According to confidential sources with access to the secret CIA inspector-general's report, the classified document just released to Congress calls for disciplinary action against senior CIA officials. The new CIA director, Porter Goss, must weigh those recommendations against the disruption that a series of disciplinary reviews would cause in the middle of a war:

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 Associated Press has learned. ...

The proceedings, formally called an accountability board, were recommended by the CIA inspector general, John Helgerson. 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 Tuesday night.

Following a two-year review into what went wrong before the suicide hijackings, people familiar with the report say Helgerson harshly criticizes a number of the agency's most senior officials. Among them are former CIA Director George Tenet, former clandestine service chief Jim Pavitt and former counterterrorism center head Cofer Black. The former officials are likely candidates for proceedings before an accountability board.

The boards could take a number of actions, including letters of reprimand or dismissal. They could also clear them of wrongdoing.

Holding disciplinary hearings for those officials who have already retired from the agency would still cause massive headaches. The American public would demand some portions of those hearings to be held publicly, especially the overall review of the IG's report. Active agents and case leaders would have to interrupt their work, even if the review board just needed them as witnesses for others. The disruption could cause some of the same problems that the report likely will fault the agency for committing -- lack of coordination, a paucity of resources, and faulty and incomplete analysis.

That should not keep Goss from taking action, however. He will need to choose his battles carefully and apply discipline fairly, but we have larger issues on which the CIA should focus its attention. Public acknowledgement of the personal failures that the report establishes (if it does, in fact, establish them with substantive evidence) might suffice as a career-ending event, as well as reassignment to undesirable programs, which will make the point without disrupting the serious business of intelligence operations.

We will need the public hearings and at least an executive summary of the failings that led to 9/11. As the 9/11 Commission proved through its ineptness and political grandstanding, the business of protecting America is far too important to let the bureaucrats handle it themselves.

UPDATE: Ann wonders in the comments whether anyone from the WMD section will get selected for disciplinary action. It's a good question, especially regarding the people who decided to send Joe Wilson on a trip to Niger, only to have him leak a false version of his report all over the place. Think we'll hear about that if the report addresses it?

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Tracked on August 26, 2005 12:28 AM