The CIA's top leaders failed to use their available powers, never developed a comprehensive plan to stop al-Qaeda and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to Sept. 11, 2001, the agency's watchdog concluded in a report completed in June 2005, but only declassified Tuesday.
"The agency and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner," but there was no "single point of failure or silver bullet" that would have prevented the mass casualties, CIA Inspector General John Helgerson found. (AP)