More observations

Following the August 20, 1998, missile strikes on al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, both senior military officials and policymakers placed great emphasis on actionable intelligence as the key factor in recommending or deciding to launch military action against Bin Ladin and his organization. They did not want to risk significant collateral damage, and they did not want to miss Bin Ladin and thus make the United States look weak while making Bin Ladin look strong. On three specific occasions in 1998–1999, intelligence was deemed credible enough to warrant planning for possible strikes to kill Bin Ladin. But in each case the strikes did not go forward, because senior policymakers did not regard the intelligence as sufficiently actionable to offset their assessment of the risks.

What we have here is a conundrum. On the one hand, the 9/11 commission points out that officials are afraid to act without "actionable" intelligence. On the other hand, the SICR criticizes the CIA for not having developed enough solid intelligence to provide American leaders with the confidence that they can move on the intelligence.

Sounds like the perfect setup for Al Qaeda to continue wreaking havoc. American officials fiddle while Americans burn. I have long been frustrated by the unresponsive nature of our government and its inability to function efficiently. Now that we are faced with an unprecedented threat to our future viability, one can only hope that the government, particularly Congress, can find a way to focus on what matters and stop bickering over politics. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who is elected. Our security is threatened, and they had better do something about it.

The intelligence community struggled throughout the 1990s and up to 9/11 to collect intelligence on and analyze the phenomenon of transnational terrorism. The combination of an overwhelming number of priorities, flat budgets, an outmoded structure, and bureaucratic rivalries resulted in an insufficient response to this new challenge.

This is the crux of the matter, is it not? Congress needs to fund intelligence sufficiently to do the job, define the focus of the agencies, restructure the agencies for the new threats and command in no uncertain terms that any rivalries need to go away while we fight this battle.

Did I say Congress? Yes, that's right, Congress. The one part of our government that seems to have taken no responsibility for what happened on 9/11. Isn't it time our 535 representatives stepped up to the plate and did their job?

The Congress, like the executive branch, responded slowly to the rise of transnational terrorism as a threat to national security. The legislative branch adjusted little and did not restructure itself to address changing threats. Its attention to terrorism was episodic and splintered across several committees. The Congress gave little guidance to executive branch agencies on terrorism, did not reform them in any significant way to meet the threat, and did not systematically perform robust oversight to identify, address, and attempt to resolve the many problems in national security and domestic agencies that became apparent in the aftermath of 9/11. So long as oversight is undermined by current congressional rules and resolutions, we believe the American people will not get the security they want and need. The United States needs a strong, stable, and capable congressional committee structure to give America’s national intelligence agencies oversight, support, and leadership.

Will Congress listen? Will Congress act? Time will tell, but the indicators are not encouraging. There's far too much bickering and infighting, and jockeying for position.

Congress needs to take responsibility for our security and take whatever actions are necessary to change, reform, eliminate or create whatever agencies we need to provide Americans with the security that we pay them for. It's time to stop making excuses and act. All Americans, no matter what their political persuasion, should lobby their congressperson to make security "job number one".