Commission-Dissin’
In an apparent break with the 9/11 Commission and administration officials, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said late last week that given the information the government possessed, the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were “preventable.”
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, the retired admiral said, “The standard for surveillance or observation or arrest is significantly higher in a criminal situation than it is in foreign intelligence. In my view, the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11 worked in the seam to be behind the wall, invisible to foreign intelligence, not breaking the law sothey were visible to criminal authorities, and they were able to carry out that act. Even with that, there was enough information in the system that if we had connected all the pieces, it was preventable.”
This goes against the final report of the 9/11 Commission, which refused to draw the conclusion that the attacks were preventable, although some panelists believe that was the case. Similarly, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the attacks could not have been predicted.
