The verdict is in and just about every part of the US intelligence community failed to perform. The Solomonic decision of President Obama is that no individual is at fault – no systemic leadership problems here – and so nobody will be held accountable. Instead, there will be improved processes and better technology.
This was exactly the response after 9/11 when 3,000 people died. At that time, the man in charge of US intelligence, George Tenet, stayed in his job and was later given the Medal of Freedom – America’s highest honor.
This week’s verdict was over the intelligence failures that led to a Nigerian boarding a flight in Amsterdam destined for Detroit, over Christmas, with explosives concealed in his underwear. As we all know, the bomb failed to go off properly and so the flight and its passengers survived. However, it has emerged (and the President’s review has confirmed) that all the intelligence information was available to stop the man boarding the plane if anybody had bothered to connect the dots.
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