2001 to 2012
After September 11
Warrantless surveillance and the Patriot Act, the Iraq war, Kelo, and the 2008 bailouts.
Key facts
- The president authorized warrantless collection on Americans on October 4, 2001, three weeks before the Patriot Act was signed.
- The Iraq Survey Group found no weapons of mass destruction. The Senate Intelligence Committee said the case for war was not supported by the intelligence.
- On October 13, 2008, nine bank executives were given $125 billion at one meeting, with no conditions on mortgages or pay.
Timeline
9 events in CIA, War & Covert Operations, oldest first
- 2002October 10 and 11, 2002CIA, War & Covert Operations
Congress authorizes war on Iraq, 296 to 133 and 77 to 23
On statements the Senate later found unsupported by the intelligence.
- 2004October 6, 2004CIA, War & Covert Operations
Iraq Survey Group: no weapons of mass destruction
The programs had been destroyed by the mid 1990s.
- 2005November 30, 2005CIA, War & Covert Operations
NSA releases its historian's finding that the second Tonkin attack never happened
Held for four years; officials feared comparisons with Iraq.
- 2007August 21, 2007CIA, War & Covert Operations
CIA inspector general's 9/11 accountability report released in summary
Completed in June 2005 and held for two years.
- 2008June 5, 2008CIA, War & Covert Operations
Senate Intelligence Committee: the nation was led into war under false pretenses
10 to 5. Statements not substantiated, contradicted, or never confirmed.
- 2010December 14, 2010CIA, War & Covert Operations
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry killed; two Fast and Furious rifles at the scene
Bought under ATF surveillance eleven months earlier.
- 2011February 4, 2011CIA, War & Covert Operations
Justice Department tells Senator Grassley guns were not allowed to walk
Withdrawn December 2, 2011.
- 2012August 30, 2012CIA, War & Covert Operations
Justice Department closes the CIA interrogation investigations with no charge
101 cases reviewed; two deaths investigated; evidence found insufficient.
- September 19, 2012CIA, War & Covert Operations
Inspector general: 2,000 guns watched, 100 seized, 14 officials referred
No official charged.
Stories (3)
- 2001 to 2011Top Secret America: The Post-9/11 Intelligence Complex of 1,900 Private ContractorsWithin a week of the attacks the president signed a finding that let the CIA capture, interrogate, and kill anywhere in the world. Congress wrote a blank check. Ten years later two reporters counted close to a million people with top secret clearances, 1,900 private companies, and 17,000 locations, with no public accounting of what it cost or whether it worked. The next president kept nearly all of it.CIA, War & Covert Operations
- 2002 to 2021What Official Senate and Inspector General Reports Found on the Iraq and Afghanistan WarsCongress authorized the invasion of Iraq in October 2002 by votes of 296 to 133 and 77 to 23. In October 2004 the government's own weapons inspectors reported that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and had not had any since the 1990s. In June 2008 the Senate Intelligence Committee found, 10 to 5, that the administration's statements about Iraq's weapons and its ties to al Qaeda were not supported by the intelligence, and its chairman said the nation had been led into war under false pretenses. In August 2021 the inspector general for Afghanistan reported that after $145 billion in reconstruction and $837 billion in war spending the government had never understood the country, and quoted the general who oversaw the war from the White House under two presidents: we didn't know what we were doing. Brown University's count of the dead from direct violence in the wars that followed September 11 is more than 940,000, of whom more than 432,000 were civilians.CIA, War & Covert Operations
- 2006 to 2012ATF Operation Fast and Furious: 2,000 Guns Allowed Into Cartel Hands and the Killing of Agent Brian TerryFrom 2009 to 2011 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives watched straw buyers in Arizona purchase more than 2,000 firearms for about $1.5 million in cash and seized about a hundred of them, letting the rest go to see where they went. Two of them were found on December 14, 2010 where a Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, had been shot dead. The Justice Department told a senator in writing that the bureau did not let guns walk, and withdrew the letter ten months later. Its inspector general found inadequate attention to public safety, found that the same thing had been done in 2006 and 2007 with more than 400 guns, and referred 14 officials for discipline. No official was charged.CIA, War & Covert Operations