THE NATIONS PULSE: No Ordinary Report

...Most discussion of the report, however, focused on the proposals for reforming the intelligence bureaucracy, and much of the Commission's nuanced thinking got lost...

...Officials already persuaded that Iraq was complicit in the 9/11 attacks and represented a more serious threat than Iran did to American lives and interests had their feelings confirmed...

...and if it had not been circumspect, it is unlikely the report could have been issued with unanimous Republican and Democratic approval...

...But the Commission was not hostile to the CIA, and it recognized that its problems were not all of its own making...

...It takes the blame for policy failures, and it offers cover for Republicans and Democrats alike...

...In other words, the analysts are inclined to tell the policymakers what they want to hear...

...During the 1990s and today, particular value is attached to having a contribution included in one of the classified daily "newspapers"—the Senior Executive Intelligence Brief—or, better still, selected for inclusion in the President's Daily Brief...

...On publication it became an instant bestseller, and was widely, and justly, acclaimed...

...We have not investigated the issue and cannot offer a judgment on it," the Commission said primly in a footnote on page 563...

...Ever since Allen Dulles took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs and resigned as director of central intelligence in the Kennedy administration, it has been understood that the CIA has its partisan uses...

...So obviously if the war was a mistake, it was the fault of the CIA, and not Congress or the White House...

...The 9/11 Commission Report noted that in early 1995 the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo released sarin nerve gas in a Tokyo subway, killing 12 and injuring thousands, and that the cult had extensive property and laboratories in Japan, as well as worldwide offices, including one in New York...

...SEPTEMBER 2004 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 45...

...The ombudsman, according to the Senate report, said the intensity of the questioning was "harder than he had previously witnessed in his 32-year career with the agency...

...But Islamist extremism is divorced from mainstream Islam, and, as it has in centuries past, it goes a separate way...

...Meanwhile, as widely noted, and hotly debated, the Commission found no evidence of a working relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq...

...The Senate Intelligence Committee, which issued its unanimous report two weeks before the 9/11 Commission report, had found no evidence, either...

...government...

...and even if the Democrats say it does, we need not necessarily pay attention...

...In contrast, the Commission found that in late 1991 or 1992, al Qaeda and Iran entered into an informal agreement to cooperate in "actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States," and that Iran began training al Qaeda operatives in the use of explosives soon after...

...Similarly, it said, if "we are paying insufficient attention to Afghanistan, the role of the Taliban or war44 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 2004 lords and narcotraffickers may reemerge and its countryside would one again offer refuge to al Qaeda or its successor...

...Then it added: "Neither the FBI nor the CIA had ever heard of it...

...budget cuts have taken a toll...

...If the Commission thought we invaded the wrong country, however, it did not say so...

...Committee Democrats, resisting their base impulses, and heeding their higher angels instead, did not issue a minority report claiming the White House had tried to pressure intelligence analysts into producing the results it wanted...

...Norton, $10) has something for everyone, Republicans and Democrats, as well as people who just appreciate a good read...

...Longterm success," the Commission said, "demands the use of all elements of national power: diplomacy, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, public diplomacy and homeland defense...

...The Commission did say that "post-9/11 efforts rightly included military action to topple the Taliban and pursue al Qaeda," and that the President and Congress should be praised for having acted...

...It is not synonymous with terror...

...In other words, no matter what you may hear, there are no quick, easy, or cost-free fixes...

...Islamist ideology mixes politics and religion, and, as the Commission pointed out, it draws "active support from thousands of disaffected young Muslims," while capturing the sympathies of many more...

...The administration seemed to agree...

...Islam is not the enemy," the Commission declared...

...Nor does it teach terror...

...Instead it said, with monumental understatement, "We believe this topic [the al Qaeda-Iran connection] requires further investigation by the U.S...

...And what about the charge, most prominently raised by Richard Clarke, the former national counterterrorism coordinator, that the invasion of Iraq had deflected necessary resources from Afghanistan, and indeed weakened the war on terrorism...

...Countering this with military force has its limitations, and simply talking tough won't do...

...It endorsed "paramilitary operations, whether clandestine or covert" by the Pentagon...

...Iran-al Qaeda contacts "continued in ensuing years," and while the Commission found no evidence that Iran "was aware of the planning" for the 9/11 attacks, it did find "strong evidence" that Iran "facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers...

...But the Commission also said that this was not a clash between civilizations...

...Moreover, it uncovered "circumstantial evidence" that Hezbollah, the Iranian-sponsored terrorist organization, monitored travel to Iran by some of the hijackers in November 2000...

...So you know from the start this is no ordinary government report, and what makes it all the more remarkable is that the 9/11 Commission, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats in a fractious political climate, gave the report their unanimous approval...

...Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate committee, and a loyal White House supporter, said Congress might not have authorized the war if it had known of the weakness of the CIA's r JOHN CORRY assessments...

...Few tolerant or secular Muslim democracies," the Commission said, "provide alternative models for the future...

...Which does not prove the administration cooked the books, or misused the analysts' findings...

...It also said, "There is no common ground—not even respect for life—on which to begin a dialogue" with Islamist terrorism...

...Meanwhile John Kerry called for their immediate adoption, which was impractical, while Dick Cheney said the Commission's findings justified the decision to go to war, which was, shall we say, imaginative...

...Congress even agreed to remain in Washington in August to begin considering the Commission's recommendations...

...Bush said, "We will continue to look to see if the Iranians were involved" in 9/11...

...They did say, however, that they would raise the issue later...

...But it was circumspect about Iraq...

...8: John Corry is a senior editor ofThe American Spectator...

...Iraq, of course, could not be ignored entirely...

...Its 116 pages of footnotes, in very small type, may be tough going, but much of the rest, 451 pages, even if not quite up to Graham Greene, is at least as good as Tom Clancy...

...Congressional strictures have made it risk averse...

...Among the travelers were Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omani, who arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine...

...For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better for a safe and pleasant journey...

...Cheney was a frequent visitor to CIA headquarters after 9/11, and the CIA ombudsman has characterized the repeated questions by administration officials on an al QaedaIraqi connection as a "hammering...

...But say now that you cannot accuse the Commission of girlie-boy thinking...

...Meanwhile the Commission described the delicate and apparently symbiotic relationship between intelligence analysts and policymakers: Apart from their own peers, they [the analysts] looked for approval and guidance to policymakers...

...The intelligence community, in fact, is an easy target...

...rather, we were caught up by a clash "within" a civilization...

...If it "becomes a failed state," the Commission warned, "it will go to the top of the list of places that are breeding grounds for attacks against Americans at home...

...It begins, "Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States...

...It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated...