DOJ report: FBI missed opportunities to prevent September 11 attacks News
DOJ report: FBI missed opportunities to prevent September 11 attacks

[JURIST] In a report [PDF] on the FBI's handling of intelligence related to the September 11 attacks released Thursday, US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine [official website] concluded that the FBI missed several opportunities to detect and prevent the terror strikes. In particular, the FBI failed to aggressively pursue an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden planned to send students to the US to learn to take down US aircraft and ignored hard evidence with respect to the presence in the United States of eventual hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi [Wikipedia profile] and Khalid al-Mihdhar [Wikipedia profile]. The FBI has responded to the report [press release] by stating that substantial steps have been taken since the attacks to deal with the problems identified. According to the FBI, "no terrorism lead goes unaddressed" and new information-sharing policies facilitate communication among intelligence agencies. AP has more.