C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight
By SCOTT SHANE
New York Times, August 25, 2011
WASHINGTON — In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda.
. . . . . .
Starting in May, F.B.I. officials reviewed Mr. Soufan’s 600-page manuscript, asking the author for evidence that dozens of names and facts were not classified. Mr. Soufan and Mr. Freedman agreed to change wording or substitute aliases for some names, and on July 12 the bureau told Mr. Soufan its review was complete.
In the meantime, however, the bureau had given the book to the C.I.A. Its reviewers responded this month with 78-page and 103-page faxes listing their cuts.
Phi Beta Iota: Both CIA and the FBI lacked integrity from their inception, the one because of the Dulles imprimateur, the other from J. Edgar Hoover. Although both organizations continue to suffer from bureaucratic dysfunctionality and a total rejection of new ideas, the FBI appears to have made more gains in integrity than CIA. The culture of cheating continues within both organizations, but on balance, FBI lies to the White House less than the CIA does. With respect to 9/11, both CIA and FBI as organizations were “out of the loop” on Dick Cheney's personal oversight of “let it happen,” but both made it easier for Dick Cheney by being self-serving (CIA) and incompetent (FBI) as a matter of routine. CIA never understood that Al Qaeda was under operational oversight of the Pakistani intelligence service, and never took the “war on terrorism” seriously. FBI blew off two walk-ins prior to 9/11, one in Newark NJ and one in Orlando FL, and otherwise hampered field initiatives that were on to the pilot training as well as the laptop computer of a major figure in the 9/11 operation. The bottom line remains that at least nine countries told the US Government of the 9/11 plot in advance, and between Dick Cheney's scheduling a counterterrorism “exercise” over three months in advance, and the well-entrenched bureaucratic idiocy that prevails at all of the US national security agencies, without exception, 9/11 was allowed to happen with malice aforethought by Dick Cheney and his circle, and with supporting incompetence and lack of integrity at all other levels. Right now America desperately needs to get in touch with the truth in all its forms–the Open Source Agency is how we do that quickly and in direct support of our now lost democratic ideals.
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