Fact-check: The NSA and Sept. 11
The information to stop 9/11 was in the system, but the various entities in the system couldn't put all the information together.The NSA solution for finding needles in haystacks? Adding millions of more tons of hay to the mix.
http://www.nationofchange.org/fact-check-nsa-and-sept-11-1371823116
It is impossible to know for certain whether screening phone records would have stopped the attacks -- the program didn’t exist at the time. It’s also not clear whether the program would have given the NSA abilities it didn’t already possess with respect to the case. Details of the current program and as well as NSA’s role in intelligence gathering around the 9/11 plots remain secret.
But one thing we do know: Those making the argument have ignored a key aspect of historical record.
U.S. intelligence agencies knew the identity of the hijacker in question, Saudi national Khalid al Mihdhar, long before 9/11 and had the ability find him, but they failed to do so.
“There were plenty of opportunities without having to rely on this metadata system for the FBI and intelligence agencies to have located Mihdhar,” says former Senator Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who extensively investigated 9/11 as chairman of the Senate’s intelligence committee.
These missed opportunities are described in detail in the joint congressional report produced by Graham and his colleagues as well as in the 9/11 Commission report.
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