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9/11: The Day That Changed the CIA

By Chris Kent

In late July 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) received an intelligence report from Egyptian intelligence, written by an agent working deep undercover within the relatively unknown al-Qaeda organization in Afghanistan. The report claimed that members of the terrorist organization had crossed into the U.S. and some of them were receiving flight training on small aircrafts. On the morning of September 11th 2001, a terrorist group, believed to be the same as reported by the Egyptian intelligence would hijack four airplanes and crash them into the two towers of the World Trade Center, Pentagon, rural Pennsylvania, and change the course of the history and U.S. intelligence forever. Throughout the 1990s, the U.S. intelligence community (IC) as a whole had taken several hits to not only their reputation, but also to their ability to operate and their functional purpose. The CIA, in particular, had taken massive public relations blows following the arrest of CIA spyturned Russian informant, Aldrich Ames and the Iran-Contra affairs. There were even Congressional oversight committees that wanted to dismantle the agency into smaller little agencies, because it had failed to run itself in an appropriate way. During the Cold War, the intelligence community fought to avoid a nuclear apocalypse against a communist foe that had militaries, economies, populations, and government. The enemy was visible. The enemy belonged to the global landscape and marketplace, therefore they had rules they had to play by. The intelligence community could see what was coming, and in turn, prepare for it.

2 Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the intelligence community shifted to the invasion of Kuwait, by the Iraqi army. The U.S. intelligence community had traditionally, and historically, been trained to collect intelligence on governments large, visible organizations within the enemies borders. Leading up to the attack on the World Trade Center, and after, the intelligence community faced a daunting reality, a reality that a new era of intelligence was upon them. One that required finding people that virtually didnt exist, in countries and cities around the world, including cities within the United States. The enemy was no longer a government, or a country with borders and cities, it was a faceless stranger, in all corners of the world. The intelligence community was unprepared for such a shift in the global theater. The transition affected the CIA in every facet of intelligence collection. The enemy wasnt a politician or members of the military, they were fundamentalist, young and old, and from countries throughout the world. Most of our systems and organizations were designed to observe a slowly evolving and enormous target, the Soviet Union (Pappas and Simon, par.13). The priority of the U.S. military was the Gulf War and stability in that region, however, the concerns for domestic terrorist attacks were growing. These concerns turned to reality in the Spring of 1993, when a bomb was detonated beneath the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and injuring over 1,000 people. On December 4th 1998, the Director of the CIA received a cable stating that Osama Bin Laden and his allies were preparing for attacks in the U.S., including hijacking an aircraft for attacks on unspecified locations ("Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks"). The CIA would later learn of two men who were able to obtain U.S. visas and enter the country, however, the agency would fail to notify the FBI or the State Department.

3 Following the deadly attacks in 2001, that left over 3,000 people from seventy-eight countries dead (U.S. Department of State), the entire U.S. intelligence community shared in what was seen as a government-wide failure. Following a probe within the CIA, the Office of the Inspector General concluded that the CIAs Counterterrorism Center had failed to respond to a series of cabled warnings that could have, in theory, led multiple U.S. departments to arrests and investigations that couldve uncovered the 9/11 plot (Warrick 22). Over the next decade, the U.S. intelligence community would launch the largest surveillance campaign in U.S. history. The target: Osama Bin Laden. U.S. Congress would sign the Patriot Act into law on October 26th 2001, forty-five days after the attacks one of the longest pieces of emergency legislation passed in one of the shortest periods of time in American history within days, every email, phone call, and whisper would be under U.S. surveillance. The Central Intelligence Agency had traditionally been a non-military intelligence agency that focused on protecting U.S. interests throughout the world. Following the attacks, the U.S government decided to strengthen the intelligence community and operations within its own borders. Director Mueller of the FBI stated in a speech, immediately following 9/11, the FBI's number one priority became the prevention of terrorist attacks (Mueller par.15). The landscape had changed. The times of communist cloak and dagger were replaced with endless hours of surveillance and sifting through trillions of bytes of data. The enemy was far less visible, more adaptable and nimble. The new enemy demanded a respect that had not been afforded to them in the 90s. Agencies were changing on a daily basis. From the approach to the execution, everything had to adapt. Interagency collaboration and cooperation became imperative.

4 Through a combination of confidential informants, double-agents, and undercover operatives, agencies were able to get a clearer picture of the enemy and their environments. In coordination with the National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and CIA, intelligence analysts would dig through terabytes of disparate satellite photography, emails, conversations, and internet data, and piece together actionable intelligence. This intelligence led to the CIA-sponsored covert drone program in July 2004, to attack targets on the other side of the globe stemming from intelligence gathered from analysts and case managers. Over the next seven years, drone attacks would kill hundreds of al-Qaeda and Taliban soliders, senior leaders, and most of Osama Bin Ladens top officials. On May 2nd 2011, President Barack Obama ordered the U.S. Navy and CIA to execute Operation Neptune Spear, the target: Osama Bin Laden. Nearly a decade since the terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan, the CIA had finally pieced together enough actionable intelligence from the ten years worth of information that they, along with other agencies, had collected on the man responsible for the attacks. The events of September 11th 2001 were one of the greatest tragedies in Amercian history, but brought fourth much needed reform to a historically unregulated area of the U.S. government. Agencies had to be nimble, adaptable, just like the enemies they were chasing. A new age of intelligence had been born. An age that would place more and more value on the information than the operation. Information had become the new currency, and the intelligence community had no other option than to adapt. It wasnt an option. It was a necessity, and afterall, as Plato wrote, necessity is the mother of invention.

Works Cited

Mueller, Robert S., III. "The FBI: Changing to Meet Toda'ys Challenges." Speech. Federal Bureau of Investigation. D.C, Washington. 13 Apr 2004. Speech. Pappas, Aris A and Jr., James M. Simon. "The Intelligence Community: 2001-2015." Center for the Studies in Intelligence. Central Intelligence Agency, 27 June 2008. Web. 26 Sep 2012. <https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csipublications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article05.html>. United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks. Washington D.C.: Declassified and Approved Brief, 1998. Print. <http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0001110635/0001110635_0001.gif>. Warrick, Joby. The Triple Agent: The Al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA. Washington D.C.: Doubleday, 2011. 272. Print. Wiggen, Todd. "USA Patriot Act - Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures." INTL408 Counterintelligence Operations. Powerpoint. Washington: American Military University, 14 August 2012.