9/11: Extreme NSA, CIA, FBI Incompetence- or Policy Maker Intent?

by Erik Larson | October 15, 2008 at 09:26 am

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What's the difference between incompetence and intent? Do the 9/11 victims families and the people of the USA and the world have a right to answers? Kevin Fenton of HistoryCommons.org breaks down 7 points related to James Bamford's interview with Amy Goodman and new revelations about the NSA and CIA's failure to do really obvious things that were in their job description; like notify the FBI that 9/11 terrorists known to be plotting attacks were in the United States. Bamford and Goodman tread lightly here, Fenton asks more pointed questions.

Complete 911 Timeline: Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar

Alhazmi and Almihdhar: The 9/11 Hijackers Who Should Have Been Caught By Paul Thompson

Reaction to James Bamford Interview about CIA’s Protection of Almihdhar and Alhazmi by Kevin Fenton

Author James Bamford was recently interviewed by Amy Goodman about his new book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America. He talked about some issues that are covered in the 9/11 Timeline’s CIA Hiding Alhazmi and Almihdhar and Yemen hub categories. The interview follows on from an article in the Congressional Quarterly and it is well worth reading the whole thing.

I have some comments on a couple of the aspects Bamford touches on. First, I’d like to say that Bamford is obviously a really good reporter and he’s done a much better job on this than anyone who came before him (for example, Terry McDermott knew about the intercepts between San Diego and Sana’a, but relegated this information to the endnotes). Having said this, as far as I can see at the moment, he’s making a couple of errors and missing some things out.