CIA head rejects 9/11 disciplinary action

Porter Goss, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, says he will not hold individual officers accountable for failing to predict 9/11.

Under CIA procedures, the agency's head can order an "accountability board" to probe mistakes and errors by officers.

The CIA inspector-general recommended that boards be held to find out just who failed to predict or prevent 9/11.

But Mr Goss has now rejected that recommendation, which was originally made in August.

Mr Goss said in a statement that, after great consideration, he would not convene accountability boards.

He said that no one person or group of people could have prevented the 11 September attacks, reports BBC.

According to the Times, a joint congressional inquiry to investigate the September 11 attacks told the CIA inspector- general to review whether any agency officials should be held personally accountable and disciplined for failures before the suicide hijackings.

Relatives of 9/11 victims have demanded that Mr Goss seek accountability from former and current CIA officials. Mr Goss said that he will make little, if any, of the document public.

George Tenet, the former CIA director who before the Iraq war told President Bush that the intelligence case to prove that Saddam Hussein possessed illegal weapons was a “slam dunk”, has retired. He has since been awarded the Medal of Freedom by Mr Bush in a White House ceremony.