9/11 Report Shows CIA Caught Sleeping

CIA's 9/11 blunders laid bare
by James Gordon Meek in Washington

• Up to 60 agents knew bin Laden's men in LA
• Planned to kidnap 9/11 mastermind in 1997
• Howard approves terror attack drug stockpile

THE extent of CIA blunders ahead of the attacks of September 11, 2001 has been laid bare by a blistering new report which accuses spies of being asleep on the job.

In fact, up to 60 agents saw secret reports about two "bin Laden associates" arriving in Los Angeles in early 2000 but did not alert the FBI.

The pair later were among the 19 hijackers who killed more than 3000 people on 9/11 by flying passenger jets into US targets.

The CIA Inspector General's report heaps the most blame on former CIA director George Tenet for failing to use his clout to press the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

But Mr Tenet has fought back and said in a statement the Inspector General was "flat wrong"…

The CIA's bungled surveillance of Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, has long been considered in intelligence circles as the major missed opportunity to stop the September 11 attacks.

So many knew, so little done

It was not known until now that so many had access to the intelligence on the al-Qaeda associates at the time and did nothing about it.

Congress passed a law forcing the Bush Administration to release the report, which was completed two years ago.

One daughter of a September 11 victim welcomed the embarrassing 19-page document that many relatives had demanded for years.

"We're getting closer to revealing all the gaps and failures that led to the attacks," said Carie Lemack, who helped lead intelligence reform efforts after her mother Judy Larocque died on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Centre.

CIA planned to kidnap 9/11 mastermind

Another revelation was that the CIA wanted to kidnap 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed "but did not recognise" his high rank as a top bin Laden lieutenant.

The Inspector General faulted CIA officials for their "failure" to set eyes on "KSM" for four years before September 11.

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