Report Faults Officials for 9/11 Failings

The CIA’s independent watchdog has recommended disciplinary reviews for current and former officials who were involved in failed intelligence efforts before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The proceedings, formally called an accountability board, were recommended by the CIA inspector general, John Helgerson, sources familiar with the findings said. It remains unclear which people are identified for the accountability boards in the highly classified report spanning hundreds of pages.

The report was delivered to Congress on Tuesday night.

People familiar with the report say Helgerson criticizes a number of the agency’s most senior officials. Among them are former CIA Director George J. Tenet, former clandestine service chief James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorism center head J. Cofer Black.

The accountability board could take a number of actions, including letters of reprimand. It could also clear individuals of wrongdoing. CIA Director Porter J. Goss will decide whether the disciplinary proceedings go forward.

Those who discussed the report with Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity because it remained highly classified and was circulated among a small group of officials in Washington. The report was prepared after a two-year review into intelligence missteps.

Tenet and Pavitt declined to comment. Black could not be reached Thursday.

Goss, a CIA officer in the 1960s, was among those who requested the inspector general’s review as part of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks. At the time, Goss was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Some members of Congress, including Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), are pushing for the CIA to produce a declassified version of the report for public review.

Some family members of Sept. 11 victims have called for the report’s immediate release.

The final version comes after internal debate at the CIA and new national intelligence director’s office about whether to scrap the document.

Beth Marple, spokeswoman for National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte, said, “As expected, there has been discussion between Director Negroponte and Director Goss about this report. But there were absolutely no efforts to kill it.”

The CIA declined to comment on the substance of the report.