CIA, “9.11. Damn! It`s Your Fault, FBI!”

The Los Angeles Times reported that the two major intelligence agencies of the U.S., Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), are engaged in heated offensive and defensive battles in terms of the countermeasures prior to 9.11.

The point is who collected more accurate information and reported to the President first about 9.11.

CIA waged the war against FBI at first. In the middle of widespread criticisms on the responses of FBI to the warnings from an FBI agent of the Phoenix branch about the possibility of terrorist suspect`s flight training at the flying schools in the U.S., CIA commented, “If we had such a report, we would have responded more quickly.”

However, FBI refuted that CIA had shared most of the reports from the Phoenix branch.

The Times reported, “despite the efforts of the two intelligence agencies for reformation, the information revealed during the past two weeks shows that the conflicts between the two has been deepened.”

The Times also pointed out that the disputes between the two agencies are typical bureaucratic gamesmanship to defeat the other through all kinds of manipulation even though they had established a cooperative system for investigation.

The two organizations will be investigated by the Information Committee of the Senate from March 6th. Therefore, their calumnies against each other in order to show off their accomplishments are likely to continue until the investigation by the Senate.

Jung-Ahn Kim credo@donga.com