9/11 Commission Report

September 11, 2001 was a day that everyone who was old enough to remember will remember for the rest of their lives. I was in the fourth grade when the World Trade Centers were crashed into. I remember our principal coming on the intercom and saying that we were not allowed to turn our televisions on. I did not understand the magnitude of the situation until I got home and my parents explained it to me. I remember that every plane I saw over my head scared me and I was afraid that a plane was going to be crashed into my home or school. The general population reaction to the attack was that of hysteria and worry. People were afraid of flying. People also feared that this was only the precursor to an even bigger attack that was being planned on the United States. The public wanted someone to blame for the incident and they wanted to know why the government had not prevented the attack if they had been given intelligence that an attack might happen. The years leading up to this terrible day in history were full of tough decisions. No one can say that the government was not interested in terrorism at all. They had small departments in the FBI and CIA that looked at and interpreted terrorism related intelligence. The decisions the government had to make changed the United States forever. There was not one factor that defined how the government dealt with terrorism collectively. The government had to take into account not only the actions to take against

The Federal bureaucracy before 9/11 was nonexistent. The Federal bureaucracy was dealing with foreign rather than domestic threats. The federal bureaucracy was very limited at the, because DHS don’t exist at that time. Since 2001 until now the DHS has improvement a lot from interdepartmental transitioning in find the threat. The federal bureaucracy get all other countries involve in the betterment and transformation to stop any form terroristic threats.

September 11, 2001 forever impacted America and gave a new challenge to our government that went far beyond any challenges that a natural disaster had presented in decades. The terrorist attacks were definitely a wake up call to being more prepared for natural disasters and reevaluating our intelligence agency jobs and communication levels. In chapter 2, one of the key points that Kettl discuss is connecting the dots. We can see that in the midst of 9/11, America focused on the nation’s intelligence services for answers. As the American people we wanted to know, who were the hijackers, where was security and most importantly, and who do we hold accountable? Furthermore, that the intelligence agencies failed to piece together information that already had about terrorism speculations. In chapter 1, Kettl talks about the warnings and signs that the government has before catastrophes (such as September 11, Hurricane

Airport security pre 9/11 was very unorganized which is what led to such a cotastrophy. The job of aviation security was largly dealt with by private security firms which led to incunsistency, and the FAA did an inadequarte job at keeping these inconsistencies in check. According to a 1987 FAA test 20% of dangerous items were missed by the airport screeners, and as time went on that percentage worsened “Test data for the 1991 to 1999 period show that the declining trend in detection rates continues.” (GAO, 2001a, p. 6). Due to this lack of organization 5 planes were able to be hijacked on the same day. This act of terrorism made apperant that that the job of aviation protection had to be taken out of the handss of the FAA and be made more of a federal issue. From

“Prior to September 11th intelligence agencies and law enforcement failed to communicate with each other about terrorist hijackers… This lack of communications had its roots deep in the culture of government… Fortunately, in the Patriot Act, congress began to tear down the walls that cut off communication between intelligence and law enforcement officials” (Gerdes 36)

The intelligence community knew that Osama bin Laden had threatened to “cut off the head of the serpent” (the US) and cause mass casualties; it also knew that Bin Laden was planning to do something with aircrafts. An FBI field office knew that several pilots were in training, but didn’t seem to piece it all together (Simonsen & Spindlove, 2013, Pg. 69) However, the past “Dots” lead to a buildup by internationalized terror fanatics from the Islamic world, with serious planning for perpetrating attacks against the U.S. The U.S. had no idea that the attackers were actually being flight trained in Florida and the U.S. were

The operations of DHS are helping now because before 9/11 I personally think we let our guard down concerning if other countries might attack us. But since 9/11 DHS has strengthened our security and has become more watchful of who enters our country such as through Airport Security and Border Patrol. Yes, I do believe there could be more room for improvement, there is always going to be room for improvement concerning our safety because there's no such thing as being fully secure when we have other countries or people out there with harmful attention towards the U. S.

The claims that are presented in this report may very well be the Haunting pieces of puzzle that shake millions of patriotic Americans down to their very roots. This is information that has been overlooked and tucked away into the deep corners of the American Pride that resides in the hearts of millions of Americans. There is multitudes of evidence that contradict the credibility of the 9/11 Official Commission Report. There are significant gaps within the Commission Report, which contradict the FACTUAL events that took place on the day of September 11th, 2001. Please be advised that the information that you are going to view is very significant. I offer no conclusions, I only wish to present this information, and let the reader draw

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “post 9/11 investigations proposed sweeping change in the Intelligence Community, resulting in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA). The IRTPA created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to oversee a 17-organization Intelligence Community (IC) and improve information sharing and ensure integration across the nation's IC.” The efforts of the ODNI and the IC to find and kill Usama bin Laden (UBL) following the events of 9/11 were more than sufficient in achieving their mission. It may have taken the IC 10 years of working together to successfully track down the location where UBL was hiding in Pakistan, but they did it and

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11 CIA interrogation tactics were heighten to rapidly expedite the extraction of information that could lead to the interception of a future terrorist attacks. The Bush Administration was in control during this period of time. The 9/11 attack was significant enough to be the defining change of the twenty first century when it comes to global security. Terrorism violates human rights and constitutes a serious challenge for liberal democracies (Masferrer pg. 1). This subject runs a fine line between human rights and national/international laws. There were a lot of unknowns about how brutal the techniques were of the CIA. The agency also lied to the White House and congress about how intensive their techniques

Intelligence is a dependable instrument of its own to generate information that establishes the base of National Security in the United States. Intelligence has been used since the beginning of history to provide information on enemy threats and how to prevent a mass disasters. It has been used for wars, national security, military tactics, etc. Intelligence has been available since the revolutionary war and our first president George Washington and other leaders of the world have used intelligence to protect their countries. Intelligence is the dominant and the backbone of homeland Security and it is ceaseless learning about it. National Intelligence agents train tirelessly to fight and create

We see this with the Department of Homeland Security taking lead on drug reduction and illegal border crossing. Vast amounts of intelligence and manpower are required for an effective homeland security program. Additionally, the crossflow of communication is key in-between the various agencies and departments within the government.

Fusion centers play a vital role within the intelligence community, acting as a filter for information relayed through all levels of government. The magnitude of failure within the intelligence community following 9/11 identified a major flaw between agencies, communication. Prior to 9/11, the CIA and FBI relationship was rough at best. Neither agency particularly cared for the other resulting in vital information slipping through the cracks. One are which lacked the appropriate level of communication were government watch lists. Multiple occasions prior to 9/11 (January 2000 – August 2001), the CIA failed to relay critical information to the FBI and other agencies on future hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdha (Dinshaw, 2015).

The 9/11 incident crippled the American economy and its impact is still felt at present times. Following this tragedy, a commission was initiated by President George W. Bush and the congress to investigate the reasons behind the bombing and provide recommendations to help avert such occurrences in the future. Therefore, this paper discusses the impact of making the US border more secure, the rationale behind replacing the "need to know" with the "need to share". Moreover, the paper highlights the DOD's role the role in border and coastal security, its relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and how DOD supports civil authorities.

Intelligence collection and apprehension of criminals have occurred for many years; however, with the exception of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, these actions were performed by different organizations. Nonetheless, roles and responsibilities have changed since the attacks on September 11, 2001. Intelligence-led policing and the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing program were incorporated, and fusion centers were established to help gather intelligence from different levels of the government. Although law enforcement at the local, state, and tribal levels aid in intelligence collection, it is important to ensure that intelligence gathered to protect national security and law enforcement