The Change Mariner

CIA, FBI Need 5 Years to Make Post 9/11 Changes

CBC (Canada):

Enormous intelligence and law enforcement gaps that contributed to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are being filled, but it will take years more for America to build the needed systems to effectively combat terrorists, the heads of the FBI and CIA said Wednesday.

CIA Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller went before the commission investigating the 2001 hijackings after the panel's staff released statements harshly criticizing the CIA for failing to fully appreciate the threat posed by al-Qaida prior to Sept. 11 and questioning the FBI's reorganization efforts.

"It was a damning report of a system that's broken, that doesn't function," said commission member John Lehman, a former navy secretary, referring to flaws found in the intelligence system.

Tenet, making his second appearance before the commission in three weeks, said that in the 1990s the CIA lost 25 per cent of its personnel, was not hiring new analysts and faced disarray in its training of clandestine officers who work overseas to penetrate terror cells and recruit secret informants.

Although strides have been made since the attacks, Tenet said it would take five more years to "have the kind of clandestine service our country needs." The National Security Agency, which handles electronic surveillance, and U.S. mapping and analytic intelligence agencies also need time and sustained funding to improve, he said.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at April 14, 2004 05:06 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Quadrant - Political | Theme - 'Response to Terrorism'

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