A long-awaited CIA inspector general's report on the agency's performance before the September 11, 2001, attacks includes detailed criticism of more than a dozen former and current agency officials, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The highly classified report aims its sharpest language at former CIA Director George Tenet, who is censured for failing to develop and carry out a strategic plan to take on al Qaeda in the years before 2001, even after he wrote in a 1998 memo to intelligence agencies that "we are at war" with it, the paper said, citing current and former government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The report, requested by Congress three years ago, was delivered to the Senate and House Intelligence committees on Tuesday by current CIA Director Porter Goss. Its preparation and previous drafts have provoked strong emotions at the beleaguered agency, which has borne the brunt of public criticism for a series of intelligence failures, the Times said.
The report recommends that Goss convene "accountability boards" to recommend personnel actions against those faulted by the inspector general, who are identified by title rather than by name.
Officials said the only action possible against Tenet and other officials who have retired would probably be to send them a letter of reprimand, the Times reported.
Tenet stepped down in July 2004 after seven years as director of central intelligence. Others criticised in the report include James Pavitt, the former deputy director of operations, and Cofer Black, the former director of the agency's Counterterrorist Center, the paper said.