9/11 Intelligence Failures Report

The intelligence community failed the American people in multiple ways that fateful day. Due to a lack of changing with the times, and adapting to the new and upcoming threats to our country adequate information was not disseminated to the personnel who required it most. These facts reach out to all the agencies that were involved to include the FBI, CIA, and military intelligence. Many of these facts repeat themselves in all the categories. The application of how and why the chain of events unfolded can be traced back to the end of the cold war.
The failure of agencies that perform like duties, in some form, to work together and communicate efficiently have illustrated to created mass destruction. There is a difference between domestic
intelligence and foreign intelligence. This does not take away from the fact that they could build on each other to complete the puzzle. The CIA had intel that there was Al Qaeda associates inside the United States. However, they were afraid if they collected intelligence on someone inside the United States they would get scrutinized. Instead of letting the FBI know this information and allow them to investigate, nothing was done. Failures in the communication, along with many others, set forth a mirage of cascading effects.
The ability to learn and adapt from each disaster is what makes this nation a harder target.
Our leaders and professionals that deal with potential disasters and weigh out the risks of our critical infrastructure and key resources need to have a creative and imaginative mind. In an interview with a Canadian television station, Ira Winkler, a former project manager at NSA, stated “if you look at what the al-Qaeda previously did, they took truck bombs and used them against the embassy in Kenya, they went ahead and used a boat in Yemen against the U.S. warship. So you have a car, you have a truck, you have a boat. Why wouldn't you expect a plane to be added?” (“9/11 Intelligence Failures Report”, 2002). This emphasizes how important it is to be creative, think outside of the box and be proactive when it comes to homeland security.
9/11 was not an inevitable event. If the correct policies and thinking were in place the entire situation could have been thwarted in its early stages. Assuming an event cannot happen or an action cannot be executed leads into failure from the beginning. This event placed the IC in the public view with an emphasis on how much a reform is needed. Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be possible. Creating a mindset like this among all those who work in the intelligence field can enable the best protection for the Homeland in the
future.