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Richard Clarke was also deprived of the information. During an interview on August 11, 2011, he publicly accused former CIA Director George Tenet of personally barring the dissemination of intelligence on al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi to him (Clarke) as well as to the FBI. Clarke suggested that CIA operations officers were planning to recruit the two terrorists to work for the CIA, and once the FBI learned they were on U.S. soil the CIA would lose jurisdiction and control.
Bottom Line
It should now be clear, for those who can handle the truth, that the problems at NSA run deep -- in terms of effectiveness, integrity and respect for the Constitution. By withholding information and exploiting secrecy, NSA's leaders past and present have pulled off an unparalleled coup in concealing the sad reality that NSA could have prevented 9/11 and didn't. And Schadenfreude chortling by leaders at the top regarding the demonstrated bureaucratic advantages and success of such dishonesty has a tendency to be heard down through the ranks, corrupting even dedicated workers.
As you ponder more recent abuses, we hope you will address the deficiencies of NSA management past and present -- those who have been in charge of tens of thousands of patriotic workers doing their best in an agency whose mission is critical to our national security. And we suggest that you might wish to avoid repeating the dodgy rhetoric aimed at "proving" to us all that tragedies like 9/11 cannot be prevented unless we collect every bit and byte of signals intelligence we can.
We are in a position to know that collecting everything makes very little sense from a technical point of view. And, as citizens, we are offended by the callous disregard of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution we all swore a solemn oath to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Signed...
William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis; Co-founder of the SIGINT Automation Research Center.
Thomas Drake, former Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, NSA
Edward Loomis, former Chief, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
J. Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
PREPARED UNDER AUSPICES OF AD HOC STEERING GROUP, VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY
Ray McGovern, CIA analyst/Presidential Briefer, (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East (ret.)
Coleen Rowley, Minneapolis Legal Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.)
Daniel Ellsberg, Former State Dept. & Defense Dept. Official (VIPS Associate)
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