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 early
six months after they slammed jumbo jets into World Trade Center
Towers One and Two respectively, killer pilots Mohamed Atta and
Marwan al-Shehhi received approval for flight training from the
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Nothing better highlights
the outrageous lack of accountability for the most calamitous intelligence
and law-enforcement blunder in U.S. history. Holes large enough
to accommodate Boeing 767s still plague federal security agencies.
When will heads roll over 9/11?
Rudi Dekkers,
owner of Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Florida, (where
the two kamikaze hijackers took flight lessons) was startled to
receive these notices on March 11, the very day Americans commemorated
the six months elapsed since terror struck. The documents —
mailed March 5 from an INS-contracted processing center in London,
Kentucky — upgraded Atta's and al-Shehhi's tourist visas to
student status, allowing them to study at Huffman. According to
NBC News, one of the notices was addressed to Atta himself.
How on earth
could federal authorities responsible for barring dangerous aliens
from the United States see Atta's and al-Shehhi's names on federal
forms and not trigger klaxons? This is akin to presidential aides
sending Lee Harvey Oswald an invitation to a May 1964 White House
state dinner. How many other known fanatics are receiving student
visas so they can hone their mass-murder skills? Atta's notorious
name made no one at the INS say, "Hey, boss. Check this out!"
so,why should such obscure names as suspected U.S. embassy bombers
Saif al-Adel and Anas al-Liby raise eyebrows merely because they
are on the FBI's 22 Most Wanted Terrorists list?
The INS, for
its part, says the visas were approved before anyone had ever heard
of these suicide pilots. Still, the fact that these forms routinely
traversed taxpayer-funded desks and computer screens a full half-year
since September's slaughter indicates that U.S. officials are not
just napping in the cockpit; they've lapsed into a deep, collective
coma.
And who can
blame them? They can see clearly that no matter how badly they screw
up, they can continue to collect their paychecks and plump up their
pension funds. After consulting government sources, private-sector
experts and Internet databases, I cannot name one federal employee
who has lost his job over the 9-11 attacks.
The INS, for
example, suggests it is too soon after this fiasco for anyone to
be terminated. INS commissioner James Ziglar could snap his staff
from their slumber by clearing out his desk. And the INS also should
send people packing at the London, Kentucky facility.
"I am
unaware of anyone who has been fired or dismissed based on"
9/11, said spokesman Bill Carter of the FBI, the agency in charge
of domestic counterterrorism.
Asked if any
of her colleagues had been sacked or had resigned in shame since
9/11, spokeswoman Anya Guilsher told me: "At the CIA, the answer
is no."
Director George
Tenet, of course, still heads the CIA after America's most catastrophic
intelligence lapse ever. In February 6 testimony before the Senate
Intelligence Committee, Tenet actually boasted about the CIA's "record
of discipline, strategy, focus, and action." He added: "We
are proud of that record." Under the circumstances, one might
have expected a bit more humility from Tenet. Apparently, working
in Washington means never having to say you're sorry.
This is an
era without consequences, and nowhere more so than in the federal
government. High profile, public, congressional hearings might begin
to expose the people and systems that totally malfunctioned that
late-summer morning. Those officials who did not do their jobs surely
are well-intentioned patriots. But if they lack the imagination,
intellect, energy or basic competence to have prevented 3,054 deaths,
they should not remain at their stations. If they are merely victims
of faulty procedures, excessive paperwork, antiquated computers,
or other factors, those immediately must be streamlined and modernized.
Sweeping all
this under a Persian rug while letting those who failed in their
sensitive posts remain just won't do. Vacuuming up this mess is
a matter of national urgency. That may scuttle some careers and
hurt some feelings, but how many more mass funerals are we prepared
to stomach?
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