9-11 report to be released Thursday

The much-anticipated 9-11 Commission report is due to be released Thursday. The more than 500-page document will call for a major restructuring of the U.S. intelligence community through the creation of a Cabinet-level post which will oversee the nation's 15 intelligence gathering agencies.\nSecretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and acting CIA Director John McLaughlin have expressed opposition to the creation of the new post, citing the move may further increase layered bureaucracy and detract from reform within the existing agencies.\nSophomore Alec Sexton said the creation of a Cabinet-level position may be beneficial to U.S. intelligence agencies.\n"It is a step in the right direction," Sexton said. "However, in government, sticking one person in charge of everything does not always solve every problem."\nAccording to The New York Times, the report, which has taken 20 months to complete, will detail evidence that eight to 10 of the Sept. 11 hijackers had passed through Iran a year prior to the attack on the United States.\nThe New York Times reports that Iranian officials had instructed border guards on Iran's western border with Afghanistan not to stamp the passports of Saudi citizens who may have been traveling to and from al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan. Iranian stamps in the passport of some of the Sept. 11 hijackers possibly would have caused them to be more closely scrutinized by U.S. immigration officials.\nAccording to the July 26 issue of Newsweek, Iranian officials had indicated to al-Qaida leaders that they were interested in coordinating attacks with the group after the attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden in Yemen in October of 2000. Osama bin Laden, not wanting to alienate his base supporters, declined the Iranian offer. Bin Laden's sympathizers within the Sunni Wahabi movement regard Shiites as heretics. Iranians population is 89 percent Shiite.\nMcLaughlin said the hijackers may have passed through Iran without the knowledge of the Iranian government.\n"We have no evidence that there is some sort of official sanction by the government of Iran for this activity. We have no evidence that there is some sort of official connection between Iran and 9-11," McLauglin said.\nSenior Kate Walter said the Iranian government should be held responsible if it assisted the hijackers.\n"If (Iran) did have something to do with it and there was actual proof, they should be held accountable for their actions," Walter said.\nThe United States and Iran have not had formal diplomatic ties since Ayatollah Roullah Khomeini's Islamic revolution toppled the U.S.-backed government of Mohammad Reza Shah in Iran in 1979. \nHamid Reza Asefi, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry denied Iran had allowed any of the hijackers to pass through its borders.\n"It's normal that five or six people may have crossed the border within a couple of months without our knowledge," Asefi said. "Our borders are long and it's not possible to fully control them."\nThe Senate Intelligence Committee published a separate report July 9 in which it chastised the prominence the CIA had given to reports on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction by Iraqi defectors and exiles. \nSophomore Julie Cifuentes, said although there may not have been a direct connection between Iraq and 9-11, there may have been a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida.\n"All they had to (do) was support it to be involved," Cifuentes said. \nThe 9-11 Commission report will note that both the Clinton and Bush administrations had received intelligence reports warning of al-Qaida plots prior to Sept. 11. The commission report mentions a presidential daily briefing to Clinton on Dec. 4, 1998 titled, "Bin Laden Preparing to Hijack U.S. Aircraft and other attacks."\nA month prior to the Sept. 11 attack a presidential daily briefing given to President Bush on Aug. 6, 2001 was titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."\nThe bipartisan commission was setup by Congress in 2003 to investigate the U.S. government's failing to detect or prevent the Sept. 11 attacks and to make recommendations to prevent further terrorist attacks against the U.S.\n-- The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Nation & World Editor Rami Chami at rchami@indiana.edu.