Senators want to make CIA release 9/11 report

updated 8:07 a.m. ET May 18, 2007

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general’s report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA has spent more than 20 months weighing requests under the Freedom of Information Act for its internal investigation of the attacks but has yet to release any portion of it.

The agency is the only federal office involved in counterterrorism operations that has not made at least a version of its internal 9/11 investigation public.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and two other intelligence committee leaders — chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and senior Republican Kit Bond of Missouri — are pushing legislation that would require the agency to declassify the executive summary of the review within one month and submit a report to Congress explaining why any material was withheld.

The provision has been approved by the Senate twice, but never made into law.

In an interview, Wyden said he is also considering whether to link the report’s release to his acceptance of President Bush’s nominations for national security positions.

“It’s amazing the efforts the administration is going to stonewall this,” Wyden said. “The American people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical months before 9/11.... I am going to bulldog this until the public gets it.”

Completed in June 2005, the inspector general’s report examined the personal responsibility of individuals at the CIA before and after the attacks. Other agencies’ reviews examined structural problems within their organizations.

Wyden, who has read the classified report several times, wouldn’t offer any details on its findings or the conversations he has had with CIA Director Michael Hayden, former CIA Director Porter Goss and former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

Political security at stake
But he did say that protecting individuals from embarrassment is not a legitimate reason for protecting the report’s contents from public review. He also said the decision to classify the report has nothing to do with national security, but rather political security.

Hayden declined to be interviewed about the report. In a statement Thursday, his spokesman Mark Mansfield said the CIA director wants the agency to learn from any past mistakes, but doesn’t want to dwell on them.

“Given the formidable national security challenges our nation faces, now and down the road, General Hayden believes it is essential for the Agency to move forward,” Mansfield said. “That’s where our emphasis needs to be.”

The agency’s actions prior to Sept. 11 have gotten renewed attention with the release of a memoir by former CIA director George Tenet. He has been criticized for not doing more to warn Bush about the al-Qaida threat.

In interviews about his memoir, he has said instead he worked the bureaucracy beneath the president by asking then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others for action.

Bond said some intelligence officials have dismissed the inspector general’s report as “ancient history,” which he doesn’t accept. He said the report has additional information which would be useful to the public.

“We have no desire to embarrass or throw cold water on the enthusiasm of the great men and women of the CIA, but let’s just take a clear and open look at what the IG found and see if we have all of those problems corrected,” Bond said.

MORE FROM SECURITY

Security Section Front

Judge: Let Chinese Muslims in Gitmo into U.S. Jury selection begins in Fort Dix plot case Police blow up backpack at Texas mosque Delays stymie ground zero rebuild Mail carriers to bring drugs in anthrax attack Poll: Most don't think al-Qaida weakened Security Section Front   Add Security headlines to your news reader: