Lou Wolf is the co-founder and publisher of Covert Action Quarterly. He spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari about the apparent failure of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The Nation Questions Why U.S. Intelligence Agencies Failed to Detect or Stop Terror Plot

Interview by Between The Lines' Denise Manzari .

On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, America's sense of security was broadsided by terrorist assaults on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Thousands of people are reported missing and hope for finding survivors dwindles with each passing day. It was only weeks earlier that Osama bin Laden, President Bush's number one suspect, stated in an interview with Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of an Arab London newspaper, that there were plans for "very, very, big attacks against American interests."

Many are posing the questions: How did these attacks, which were carried out with almost pinpoint precision, get past U.S. intelligence? How did 19 extremists hijack four U.S. civilian airliners and use them to destroy two of our nation's most important economic and military symbols? The U.S. spends nearly $30 billion annually on intelligence, but wasn't able to stop the annihilation of thousands of innocent civilians on that fateful day.

Lou Wolf is the co-founder and publisher of Covert Action Quarterly. He spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari about the apparent failure of U.S. intelligence agencies(A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found At http://www.btlonline.org).

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