US intelligence agencies failed to foil last week's apocalyptic terror attacks despite tips that followers of prime suspect Osama bin Laden were in or heading for the US, a report said yesterday.
The Washington Post said in an investigative report that lack of communication between the CIA and the FBI, lack of language skills, insufficient emphasis on data analysis and outdated equipment all contributed to the spectacular failure.
"In the past two years, the CIA cabled to the FBI names of about 100 suspected associates of Osama bin Laden thought to be bound for or already in the United States," the paper said.
"An August 23 cable bore the names of two, Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi. The FBI sought the men, but failed to locate them before they boarded the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon."
Hijackers commandeered four passenger jets on Sept. 11 and flew two into the Twin Towers at New York's World Trade Center, causing the buildings to collapse. A third plane slammed into the Pentagon outside of Washington, while a fourth jet crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
President George W. Bush has pointed to Saudi-born bin Laden as the mastermind behind the strikes and has vowed revenge.
Now, as more than 7,000 investigators detain more than 80 potential suspects and pursue tens of thousands of leads into the case, the shellshocked nation is beginning to ask how its security agencies were not able to prevent the attacks.
The FBI, which has named terrorism as its top target, has tripled its anti-terrorism budget over the past 10 years and multiplied by five its number of intelligence gatherers, the paper said.
But old rivalries between it and the CIA, a lack of translators to interpret data in foreign languages including Arabic, outdated computers were among the factors which left it "ill-equipped and unprepared," the paper said.
"Even when it had information, the report said, the FBI sometimes did not know what to make of it," the paper said.
In related news, three people have been taken into custody in the US state of Texas in the investigation into the terrorist attacks two weeks ago on New York and Washington, US media reported yesterday.
Two men were removed from an airplane Sunday night in the Texas capital, Austin, after their names were found on a list of those wanted for questioning by federal investigators in the September 11 attacks. Some of the names on the list are believed to be accessories in the attacks, which are estimated to have killed 7,000 people.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from