investigating the September 11 attacks said in its final report.

Members of the news media review copies of the 9/11 Commission's report in Washington, DC. In its report, the 9/11 Commission said Iran may have provided transit for at least eight of the men who carried out the September 11 attacks.[AFP]

The report issued by the 10-member commission yesterday pointed to "deep institutional failings" and missed opportunities by both the Bush and Clinton administrations to thwart the hijackings carried out by al-Qaida operatives which killed almost 3,000 people in 2001.

The commission recommended appointment of a national intelligence director and creation of a national counter-terrorism centre to better co-ordinate and share information about future terrorist threats.

Threat misunderstood

The report said that as late as September 4, 2001, a week before the suicide hijacking attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration had not decided whether Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida operation was a "big deal."

"Terrorism was not the overriding national security concern for the US Government under either the Clinton or the pre-9/11 Bush administrations," the 567-page report said.

"The 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamist extremists had given plenty of warning that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers," it said.

"The most important failure was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat," the report said.

"The terrorist danger from bin Laden and al-Qaida was not a major topic for policy debate among the public, the media, or in the Congress. Indeed, it barely came up during the 2000 presidential campaign."

By criticizing both the Bush and Clinton administrations, the five Republicans and five Democrats on the panel gave ammunition to both parties in the heated presidential race.

But President George W. Bush was seen as more vulnerable because he was in office when the attacks took place.

White House nervous

The White House, which initially tried to block the establishment of the commission, has been awaiting the report nervously, hoping it would not interfere with Bush's campaign for re-election in November.

U.S. President George Bush, right, greets Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge while visiting the Northeastern Illinois Public Safety Training Academy Thursday, July 22, 2004, in Glenview, Ill, a suburb of Chicago. [AP Photo]

Bush, reacting swiftly to the report, called it "solid and sound" but did not discuss specific findings or recommendations.

He said he would study the document and its recommendations, many of which he described as common sense and constructive.

The report concluded there was no collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaida, one of Bush' central arguments for launching an invasion of Iraq last year.

Congressional failure

The commission sharply criticized Congress for failing in its oversight role on terrorism and intelligence issues.

Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who served both former President Bill Clinton and Bush and who testified before the commission, said the report left many questions unanswered.

"The commission decided unanimity was more important than controversy.

They did a very workman-like Washington report," Clarke told ABC's "Good Morning America" show.

Overnight, US television networks broadcast newly released surveillance video from Washington's Dulles International Airport on the morning of the attacks that investigators view as one of the many missed opportunities.

The video shows five hijackers passing through security checkpoints. Four of them repeatedly set off alarms but were quickly cleared to board the flight that later crashed into the Pentagon.

It was not clear what set the alarms off.

Families angered

Relatives of 9/11 victims said they wanted to know more about why opportunities such as these were missed. "These indicators, these actions, were just not picked up, were not fused together. How was that possible? We have spent billions of dollars on intelligence and yet it just broke down when it came to al-Qaida," said Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband was killed in the attacks.

Loreen Sellitto, a relative of a victim that died in the 9/11 attack, wipes a tear as she listens to a briefing by the 9/11 Commission in Washington, July 22, 2004. The commission investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks unveiled their report on Thursday that points to 'deep institutional failings' and missed opportunities by both the Bush and Clinton administrations to thwart the hijackings, according to U.S. officials. [Reuters]

Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show with two other 9/11 widows, Breitweiser said she hoped the report would not be a "political football" and the recommendations would be followed.

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