LETTER TO SCOTT A KOCH FROM (REQUESTER) RE REQUEST UNDER THE FOIA, IN REPLY PLEASE REFER TO ARCHIVE #20041191CIA142

• Document Type: FOIA
• Keywords: USAMA BIN LADEN
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0001500668
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: June 22, 2015
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2008
• Case Number: F-2006-00548
• Publication Date: October 26, 2004

10/26/04 18:OJ FA% 202 984 7005 NAT'L SECURITY ARCHIVE
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FAX COVER SHEET ~~:T ~?~'~~ ~~~~. ~. ~ ~~
Date: October 25, 2004
To: Scoltt Koch -Information and Privacy Coordinator
Organization: Central Intelli ence A enc
From: The National Security Archive
Number of pages (including cover sheet) - 4
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Message: FOIA F+;equest Attached
Natiorlai S?curity Archive Number 20041991CIA942
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 10/26/04 18:04 FAX [phone] NAT'L SECURITY ARCHIVE
The National ~xecurity Archive
The George Washington University Phone: [phone]
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October 26, 2004
Scott A. Koch
Information and Priv..~cy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Eti.gency
Washington, D.C. 20:105
Re: Request under t lte FOI:A, in reply please refer to Archive # 20041191CIA142
Dear Mr. Koch,
Pursuant to the Freed~~m of Information Act (1:'OYA}, Y hereby request a copy of the following:
The June 2004 CIA Inspector General's Report discussing the events of September 11, 2001
[This document is n;.ferenced in the attached article, "T6e 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket,"
by Robert Scheer pu~sted on Salon.com]
If you regard thi s document as otentially exempt from the FOIA's disclosure requirements, I request that
you nonetheless exercise your discretion to disclose it. As the FOIA requires, please release all
reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of the document. To permit me to reach an intelligent and
informed decision whether or not to file an administrative appeal of any denied material, please describe
any withheld portion.:. and explain the basis for your exennption claims.
As you know, the Na~:ional Security Archive qualifies for waiver of search and review fees as a
representative of the yxews media. This request is made as part of a scholarly and news research project
and riot for commercial use. For details on the Archive's research and publication activities, please see
our Web site at the address above. Please notify me before incurring photocopying costs over $100.
If you have any questions regardia the identi of these records, their locatian, the scope of the request or any
othEr matters, please ~~all me at or e-mail I look forward to your response,.
thank yon.
Sincerely,
An Independent non-governmental research institute and library located at the George Washington University, the Archive collects.
and publishes dedsssi8t~1 doenmentg obtained through the Freedom of Inl'vrmation Act: Publication royalties and tax deduct~le
contrlbnvlons through The National Security Arcbivc Fund, Ina underwrite the Archive's $udget
 10/26/04 18:04_FA% 202 984 7005 NAT'L SECURITY ARCHIVE
The 4/11 Secret in 'the CIA's Back Pocket
ROBERT SCHEEFa.
The agency is with}tolding a damning report that points at senior officials. Robert Scheer
October 19, 2004 '.
It is shocking: The 'Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election,
and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was
completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that
mandated the study almost two years ago.
"It is infuriating th~~t a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a
satisfactory manner before 9/l l is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report
told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassung for the administration, because it
makes it look like they weren't interested in terrozism before 9/11, or in holding people in the
government responsible afterward."
When I asked about .the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic nnember of the
House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a
letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute
the report," she said. "We are very concerned."
According to the uitelligence official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, release of the
report, which represents an exhaustive I7-month investigation by an 11 member team within the
agency, has been "stalled." First by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss,
the former Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently was
appointed CIA chi~:f by President Bush.
The official stressed that the report was more blunt and more specific than the earlier bipartisan reports
produced by the Bush-appointed Sept. l l commission at,d Congress.
"What all the otha? reports on 9/l l did not do is point the finger at individuals, and give the how and
what of their responsibility. This report does that;' said the intelligence official. '"The report found.
very senior-level o fl7cials responsible."
Bylaw, the only legitimate reason the .CIA director has for holding back such a report is national
security. Yet neither Goss nor McLaughlin has invoked national security as an explanation for not ,
delivering the report to Congress.
"It surely does net involve issues of national security," said the intelligence official.
"The agency directorate is basically sitting on the report until after the election," the official continued.
"No previous director of CIA has ever tried to stop the inspector general from releasing a report to the
Congress, in this c,ise a report requested by Congress "None of this should surprise us given the Bush
administration's gt+:at determination since 9111 to resist any serious investigation iunto how the security
 of this nation was so easily breached. In Bash's much ballyhooed war on terror, ignorance has been
bliss. The president fought against the creation of the Sept_ 11 commission, for example, agreeing only
after enormous political pressure was applied bj- agrass-roots movement led by the families of those
slain. And then Bu:;h refused to testify to tlae commission under oath, or on the record. Instead he
deigned only to chit with the commission members, with Vice President hick Cheney present, in a
White House meeting in which commission members were not allowed to take notes. All in all,
strange behavior for a man who seeks reelection to the top office in the land based on his handling of
the so-called war oil terror. In September, the New York Times reported that several family members
met with Goss priv ately to demaad the release of the CIA inspector general's report. "Three thousand
people were killed ~~n 9/11, and no one has been held accountable," 9/I I widow Kristen Breitweiser
told the paper_
The failure to furni eh the report to Congress, said Harman, "fuels the perception that no one is being
held accountable. li: is unacceptable that we don't have [the report]; it not only disrespects Congress
but it disrespects tt~e American people."
The stonewalling Env the Bush administration and the failure of Congress to gain release of the report
have, said the intelligence source, "led the management of the CIA to believe it can engage in a cover-
up with impunity. Rlnless the public demands an accountuig,'the administration and CIA's leadership
will have won and 'the nation will have lost."