Preventing another 9/11: How can the government be more effective?

The 9/11 Commission What the government “knew” before 9/11 Why did they not connect the dots? Recommendations for the future

Fragmented Intelligence Bureaucracy National Security Council (Executive Office of the President) Central Intelligence Agency National Security Agency National Geospatial Intelligence Agency National Reconaissance Office Department of Defense –Defense Intelligence Agency –Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines Intelligence State Department –Bureau of Intelligence and Research Treasury Department –Office of Terrorism and Finance Intelligence Department of Justice (FBI) –Office of Intelligence –Counterterrorism Division –Counterintelligence Division

Bureaucratic culture An organization’s “persistent, patterned way of thinking about the central tasks of and human relationships within the organization. Culture is to an organization what personality is to an individual. Like human culture generally, it is passed on from one generation to the next. It changes slowly, if at all.” James Q. Wilson

Culture Clash FBI CIA DOD

Gladwell article: How are governments surprised? Does Gladwell agree with the 9/11 commission’s conclusions and recommendations? Creeping Determinism: the sense that what has happened in the past was inevitable Signal vs. Noise What does he recommend?

Another problem: Groupthink Groupthink: a small, highly cohesive group whose close ties inhibit argument and competition Bay of Pigs Columbia disaster

Why do you think the government did not know about 9/11 beforehand? Can anything be done to make it more able to anticipate a future surprise attack?