FBI Failures and 9/11

OK, I buy this (from CNN/AP):

The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the September 11 attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the terrorists, and the bureau didn't aggressively pursue the information it did have, the Justice Department's inspector general says in a newly released critique of government missteps.

The IG faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the September 11 terrorists in the United States and for not following up on an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to U.S. flight training schools. The agent's theory turned out to be precisely what bin Laden did.

"The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI's chances of being able to detect and prevent the September 11 attacks," Inspector General Glenn Fine said.

When the bureau did discover the presence of hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar in the United States shortly before the attacks, "the FBI's investigation then was conducted without much urgency or priority," the report concluded.

What isn't explained - or ever covered comprehensively - is that the FBI was just one of MANY, MANY, MANY extremely well-funded organizations charged with protecting this country from harm who all managed to suffer catastrophic failures to pick up on clues both on and before 9/11. I daresay they're not in much better shape (and perhaps far worse) today when they've had money thrown at them every which way.

I read somewhere that something like 232 agencies and policies and protocols all failed here allowing 9/11 to occur. Stop and think. 232! Not just one or two screw-ups, but so systematic a breakdown that moved across agencies, across people on a day when the president sat reading My Pet Goat to a class while buildings went down in New York. 232. No wonder conspiracy theories abound - even without the Bushies pull behind the scenese since 9/11. Not one damned thing set in place to protect us worked on that day to do so, almost as if it were a coordinated effort to make certain 9/11 happened - which I'm still not ready to say is the case but damn.

In your heart of hearts, do you ever wonder as well?