OFFICE SPACE (CLASSIFIED VERSION)
Nov. 14th, 2009 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM [via Schneier]: While everyone starts arguing if anyone really should have seen the Ft Hood shootings coming, it’s worth sharing this little nugget I just picked up:
The 9/11 Comission published a classified report in 2004 that investigated where the intelligence community went wrong in missing the 9/11 attacks. The excuse up to then was that the NSA, CIA and FBI were unable to legally share info in a way that could have put the different pieces together.
The report were declassified and released in June. Conclusion:
In other words, the real reason for dropping the ball on 9/11 boils down to inter-agency rivalries and turf battles.
I’m not surprised. I recently read Curveball, which recounts how the Bush Posse’s “intelligence” proving that Saddam Hussein had WMD – the evidence Colin Powell presented to the UN – turned out to be a single source whose info was never verified or corroborated by anyone else, and eventually proved to be completely false. The details of the book indicate this was at least partly the result of petty office politics and rivalries and the refusal of some people to admit they might be wrong simply because they didn’t want to lose their job or risk losing a promotion.
Whether this applies to MAJ Hasan and Ft Hood remains to be seen – and clearly, thanks to the haphazard mediaclusterfuck reporting, there's plenty we don't yet know or understand about this case. But at the end of the day, if there is more to this than a guy with extreme politics snapping and going postal, this may explain why no one saw it coming.
Which of course would mean that billions of dollars in DHS creation, restructuring and investment later, we’re still at Square One.
Nice one.
Cooperation is not my name,
This is dF
The 9/11 Comission published a classified report in 2004 that investigated where the intelligence community went wrong in missing the 9/11 attacks. The excuse up to then was that the NSA, CIA and FBI were unable to legally share info in a way that could have put the different pieces together.
The report were declassified and released in June. Conclusion:
"The information sharing failures in the summer of 2001 were not the result of legal barriers but of the failure of individuals to understand that the barriers did not apply to the facts at hand,"
The prevailing confusion was exacerbated by numerous complicating circumstances, the monograph explains. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was growing impatient with the FBI because of repeated errors in applications for surveillance. Justice Department officials were uncomfortable requesting intelligence surveillance of persons and facilities related to Osama bin Laden since there was already a criminal investigation against bin Laden underway, which normally would have preempted FISA surveillance. Officials were reluctant to turn to the FISA Court of Review for clarification of their concerns since one of the judges on the court had expressed doubts about the constitutionality of FISA in the first place. And so on.
The prevailing confusion was exacerbated by numerous complicating circumstances, the monograph explains. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was growing impatient with the FBI because of repeated errors in applications for surveillance. Justice Department officials were uncomfortable requesting intelligence surveillance of persons and facilities related to Osama bin Laden since there was already a criminal investigation against bin Laden underway, which normally would have preempted FISA surveillance. Officials were reluctant to turn to the FISA Court of Review for clarification of their concerns since one of the judges on the court had expressed doubts about the constitutionality of FISA in the first place. And so on.
In other words, the real reason for dropping the ball on 9/11 boils down to inter-agency rivalries and turf battles.
I’m not surprised. I recently read Curveball, which recounts how the Bush Posse’s “intelligence” proving that Saddam Hussein had WMD – the evidence Colin Powell presented to the UN – turned out to be a single source whose info was never verified or corroborated by anyone else, and eventually proved to be completely false. The details of the book indicate this was at least partly the result of petty office politics and rivalries and the refusal of some people to admit they might be wrong simply because they didn’t want to lose their job or risk losing a promotion.
Whether this applies to MAJ Hasan and Ft Hood remains to be seen – and clearly, thanks to the haphazard media
Which of course would mean that billions of dollars in DHS creation, restructuring and investment later, we’re still at Square One.
Nice one.
Cooperation is not my name,
This is dF
