US intelligence changed strategy after 2011 attacks
11 September 2001, Michael Hayden, director of the National Security Agency, was in his office. His department is responsible for electronic intelligence gathering and communications interception. Almost immediately after the attacks, the director of the CIA George Tenet phoned him with the only question - who organized the attack?
“We could hear a message of congratulations throughout the al-Qaida network. I then said: "George, I have no concrete evidence, but I understand who did it." We all knew that it was al Qaeda, ”recalls Heyden, a decade ago, about the events.
But, if they knew, why did they not stop the attacks? Heiden, who replaced Tenet in the position of head of the CIA, says that no one could even imagine what the terrorists are capable of:
“We saw something being prepared. We intercepted their messages. We have seen that al-Qaida cells are looking forward to something. We simply did not have enough imagination to understand that such a large-scale attack is possible in the United States. "
After the September 11 attacks, a special commission was set up that investigated the reasons why the terrorists ’plans could not be prevented. One of the main conclusions is the lack of information exchange between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. As a result, having all the facts, no one could put together a complete picture of what was being prepared. On the recommendation of this commission, Congress created a new ministerial post of director of national intelligence. Dennis Blair held this position in the 2009-2010's.
“There was so much information on all the human and technological resources that were then, that it was impossible to isolate what is really important,” says Blair.
Congress also created the National Anti-Terrorism Center, which was supposed to help intelligence sharing between the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency. Michael Liter served as Director of the Center from 2007 to May this year. He says that even today, intelligence services get more information than they can handle. However, he says, this is better than not having enough information:
“When you collect intelligence, you cannot know what will be most important. Therefore, you need to collect and transmit all information. And also we need mechanisms for its analysis. But again, only after the conspiracy was uncovered, it becomes clear which intelligence information was crucial. ”
Some analysts are convinced that the assassination of Osama bin Laden and the constant pressure on Al-Qaida brought this organization almost to the point of extinction. But Leiter says that although Al-Qaida’s central focus in Pakistan has lost much of its power, its branches around the world are flourishing.
“Organizations like al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Shabab in Somalia, as well as lone terrorists in Europe and the US, who only receive ideological support from Al-Qaida, are all very dangerous,” says Liter. .
Former director of national intelligence, Blair says that today the greatest threat to the United States is represented by petty terrorist attacks involving one or two people:
“I think that today such large-scale attacks as 11 of September, involving the coordination of several terrorist teams, we are able to expose and prevent. The greatest threat remains from small pockets and single terrorists. ”
And although over the past 10 years, the United States has significantly improved the system for collecting, sharing and analyzing intelligence information, the threat of terrorist attacks still remains.
“Regardless of how well we do our job, no matter how much we improve the exchange and analysis of information, some things may still go unnoticed,” the scout is convinced.
Through 10 years after the attacks, tactics and threats have changed, but the fight against Islamic extremists continues.
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