The 9/11 Misunderstandings

On September 11, 2001 the United States experienced the most devastating attack on US soil since Pearl Harbor. This terrorist attack left people with several questions: Who would do this? and How could this happen? When the 9/11 commission report came out it revealed that there were intelligence failures on many levels, most importantly of which was a lack of or unwillingness of agencies to share intelligence. The Commission’s report noted, “information was not shared, sometimes inadvertently or because of legal misunderstandings” and “ Often the handoffs of information were lost across the divide separating the foreign and domestic agencies of the government” (9/11 Commission Report 2004, 353). For example the report highlights the case of Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, two individuals that the NSA had identified and the CIA were tracking their movements
The CIA had failed to alert INS and the FBI about their possible entrance into the United States. Khalid and Nawaf entered the United States unnoticed in Los Angeles on January 15, 2000 (9/11 Commission Report 2004, 355). The 9/11 Commission Report brought into place the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004; the IRTPA established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who serves as the head of the intelligence community; “act as the principal adviser to the President, to the National Security Council. And the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to the national security” (IRTPA 2004, Sec 102). The Directory of National Intelligence has access to all intelligence and is responsible for making sure that agencies are sharing information (IRTPA 2004, Sec 102). The goal of this paper is to examine the efforts made to ensure interagency information sharing and if those efforts have changed the how agencies share