Chapter from Fenton Book Available Online

It mostly concerns the CIA's failure to notify the FBI that al-Hazmi and al-Midhar were in the United States, and goes over in some detail George Tenet's inconsistent responses to inquiries about the same. It's all familiar stuff, gone over in detail in Shenon's The Commission. Fenton's main addition to the story is his implication that the failures of the CIA were intentional and not simply mistakes or incompetence as here:

Some of these errors, such as the failure to pick up surveillance at the airport, may seem genuine errors of the sort made by all complex organizations. However, Bangkok station’s behavior when being queried about the cable is highly suspicious. Why claim it did not have the departure information and would have difficulty obtaining it, when it probably already had it or could get it easily? And why omit Almihdhar’s name from the March 5 cable?

Philip Zelikow, generally portrayed by the Truthers as one of the villains, actually comes off pretty well in this chapter:

Philip Zelikow, one of the staffers who interviewed Tenet, later said there was no one “a-ha moment” when they realized Tenet was not telling them the full truth, but his constant failure to remember key aspects disturbed them, and in the end “we just didn’t believe him.” After the meeting, Zelikow allegedly reported to the Commissioners that Tenet perjured himself. The staff and most of the Commissioners came to believe that Tenet was “at best, loose with the facts,” and at worst “flirting with a perjury charge.” It seems that even Commission Chairman Tom Kean came to believe that Tenet was a witness who would “fudge everything.”

How Do I Critique a Book Based on the Title?

Jon Gold wonders why I'm ignoring the above book. To answer:

1. It just came out two weeks ago.
2. I haven't read it.
3. I haven't read any substantive reviews of it.
4. I'm not going to buy it.
5. The local public library doesn't have it on order.

Now, Jon Gold himself doesn't let a mere thing like not having read the book hold him back from reviewing it:

Kevin Fenton has been a contributor for years [...], and the "Complete 9/11 Timeline." He has provided countless pieces of helpful information for anyone concerned about the "official account" of 9/11. I highly recommend this book.

So Gold's review boils down to, "I like Kevin Fenton and therefore his book must be good." Like I said, I haven't read any substantive reviews.

Update: Gold claims to have read the book; you'd never know it from that ridiculous "review".

BTW, that's Jon Gold's second review on Amazon. His first? Back in 2006 for a Grifter book:

Years From Now Dr. David Ray Griffin will be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, and Ghandi(sic).

Hey, I mention them in the same breath all the time. David Ray Griffin is a moron who led a bunch of other morons off an intellectual cliff, unlike Dr Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

The publisher does provide some information:

Questioning actions taken by American intelligence agencies prior to 9/11, this investigation charges that intelligence officials repeatedly and deliberately withheld information from the FBI, thereby allowing hijackers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Pinpointing individuals associated with Alec Station, the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit, as primarily responsible for many of the intelligence failures, this account analyzes the circumstances in which critical intelligence information was kept from FBI investigators in the wider context of the CIA’s operations against al-Qaeda, concluding that the information was intentionally omitted in order to allow an al-Qaeda attack to go forward against the United States. The book also looks at the findings of the four main 9/11 investigations, claiming they omitted key facts and were blind to the purposefulness of the wrongdoing they investigated. Additionally, it asserts that Alec Station’s chief was involved in key post-9/11 events and further intelligence failures, including the failure to capture Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora and the CIA's rendition and torture program.

Bolding added for emphasis.

So it's a LIHOP book. We don't talk about LIHOP much around here, but it seems to me that's even less tenable than MIHOP. Why? Because at least with MIHOP, the plotters can choose whom they let in on the conspiracy. With LIHOP, the people who have found out through their work about the terrorist attacks all have to be trusted without any prior selection by the elements who allow the attacks to happen.