FBI Director Robert Mueller
"We are accelerating the hiring and training of analytical personnel, and developing career paths for analysts that are commensurate with their importance to the mission of the FBI."

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CIA Director George Tenet
"We made mistakes. We all understood bin Ladin's intent to strike the homeland but were unable to translate this knowledge into an effective defense of the country."

AP

Attorney General John Ashcroft
"The simple fact of Sept. 11 is this: We did not know an attack was coming because for nearly a decade our government had blinded itself to its enemies."

"Our agents were isolated by government-imposed walls, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions and starved for basic information technology. The old national intelligence system in place on Sept. 11 was destined to fail."

AP

CIA's counterterrorism activities Cofer Black
"We didn’t have enough people to do the job and we didn’t have enough money by magnitudes. When you run out (of money) people die. When people die you get more money."

AP

Former Attorney General Janet Reno
"The FBI didn’t know what it had. The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing."

Reuters

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh
"We had a very effective program with respect to counterterrorism prior to Sept. 11 given the resources that we had."

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice
“Throughout this period of heightened threat information, we worked hard on multiple fronts to detect, protect against, and disrupt any terrorist plans or operations that might lead to an attack”

“There was no silver bullet that could have prevented” the 9/11 attacks. The United States “simply was not on a war footing” at the time of the attacks.

“For more than 20 years, the terrorist threat gathered, and America’s response across several administrations of both parties was insufficient.”

MSNBC TV

Former Counterterrorism Adviser Richard Clarke
"Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you."

"Although I continued to say it [terrorism] was an urgent problem, I don't think it was ever treated that way by the Bush administration before Sept. 11."

"The Bush administration saw terrorism policy as important but not urgent, prior to 9/11."

"By invading Iraq, George W. Bush has greatly undermined the war on terrorism."

Reuters

Former National security adviser Samuel Berger
"If there was any confusion down the ranks, it was never communicated to me nor to the president and if any additional authority had been requested I am convinced it would have been given immediately."

AP

CIA Director George Tenet
"It's coming. They are still going to try and do it, and we need to sort of -- men and women here who have lost their families have to know that we’ve got to do a hell of a lot better."
 

Reuters

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
"Another attack on our people will be attempted. We can't know where or when, or by what technique. That reality drives those of us in government to ask the tough questions: When and how might that attack be attempted? And what will we need to have done today and every day before the attack to prepare for it and, if possible, prevent it?"

"The world of Sept. 10 is past. We've entered a new security environment, arguably the most dangerous the world has known. And if we're to continue to live as free people we cannot go back to thinking as the way the world thought on Sept. 10."

"I knew of no intelligence during the 6-plus months leading up to Sept. 11 that indicated terrorists would hijack commercial airliners, use them as missiles to fly into the Pentagon or the World Trade Center towers."

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Former Defense Secretary William Cohen
"Even now after Sept. 11, it is far from clear that our society truly appreciates the gravity of the threat we face or is yet willing to do what is necessary to counter it. ... After all, it is commonly noted, there have been no attacks since 9/11. This is a dangerous delusion. The enemy is not only coming, he has been here. He is already amongst us."

AP

Secretary of State Colin Powell
"Anything we might have done against al-Qaida during this period, against Osama bin Laden, may or may not have any influence on these people who were already in the country, already had their instructions, had already burrowed in and were getting ready to commit the crimes that we saw on 9/11."

"Al-Qaida has tentacles in many different parts of the world. We've been very successful. We've eliminated a significant portion of the senior leadership that we knew about. This does not eliminate the entire organization, and it is not the only organization that means us ill."

MSNBC TV

Commissioner and former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb
"I keep hearing the excuse we didn't have actionable intelligence. Well, what the hell does that say to al-Qaida? Basically, they knew -- beginning in 1993 it seems to me -- that there was going to be limited, if any, use of military and that they were relatively free to do whatever they wanted."

Reuters

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
"On the USS Cole (attack in Yemen), we were obviously prepared to respond, but we did not have definitive evidence that it really was committed by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. That evidence came after we were out of office. But had we had definitive evidence, I can assure you that we were prepared to act militarily."

"I reviewed it, and I am satisfied that we did what we could given the intelligence that we had and pre-9/11, if I might say. We have to keep being reminded of that, because there were whole questions ... that we overreacted, not the other way around."