WASHINGTON, 28 August 2005 — Here in Washington, professional screw-ups can be confusing. The president may give you the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but continued criticism of your performance in office may force you to let slide a sweet $4.5 million book deal. Such is the luck of former CIA director George Tenet.

This week, the long-anticipated report on the CIA’s performance before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was released, which included scathing criticism of former and current CIA agency officials, including its former director.

After seven years in office, Tenet resigned from the CIA in July 2004, citing “personal reasons.” By then, he had weathered political storms over faulty pre-war Iraq intelligence and lapses leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and came under mounting pressures over faulty prewar Iraq intelligence and lapses leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

But this week’s report focused much more criticism against him. The CIA Inspector General, John Helgerson, aimed his sharpest language at Tenet for failing to develop and carry out a strategic plan to take on Al-Qaeda in the years before 2001, especially as he wrote in a 1998 memo that “we are at war” with Al-Qaeda.

The report was delivered to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees on Tuesday by Porter Goss, the current CIA director, who must now decide whether to follow the recommendation of his top watchdog and hold disciplinary reviews for Tenet and other CIA officials blamed in the report for being involved in faulty intelligence efforts.

The report advises Goss to convene “accountability boards” to recommend personnel actions against those faulted in the report.

Observers note that such actions may risk a further blow to the morale of an agency still responsible for protecting the country against future terrorist attacks.

The report describes systemic problems at the agency before the 9/11 attacks, and in addition to criticizing Tenet; it also names James Pavitt, the former deputy director of operations, and J. Cofer Black, the former director of the agency’s Counterterrorist Center.

Previous reports on the 2001 attacks resulted in the biggest reorganization of spy agencies since the CIA’s creation in 1947, and made them all report to a new director of national intelligence.

This week’s report is the result of efforts made by families of those killed in the 9/11 attacks who demanded accountability, and for Tenet to return the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Due to their well-organized campaign, Congress asked Helgerson to start the investigation three years ago.

An earlier draft of the inspector general’s report criticized the management of the Counterterrorist Center for focusing on Al-Qaeda’s leadership, rather than looking for ways to attack and stop the terrorist network. The report said that by focusing on Osama Bin Laden, the agency missed opportunities to recruit low-level agents on the margins of Al-Qaeda who could have eventually become moles for the agency.

After release of the report on Tuesday, the “September 11 Advocates Group” demanded the immediate declassification and release of Helgerson’s report, whose tough conclusions have been disclosed to the press in limited leaks.

“To shield CIA officials from accountability and to continue to cover up deficiencies in that agency puts the safely of our nation at risk,” the group said in a statement released to the press. “Four years post-9/11 this is truly unacceptable.”

Also this week, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the FBI to hand over all information about a secret military intelligence unit that purportedly identified Sept. 11 mastermind Mohamed Atta as a terrorist a year before the terrorism attacks.

Two military officers, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Capt. Scott Philpott, contend that a unit code-named “Able Danger” used data mining to search data for patterns — and flagged Atta in 2000. Shaffer has said three other Sept. 11 hijackers were also identified.

In a letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., asked the agency for “all information and documents it has” on “Able Danger.” The letter, dated Wednesday was distributed Thursday to reporters.