Advertisement

Expert: Poor intelligence hurts terror war

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The White House's failure to kill Osama bin Laden stems from second-rate intelligence going back to U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a security specialist says.

U.S. intelligence "has been withered for decades under many administrations," Center on Law and Security fellow Lawrence Wright told "Fox News Sunday."

Advertisement

With inferior intelligence came a reluctance in many administrations to risk killing the wrong person, said Wright, author of "The Looming Tower," about bin Laden and the growth of terrorism.

Daniel Benjamin, a Clinton administration counter-terrorism expert, said on the same program the White House "never had enough information to do this (kill bin Laden) with confidence, knowing that we would get the target. And it doesn't help your deterrence and it doesn't help your case if you fire and you don't hit the right person."

Compounding matters, the CIA and FBI have not sufficiently shared intelligence, Wright said.

Latest Headlines