Mariano Castillo and Elise Labott, CNN
Ten years after the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General completed its investigation into intelligence failures prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the agency on Friday declassified its report.
The nearly-500 page document — redacted in parts — elaborates on a list of “systemic problems” the inspector general found that contributed to missed warnings of Osama bin Laden’s plot to hijack planes and use them as weapons. Read the full report
The report had no dramatic new revelations, but it does offer additional analysis on the same problems that were identified in other government investigations.
“Concerning certain issues, the team concluded that the (CIA) and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner,” the report states.
The inspector general’s investigation followed a joint congressional inquiry that concluded that the U.S. intelligence community did not have a comprehensive strategy for combating al Qaeda.
The report found that no CIA employee violated laws and that the errors in intelligence gathering were not the product of misconduct.
The problem, the report states, is that agents did not perform their jobs satisfactorily.
One section of interest touched on the role of Saudi Arabia and its links, if any, with al Qaeda.
While there was some speculation among U.S. intelligence agents that a “few” Saudi government officials may have supported bin Laden, there was not enough information to confirm, the report states.
“The team encountered no evidence that the Saudi government knowingly and willingly supported al Qaeda terrorists,” the report states.
Much of the section on Saudi Arabia was redacted.
