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Letter: Why aren’t heads rolling over 9/11 warning signs?

Friday, June 14, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

In post-Sept. 11 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Director George Tenet claimed that the agency had known "in broad terms" that terrorists might be planning major operations in the United States, but he insisted that the reports lacked "texture" -- meaning enough specific information -- to stop what happened. But the Agency knew enough to warn National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on June 28 that a "significant al-Qaida attack" in the near future was "highly likely" -- and to refine that warning into a prediction of a U.S. civilian aviation hijacking in the Aug. 6 briefing for President Bush.

Given the extent of prior knowledge, why hasn't anyone been held responsible? Shouldn't Tenet, Mueller and other high-profile figures in the intelligence community resign, as a matter of principle? And shouldn't Congress conduct in-depth inquests regarding the consummate failure of our "national security" establishment to protect our nation's security?

FRANK PELTESON

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