The United States government could not protect its citizens from the Sept. 11 attacks because it failed to assess the threat posed by al-Qaeda operatives who exploited those lapses to carry out the deadliest assault ever on American soil, the head of the Sept. 11 commission said Thursday.
In issuing the panel's 567-page final report, commission chairman Tom Kean said none of the government's attempts to thwart a known threat from al-Qaeda had "disturbed or even delayed" Osama bin Laden's scheme.
Kean and commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton presented Bush with a copy of the report Thursday.
The panel also determined the "most important failure" leading to the Sept. 11 attacks "was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat."
The report provided new details on contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda, noting that Osama bin Laden began exploring a possible alliance in the early 1990s. In one new disclosure, the report claims that an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan in July 1998 to meet with the ruling Taliban and with bin Laden.
Intelligence indicates that Iraq may have offered bin Laden safe haven, but he declined after apparently deciding that Afghanistan was a better place. The report says although there were some "friendly contacts" between Iraq and Bin Laden's network and a common hatred of the United States, none of these contacts "ever developed into a collaborative relationship" and that Iraq was not involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
That question has been the subject of intense political debate, as critics claim President Bush exaggerated the contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq to justify the war.
The panel said it did not find evidence that Iran had advance knowledge of bin Laden's plans, or that Saudi Arabia's government had a role in the attacks, which involved 15 Saudi hijackers.
But both Kean and Hamilton said the United States should look into the possibility of ties between Iran and al-Qaeda. The report added that “al-Qaeda’s relationship with Iran and its Lebanese ally - Hizbollah - was far deeper and more long standing than its links with Iraq.”
And Hamilton urged developing a U.S.-Saudi relationship that revolves around political, economic and educational reforms within the Saudi kingdom.
"We want to see that relationship get more depth and texture to it," Hamilton said. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
