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17, 2002 12:40 p.m. |
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ith all of the folderol
over these FBI memos and the reflexive chants of "what did he know
and when did he know it," the central questions remain what they
have been from the beginning. Everybody knows that the FBI and the CIA
failed miserably to provide our leaders with the information they needed
to thwart the September 11 massacres. The details may be fascinating,
but the failures have been known for a long time. Calls for a congressional
investigation are like asking the Madame to investigate her brothel: Congress
is in it right up to its long nose. Congress imposed the crippling restrictions
on the intelligence community that made it virtually impossible to penetrate
terrorist organizations at home or abroad. And if Congress is so talented,
how come the vaunted oversight committees didn't realize how bad things
were, and take action to improve them?
But the heart of the matter is the failure of leadership. Every president since Jimmy Carter has declared war on terrorism, but George W. Bush is the first president to actually wage war on the terrorists. And at no point, sadly including George W., has anyone charged with fighting terrorism been called to account. I am still wondering why nobody has been fired. Why is the director of Central Intelligence still at his post? Why is the Clinton-appointed head of the FAA still at her post? Why are the various directors of the myriad counterterrorist groups still there? Why has there been no shakeup at FBI, CIA, DIA, or the NSA?
This is a serious matter indeed, for the bureaucracy will only act virtuously when the bureaucrats see that sinners are punished.
The calls for investigation are just politics. But the central problems have yet to be addressed.
— Mr. Ledeen is an NRO contributing editor & resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. He is author, most recently, of Tocqueville on American Character.