Counterterrorism inconsistencies

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Rice and Hadley kept their jobs on 9/12 and were promoted in Bush's 2nd term. Tenet kept his job.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were named as key allies in the WoT despite their links to al Qaeda.

Initially Bush didn't want an investigation of 9/11. Torture was ok but investigating 9/11 was a waste of time? WTF? Cheney said an investigation would distract from the War on Terror. Huh? How did the people who had 9/11 happen on their watch all of a sudden become authorities on counterterrorism tactics?

Tenet kept Rich B. on after 9/11. Rich B. was the head of Alec Station, the CTC unit that was aware of al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar back in January 2000! Rich B. complained to Tenet that CIA needed interrogation control of al-Libi and Tenet convinced the White House to give CIA control. Link

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1. Feel free to add more to the list

Invading and occupying Iraq.

Promoting Hayden to DDNI and then CIA Director despite his key role in the 9/11 failure as NSA Director.

Failure to provide backup for Berntsen's team in Tora Bora to cut off retreat routes. This is a big deal because we keep reading articles about a resurgent, threatening, regrouping al Qaeda in Pakistan. One explanation put forth is that the Pentagon feared casualties. AFAIK, the plan didn't call for backup to go into the cave complex. Rather, Berntsen simply wanted the retreat route covered. I would think military planners could have come up with a plan to cover the route while focusing on safety.